I had heard some really good things about Kresley Cole. Great things, in fact. So I knew that this book was going to be, at the least, very, very good. But I had no idea what to expect in terms of the actual story. The blurb mentioned things like Lykae and Valkyrie. I had no clue what either of those were so I was quite keen on finding out.
As it turns out, the Lykae are sort of werewolves, and the Valkyrie are very similar to the Amazons in that they're both groups of warrior women.
Our hero's name is Lachlain and he has, shall we say, issues. He was captured by vampires, and they really pulled a number on him. For the past one hundred and fifty years he's been tied to a big rock sitting at the edge of a ginormous fire. Everyday for that length of time, he's basically had his flesh cooked on his bones and because he's immortal his ordeal can't kill him. So, it goes without saying that Lachlain hates vampires. Passionately.
Emmaline is half vampire, half Valkyrie. Her mother died when she was very young and she's never met her vampire father. But she plans on rectifying this by visiting Paris, where her parents once lived together. Emma's been raised by her Valkyrie aunts who are a little on the bloodthirsty, crazy side. However, Emma isn't even a little like her aunts. She's timid and she avoids any and all conflict if she can.
Emma and Lachlain meet in Paris, and things do not go well. Lachlain is totally bewildered by these modern times he's suddenly found himself in, and is absolutely horrified to learn that his mate is a vampire. To say that he doesn't take the news well is an understatement. He treats Emma really badly in the beginning, and I did not think much of him for about half the book.
But once Lachlain got over his prejudices, he could actually be really sweet. Emma was a little bit of a wuss, but I could understand where she was coming from. It can't be easy being physically weaker than almost everyone you know. But being with Lachlain toughened her up. In fact, after a moment of epic jackass-ness on Lachlain's part, Emma punches him so hard she dislocates his jaw. While I'm not keen on couples whacking each other, Lachlain so had it coming.
Even though the main characters did grow on me after a while, and by the end I really liked them, I found the secondary characters far more interesting. Emma's aunts were quite fierce, and I'd really like to learn more about them. I especially like Nix and Regin. Both totally crazy ladies, just different types of crazy.
I was fascinated by the world that Ms Cole's created. It was super interesting and I'm really looking forward to the next book in the series.
