Hello, and welcome back! After some unseasonably warm weather here, it looks like Mother Nature has realized it’s still winter, as it’s now snowing outside my window. I’m going to hope for a lot of snow, but I’m not holding my breath after the disappointing winter we’ve had so far.

With all the indoor time I’ve had this month, I find I’m still a bit behind on my reading for some reason. Nevertheless, I still have several books waiting to share with you all, starting with Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Pocket, purchased) by Kresley Cole, the tenth installment in her ‘Immortals After Dark’ series (counting the two novellas). Regin the Radiant is being hunted by Declan Chase, Magister of a terrible place where immortals are imprisoned and tortured. What he doesn’t know is that he is the reincarnation of Aidan the Fierce, who loved Regin centuries ago and was killed. This is not his first reincarnation, but in each, he is killed almost immediately after he and Regin are intimately reunited. After he captures her, she plots revenge, and it seems the easiest way to get her revenge for the horrible things he’s had done to many immortals is to get him to remember her, to fall for her again, and to kiss her. Then she’s pretty much guaranteed that something will happen to cause his death. Declan is little like her Aidan, whom she never allowed herself to love, but she still finds herself attracted to him in spite of her best intentions. Last year, we got to see portions of story in this same setting, with Carrow and Malkom Slaine, who we get to see again here, briefly, along with a lot of other interesting folks. But Declan’s life this time around has given him a seriously bad opinion of immortals, so letting himself get involved with Regin in any way is extremely difficult. Still, she tempts him and tells him about their shared past and his previous lives. After a torture session that she believes Declan authorized, their prison is destroyed, and Regin and some friends attempt their own escape along with every other immortal in the place. But Declan is determined now to keep her with him, as he’s remembering their shared past, and he knows that some of the creatures loose on the remote island would rather see her dead than free. I liked this one much, much better than the last, in which I felt Carrow was lacking as a heroine. Regin hasn’t got the same issues. She’s fabulous, strong and determined, and in many centuries, faithful to her lover, even though she never let him have her heart. Declan is the perfect tortured, wounded hero, with so many truly terrible things in his life that overcoming even one of them is a pretty remarkable feat. There is plenty of heat between this pair and so much emotion twisted up in their conflicts, and when they finally get to their happy ending, it’s very well deserved. Then, too, we get to revisit some characters we’ve met in other installments of this series, as well as seeing some hints into the future of the series. I can’t wait for the next book in this terrific series. I’m borrowing four and a half of Cupid’s five arrows for this one. It’s fabulous!

Look on Amazon.com for Dreams of a Dark Warrior.
Until next time, happy reading!