Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole

5 reviews

overflowingshelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

CW: Mental illness (OCD); pregnancy; non-consenual kissing; violence

I was looking forward to getting Cadeon’s story after being teased that he was in love with a human in Dark Needs at Night’s Edge. Unfortunately, I didn’t love this. Something about it failed to click with me, making reading it slow going. In many ways, this book reminded me of A Hunger Like No Other since we also get a road trip, but I found this a bit more enjoyable and less problematic.

Demon mercenary Cadeon Woede found the woman he believes is his mate. The only problem is she’s human…or is she? After being kidnapped by a group of demon’s Holly Ashwin’s life is turned upside down as she enters the world of Lore and learns she’s half Valkyrie. Holly wants nothing to do with the Lore, but unfortunately, she’s the Vessel capable of giving birth to the greatest evil or the greatest good, which means everyone in the Lore wants her. Cade will do whatever it takes to win back his brother’s Kingdom after his actions saw it fall years ago, but will he give up his fated mate for it?

Let’s start off with the things I liked about this book. Overall, I did like Cade a lot. He’s our first demon romantic lead, but he’s not a new character as we first met him and his brother Rydstrom in Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night. He feels like a bit of a rogue and a lady’s man, but he’d also do anything for his mate, who he’s waited for forever. He never thought he’d actually get to be with Holly since he assumed she was human, so color him surprised when she’s half Valkyrie. I liked his personality a lot – he had a bit of a devil-may-care attitude – but I wish he would have been more open with Holly. He did lie and conceal the truth from her quite a bit, which frustrated me, but overall I liked him.

As with the other books in this series, I also liked all the scenes with Nucking Futs Nïx. She’s one of my favorite characters in this series, and I feel like you never know what thing is going to come out of her mouth next. Her meddling to get people where they need to be is my favorite, and I love that people don’t realize she’s meddling until it’s too late. She injected some light and levity into the novel.

Now you might notice I haven’t said anything about our female main character Holly or the romance. That would be because I really didn’t like Holly. I struggled to connect with this girl. She was so resistant to everything about the Lore and who she was. I got frustrated with her as she denied this core part of herself and instead wanted to go back to her boring human life where she seemed miserable. She kept siding with her trash human boyfriend who was literally stealing her work and presenting it as her own. While she might be book smart, she wasn’t making smart decisions elsewhere in her life. Usually, I like the Valkyries as they’re unafraid to kick butt and embrace who they are, but Holly was a wet noodle in comparison. She grated on me. I also didn’t like the whole concept of her being the Vessel. It reduced her character to a broodmare in my opinion.

The romance in this one wasn’t my favorite, mainly as I failed to connect with Holly. I ended up not being super invested in whether Holly and Cade would get together. As I mentioned earlier, I also didn’t like Cade purposefully lying to Holly multiple times throughout their relationship. Of course he gets caught in the lie, which makes Holly feel betrayed and leads to a big rift between them towards the end. It all could have been avoided if Cade just told her his plan. I also hated that Cade felt like he had to deny who he is to be with her. I’m happy Cade got the happy ending he was dreaming about, but just a bit disappointed it was with Holly.

Overall, this one was not my favorite and failed to hold my attention fully. However, I cannot wait for Rydstrom’s story as I loved the little snippets we got of him with Sabine. I’m dying to read their tale as the chemistry was off the charts in the scenes we got with them, and they’re enemies, so that seems like it’s going to be a fun time.

I’m still really enjoying reading through the Immortals After Dark series for the first time, even if every book isn’t my favorite. I loved the world Cole has created and how detailed it is. While the plots can be over the top, it all seems feasible in this world that Cole has created. I’m looking forward to where she takes the story in subsequent books!

Content Warnings

friends2lovers's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted tense medium-paced

3.0

I think Dark Desires After Dusk is my least favorite in the series so far. This is the first book with a hero who is a demon and even though we’ve met Cade and his brother in previous books, it still felt like there was a lot of new worldbuilding to take in and process (people, alliances, abilities, history, rituals, etc.). When I found myself pausing my reading to make a note it was almost always because I came across something informational, not because I liked the witty dialogue, prose, sexy times, etc. I generally like the rake & wallflower dynamic in historical romance, but it didn’t work for me as well here. I got a little annoyed with their bickering. Anyway, I know this review is all negative, but I am still hooked on this series. I think maybe it’s time for me to take a break, though, before it starts to feel too repetitive.

_______________

Endnotes

Series: Immortals After Dark #5

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Setting: present day, starts out in New Orleans, LA, but they go on a road trip to Mississippi, Michigan, then the Arctic

Hero: Cadeon Woede, rage demon, straight and thick tawny hair past his jaw, blonde stubble, tan skin, South African accent (?), ne'er do well, rake, black sheep

Heroine: Holly Ashwin, halfling (valkyrie/human), strawberry blonde curly hair, OCD, mathematician and professor, working on her PhD

Tropes: rake/wallflower, road trip, fated mates, heroine in peril, forced proximity

Length: 433 pages, 117k words

Read Date: January 5, 2022

Heat Index: 3.5 🌡️🌡️🌡️

Content Warnings

eregriel's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

lauramegan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

cupidities's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

This is, by far, my least favorite book in the series so far.

It's got a lot going on that I really dislike in romance, so that's probably not a surprise:

cheating plot: Holly is in a long-term relationship with Tim when she starts hooking up with Cadeon.
Cadeon and Tim are very misogynist: Cadeon dismisses the seriousness of it by saying that he's less misogynist than humans are and that he still knows women of the Lore could easily kill him. Holly stops pushing back on Cadeon's sexism when she finds out the extent of Tim's sexism and just drops the issue completely.
insensitive towards mental illness: Holly has OCD as a mortal, and then is told that it's not actually OCD, she's just been medicating and using particular mechanisms to avoid over-stimulating her Valkyrie size. The way OCD is portrayed and discussed in this just feels really outdated and harmful.

I also didn't find the characters that deeply developed. Holly in particular remained pretty flat and one-dimensional.

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