Book Review: Eternal Kiss of Darkness by Jeaniene Frost

Review: Eternal Kiss of Darkness
Series: Night Huntress World – Book 2
Author: Jeaniene Frost
No of Pages: 361
Release Date: 27 July 2010

AN IMMORTAL WAR HAS BEEN BREWING IN THE DARKNESS...

AND NOW ONE WOMAN HAS STUMBLED INTO THE SHADOWS.

Chicago private investigator Kira Graceling should have just kept on walking. Bur her sense of duty refused to let her ignore the moans of pain coming from just inside a warehouse just before dawn. Suddenly she finds herself in a world she’s only imagined in her worst nightmares.

At the centre is Mencheres, a breathtaking Master vampire who thought he’d seen it all. Then Kira appears – this fearless, beautiful...human who braved death to rescue him. Though he burns for her, keeping Kira in his world means risking her life. Yet sending her away is unthinkable.

But with danger closing in, Mencheres must choose wither the woman he craves, or embracing the darkest magic to defeat an enemy bent on his eternal destruction.

My Thoughts:

Kira was only trying to help when she “rescued” Mencheres from the pack of ghouls attacking him. Little did she know that it would get her tangled up in a supernatural world that she had no idea existed, or into the arms of a four thousand year old vampire.

Kira is a beautiful addition to Frost’s world. She is a hardened private investigator who isn’t fazed by anything; let alone accepting the existence of vampires. Kira was believable in everything she did, she believed the story because it ended up being logical to, she took it all in her stride not because she is amazingly empathetic but because she knew any other course of action, any rebelling on her part, would end in her death.

She also took in being made into a vampire into her stride as well. Knowing that if this was how she was to live from now on, she would do it with a conscience and she would do it because living meant something to her.

Then we bring in Mencheres, the super-powerful, four thousand year old, slightly suicidal ex-pharaoh of Egypt and current co-ruler to his and Bones combined lines. Mencheres has lost his power to see the future; all he can see is darkness which he believes is his impending death. He’s old, he’s tired and he’s weary of the cold war going on between him and his arch-enemy Radjedef.

Eternal Kiss of Darkness was packed full of anticipation surrounding Radjedef framing Mencheres for a crime that carries the death penalty within the vampire world and the race against time for Mencheres and Kira to clear his name.

The relationship between Kira and Mencheres was beautiful and very well done; both with similar pasts of betrayal are astounded by their feelings for each other. It was also mildly frustrating in a good way with the amount of times they were interrupted, so when they finally came together for that all important ceiling sex, it was so worth it.

Cat and Bones made an appearance in Eternal Kiss of Darkness, although they weren’t painted in a good light which kind of disappointed me even though it was understandable from the history between them and Mencheres. Vlad also made an appearance which made me fall that much more in love with him and his humorous ways.

As with First Drop of Crimson, the cover disappointed me with Eternal Kiss of Darkness it didn't seem related to Mencheres at all and Kira was blonde.

Frost blew me away with her writing once again. Although I am not as fond of the Night Huntress World books as I am of the Cat & Bones books, Eternal Kiss of Darkness is a wonderful addition to my collection of her work.

Also in this series:
First Drop of Crimson

Book Review: Blood Prophecy by Stefan Petrucha

Review: Blood Prophecy
Author: Stefan Petrucha
No of Pages: 352
Release Date: 26 October 2010

Man and monster are in his blood...

His name is Jeremiah Fall. A soldier of fortune, he has been fighting his own war for 150 years—ever since the beast in him was born.

Desperate to restore his lost humanity, Fall crosses the sands of Egypt, discovers a lost city off the coast of France, and finally arrives at the birthplace of all mankind. Shunning daylight and feeding only when he must, he battles the monster who transformed him forever. He can share his deepest secret with no one . . . not even the beautiful woman he starts to love, the only human who grasps the mysteries of an ebony stone as old as creation itself.

Across the world, across time, Fall seeks the stone's secret. But has he found a cure for himself or unleashed a final curse on all mankind?

My Thoughts:

Blood Prophecy to a while to get going, but once it did it became very interesting.

Jeremiah Fall has gone from a hard working Purist to a bear-fighting, vampiric army of one. Blood Prophecy is the tale of how he finds his roots and reconciles his two-selves. Jeremiah travels from America to Egypt in his search for the Stone. A legend he heard from the tribe of Abenaki’s living near his settlement.

Jeremiah is an interesting character. He was raised a Purist which is a very strict form of Christian. Purists aren’t allowed to smile and must work hard every day for their salvation. Once Jeremiah is attacked and turned into a vampire he struggles with his Purist mentality, as he learns about other civilisations, other beliefs and battles with the beast inside himself that constantly telling him to kill.

Blood Prophecy is written differently to many vampire novels that I have read so far. Petrucha doesn’t delve deep into the mentality of Jeremiah; he also doesn’t waste time with descriptions and needless filler. We are constantly given more parts of the story, more threads to unravel the mystery and are time jumping like there is no tomorrow, which if Jeremiah fails there won’t be.

We travel from the year 1644 to the year 1799 in a matter of chapters with only a few details in between. There isn’t a lot of travel; there isn’t a lot of dialogue, just searching and discovery. It was a refreshing novel to read provided one is in the mentality to read it. I will admit that with the lack of secondary character development and the constant search for the stone had me falling asleep at times if I just wasn’t in the mood.

Blood Prophecy is about the journey rather than the characters and considering how interesting and fast paced that journey was, it became the main pull for continuing the story. Will he get there in time? Will he become human again if he succeeds? Will the evil Bandite worshipers win and release their god, ultimately destroying the world?

Blood Prophecy had many religious elements to it, but these elements were historical rather than evangelistic. Petrucha took different translations of the book of Genesis and combined them all into one story; he pinpointed the Garden of Eden in Egypt and the roots of many old nursery rhymes and created Blood Prophecy from it.


Blood Prophecy was very interesting and piqued my curiosity with the historical and paranormal elements surrounding it. Watching Jeremiah struggle with who he was and continue to fight what he seemed destined to be was intriguing and had me turning pages very quickly towards the end.