Kiss of Midnight - Lara Adrian

INSATIABLE DESIRE. ENDLESS SEDUCTION. ONE TOUCH IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

He watches her from across the crowded dance club, a sensual black-haired stranger who stirs Gabrielle's deepest fantasies. But nothing about this night--or this man--is what it seems. For when Gabrielle witnesses a murder outside the club, reality shifts into something dark and deadly. In that shattering instant she is thrust into a realm she never knew existed--a realm where vampires stalk the shadows and a blood war is set to ignite.

Lucan Thorne despises the violence carried out by his lawless brethren. A vampire himself, Lucan is a Breed warrior, sworn to protect his kind--and the unwitting humans existing alongside them--from the mounting threat of the Rogues. Lucan cannot risk binding himself to a mortal woman, but when Gabrielle is targeted by his enemies, he has no choice but to bring her into the dark underworld he commands.

Here, in the arms of the Breed's formidable leader, Gabrielle will confront an extraordinary destiny of danger, seduction, and the darkest pleasures of all . . . .

I must confess that I was a bit wary of reading this book because there are so many vampire stories out there already. But a friend lent it to me with a high recommendation and I decided to give it a go. I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure how original it actually is. After I finished reading it I exchanged some comments with my friend and while I felt some parts were a copy of Feehan's Carpathian world, she felt that some parts were a copy of Ward's Brotherhood series. On comparing notes I realised we were both right, there are similarities to both series.

Despite that I think Adrian managed to write an enjoyable book. Gabrielle is actually an interesting character, even if she doesn't seem to have a real job which I think could have made her a bit more real, with her zeal to see justice done and have the police investigate the murder she saw. Lucan, is the older vampire and the leader of those sworn to protect humans and vampires from those who embraced evil by giving in to the bloodlust. He is a bit more mysterious and even his friends seem to keep a distance from him. He looks for Gabrielle thinking of erasing her memories so she won’t tell other people what she saw, but he quickly finds that things are not as easy as he is instantly attracted to her and then discovers that Gabrielle is a breed mate. One of those rare women who are destined to mate with one of his kind.

Gabrielle soon becomes a target of the evil guys and Lucan solution is to take her to the compound, the place where all the vampire warriors live together with their mates. There they get to know each other better and Gabrielle starts learning about the vampire way of life.

There were some nice original details like the breed mark or the unexpected betrayal one of the vampires faces but other than it follows much of the same storyline we've read elsewhere. And of course there are all those other warriors who are just dying to have a book of their own... and one of these days, if I feel like it, I might just read them. Because they're fun...

Grade: 4/5