Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Warlord Wants Forever, by Kresley Cole

5 reviews

kaceyjoy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Ok, so I loved book five in this series, but this one, the one that's the start, I did not love. The MMC does way too many unforgivable things!! This is not sexy, it's gross. I can't even rate this.

It started out so great, why did it have to go to a place where the woman has her agency taken away?!?! Unforgivable.

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aerisaturner's review

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Very thin plot. MFC personality is all over the place. No thanks.

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overflowingshelf's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

CW: sexual assault; non-consensual sexual encounters; confinement; violence

I totally missed reading this book when I started diving into the Immortals After Dark, so I decided to revisit it after reading Untouchable to finish all the books focused on the Wroth brothers. As a note, I read the revised version of this story released in 2017. While I’m not sure precisely what was changed, from what I’ve seen and heard, the changes were to make this book a bit less problematic, though it still is problematic (more on that later.)

The Warlord Wants Forever is a prequel novella focused on Nikolai Wroth, a Forbearer Vampire, and Myst the Coveted, a Valkyrie. Nikolai is a feared and accomplished general, and he’s shocked to find his Bride kept prisoner in the castle of his enemy. When she bloods him, she teases him and uses his desire against him to escape, abandoning him in a state of sexual arousal. After hunting for Myst for five years, Nikolai finally catches her and uses a golden chain that takes away her free will to keep her with him. Nikolai intends to get his revenge on her for leaving him with an unending lust for half a decade, yet the more time he spends, the more he realizes he doesn’t want vengeance. But will she come to him of her own free will?

Let’s start with what I liked about this novella. It was a quick read, and despite some of the problematic aspects (which I’ll get to shortly), I found myself enjoying this book. Now Nikolai is by no means my favorite Wroth brother (that honor goes to Sebastian), but I did enjoy Myst. Myst was a cocky, flirty, self-assured woman. She’s the type of Valkyrie I like as she has her own unique kind of power and knows how to use it. I eventually liked Myst and Nikolai together, but there are some very problematic aspects to their relationship. Also, for a novella, this book had a lot of sex scenes and sexy times. I swear, there might be more sex in this than some of the full-length Immortals After Dark books.

However, this book is definitely going to be off-putting to some readers. The biggest problem with this book is that Nikolai takes away Myst’s free will and uses a chain to control her. While he doesn’t use the chain to force her to have sex with him, he does use it to make her seek her own pleasure at her own hand in front of him, even when she repeatedly tells him no. That rubbed me the wrong way as there was a lack of consent, and he’s forcing her to do something she doesn’t want. Nikolai is a bit of an ass in controlling Myst this way and thinks it’s the only way she’ll stay with him. Yes, she did leave him with an erection that wouldn’t go away for five years, but he essentially is raping her by removing her free will and any choice in the matter of their relationship.

One other thing I didn’t like about this book was how judgemental Nikolai was of Myst’s past. He believes she’s slept around as part of her power to attract men. He holds this against her and even debates ordering her to be someone she’s not and to forget her past so she can fit the vision he has for her. Nikolai does this without even knowing the truth of Myst’s actions or asking her about it. He thinks she’s a slut when she hasn’t done half the actions he’s accusing her of.

Despite all this, I still weirdly found myself liking this. It’s not my favorite book in the Immortal After Dark series, and I wouldn’t recommend starting it, but it’s not the worst of the bunch. It did a good job setting up the world of the Lore and was a fun one to go back to read knowing how some things play out. But as I said, I wouldn’t recommend starting the series by reading this novella as it could be incredibly off-putting to some. I read this after Untouchable to finish up the Wroth brother novels and actually think that reading it after Dark Needs at Night’s Edge is probably the best time to check it out.

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meggiemine's review

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

5.0

I don’t know why I found this so compelling, but I gobbled it up in one sitting! I think I liked that it was light on plot and so the romance was the focus. Chronologically, this is a prequel but I’m glad I didn’t read it first. I think having some background knowledge of the characters and worldbuilding helped make this a fun, breezy read. So far, all the same tropes have been used in each book, but Cole manages to twist them into something fresh each time. I loved the way the

Spoiler

gold slavery chain

was utilized. I didn’t see it coming and gasped when its significance/purpose was revealed. Next up is another vampire Wroth brother and I’m excited!

______________

Endnotes

Series: Immortals After Dark #0.5 (prequel)

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Setting: Mount Oblak Castle, Russia, 5 years ago; Then present day New Orleans, LA, and Blachmount, the hero’s manor in Estonia

Hero: Nikolai Wroth, vampire, turned by Kristoff for his forbearer army

Heroine: Myst the Coveted, a Valkyrie, red hair

Tropes: fated mates, captor/captive, enemies to lovers

Length: 41k words, 151 pages (novella)

Read Date: December 31, 2021

Heat Rating: High

Flames: 5🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Density: 5📑📑📑📑📑

Intensity: 4💓💓💓💓

Burn Speed: 4.25💨💨💨💨

Overall: 4.6 (↑5)🌡️🌡️🌡️🌡️🌡️

Sex/Kink Notes:

Spoiler

blood play (hero is a vampire), dubious consent, some power play, rough sex, orgasm delay/denial

Sex Scene Details:

Spoiler

🔥Ch 3, ~25%, she bloods him, then fondles him, breast play, fingering O for her, interrupted before penetration. 🔥Ch 6, he grinds against her in an alleyway and comes twice. 🔥Ch 7, in the shower, she masturbates in front of him while giving him a BJ, Os for both (dubcon). 🔥Ch 10, physical fighting leads to sex, he claims her, bites her neck and drinks her blood, Os for both. 🔥Ch 12, he walks in on her masturbating, from behind/against the wall sex, he bites her neck and drinks her blood, Os for both.

Quotes

As they walked along the drive he said, "Hold my hand."
“Big vampire scared the wittle Valkyrie will get away?”
Her hand slipped into his big, rough one .
He gazed down at her with his brows drawn. “I just want to hold your hand.”
What was that flutter in her stomach?

He crossed to her copious film collection. Movies must be important to her. He was unfamiliar with the titles, but then he wasn’t versed in any leisure activities. “Which of these do you prefer?”
She hated having to answer his questions, struggled against it every time. “I like romance and horror.”
“A bit disparate.”
She pinned his gaze with her own. “Funny, I used to think so.”

Myst had a primal need deep inside her: to be dominated by a powerful male. Yet she’d never been defeated in a contest of two — no male had ever been strong enough.
Wroth was more powerful than any before.
Her mind rebelled. He was a vampire! She’d killed the last three she’d blooded. Why not Wroth? He’d planned to torture her in that horrid dungeon, planned to control her with the chain.
But his bite . . . She moaned, her aching sex getting wetter and wetter. She needed his shaft to fill it.
Please be strong enough. Please . . . For once in her life, would a man take control?
So she could finally lose it.

Content Warnings

villainxorigin's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

I wish I had read this before I started the series because IAD1 had me wondering about Myst & Nikolai and I could’ve had my answers. A very condensed IAD tale, so while not bad or a poor story, it is lacking a little build up the others have for me. This poor guy… 5 years.

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