Midnight Breeds: Midnight Awakening

Midnight Awakening is the third book in the Midnight Breeds series by Lara Adrian. I have to admit, I wasn't really looking forward to this book. Initially, I didn't particularly like the main characters. Tegan, a Gen One vampire, needed a serious attitude adjustment, and Elise, a widowed Breedmate, needed to man the hell up. So, some low expectations in the beginning. But since I flat out refuse to skip books in a series, I sucked it up and read Midnight Awakening.

I was wrong. So wrong. This book was easily my favourite in the series. I had prematurely judged our leads. If it weren't for the fact that I'm absolutely anal about reading all the books in a series in order, I would have missed a lot. Because under Tegan's Dr Freeze persona was a really sweet guy, and under Elise's helpless female routine in the beginning was a woman with a spine of steel. 

That'll learn me for being judgey.

 We met Elise four months ago in Kiss of Crimson. She'd just lost her son, Camden, and was determined to get revenge on those who took his life. So she leaves her Darkhaven and goes all vigilante on the Rogue's minions. One night though, she bites off more than she can chew and is ambushed by a couple of bloodthirsty Rogues.And just guess who swoops in to save the day?

Tegan is absolutely gobsmacked when he realises what Elise has been up to since the last time he saw her. But Tegan's been through enough in his long life and this woman's apparent death wish is so not his business. He's all set to walk away and leave her to it. However, circumstances make this impossible and these two are stuck with each other in far closer quarters than either are comfortable with.

While the Order still operates out of Boston, most of this book took place in Berlin. We met a bunch of new characters and the overall story line of the series moved forward in a big way. Let me talk about the familiar faces before I get to the newbies.

Rio's mental state has not improved since Kiss of Crimson. In fact, it seems to have gotten worse. He's Breedmate's betrayal has made him a little bit crazy. Sterling Chase has joined the Order and transitioned from buttoned up, pompous ass to broody bad boy. Little bit worried about what's going on in his head. I'm pretty sure Elise and Tegan hooking up hasn't helped him revert to that nice guy we first met in Kiss of Crimson. We also see a little bit of Nikolai, the Order's weapons expert. This guy is so ridiculously yummy...

Now the new characters. The Order has recruited two new guys, Kade and Brock. We haven't really gotten to know them beyond the fact that these boys love nothing more than a good fight. Then we have Andreas Reichen. Whew... He's really super fine. He's in charge of the Darkhaven in Berlin and was kind enough to play host for Elise and Tegan while they were there.

I know I've been a little starry eyed about the hotties in this series, but that's not the only thing that the Midnight Breeds series has going for it  The story line is really picking up pace. The only reason I'm not going into more detail is that it would take me too long to explain properly, and I don't want to ruin the surprise.