Pleasure of a Dark Prince: Volume 9 (Immortals After Dark, #8)

by Kresley Cole

Can the beast seduce a beauty and make her love him? Never far from her bow, Lucia the Huntress is as mysterious as she is beautiful. But the secrets she harbours could destroy her - and those she loves - and every day brings more danger. It isn't safe for her to be with Garreth MacRieve, yet whenever she sees the fierce werewolf with his smoldering eyes, she finds herself surrendering to his kiss. An uncontrollable need that can only be sated with her touch. From the shadows, Garreth, prince of the Lykae, has long watched over Lucia, the lovely little Valkyrie who alternately maddens him and inflames his lust. He aches to claim the seductive creature as his own and keep her safe from harm, but first he must convince her to accept him as her guardian. To do that he'll exploit Lucia's greatest weakness - her desire for him.

• ISBN10: 1416580956
• ISBN13: 9781416580959
• Publish Date: 16 February 2010
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon Spotlight Entertainment
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[FranJessca @ A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog]

( I originally reviewed Pleasure on a Dark Prince on my first book blog, ‘Mrs. Papillion aka “The Book Worm” ‘ back in the day of 2010/2011. This was when I was first blogging, and I was still in the Navy.)
The Pleasure of a Dark Prince is the eighth novel in the Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole (ninth if you count The Warlords Wants Forever as the first novel. I count it as a novella.) I was so happy to be back with Lucia and Garreth for the third time. Yes, I’ve read this book two other times and loved it each time. 

Storyline/My Thoughts: Oh, yes, a WEREWOLF Lover again and a very determined Huntress who will stop at nothing to complete the task she’s been doing for a LONG time. These two are a riot in this book. They both are problematic, in my opinion, but I love them for it. Garreth MacRieve (Prince of the Lykae) will do anything to be with his fated mate, and Lucia the Huntress is trying everything to give him a hint that she can’t be with him. However, Garreth is determined to win her over somehow, even if he can only protect her on her mission. She eventually succumbs to his charm to protect her because who cannot resist his charm of protection. I know I couldn’t. (You can save me anytime, Garreth.)

The second time I enjoyed this story was due to Robert Petkoff. He knows how to bring the characters and stories to life. This time around, for the third time, I read it instead. Lucia’s character is a kick-butt heroine in the story, and Garreth is a determined protective alpha when it comes to Lucia. In the story, the readers will get a backstory of Lucia and what happened to her, and you will understand why she’s on her mission. She doesn’t trust easily, and she never falls in love, especially with what happened in the past. I could understand why. Just wait until Garreth finds out the truth. Oh boy! He’s not going to be mad, though, in the story. He will react the protective way as every fated mate always reacts towards their heroine. He’s going to kick butt when someone messes with their mate.

I loved how Kresley had both characters go on an adventure in the story together. I also enjoyed all the banter between them because they already felt like an old married couple. Garreth, though is my favorite of the two. His reaction to Lucia with certain things, which is so fun. Seriously, I can’t say it enough, but I fell hard for him.

Again, thanks to Kresley Cole for this fantastic storyline. I will love to meet her one day and discover how she came up with these characters and their world. Every book I read from her feels like I’m right there with the characters. Thank you again, Kresley Cole, for getting me sucked into this WORLD of yours that you created.

I give this book 4.5-stars and look forward to continuing my re-read of this series. This series will always be my go-to when I need to get out of a reading funk. The characters and world are addicting.

Standalone or Part of Series: It’s part of the Immortals After Dark series, and I recommend reading in order.

Steaminess: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Trope(s): Fated Mates; Enemies to Lovers

Would I recommend this book? Yes. She’s one of my auto-buy favorite authors. Paranormal Romance readers will love this series by Kresley Cole.

[mitabird]

Re-read 6/14/20 - 3.5 stars

I really wanted to like this book more, but I didn't really care for Lucia. She was the epitome of stubborn and I wished she opened up to Garreth a little more. He proved to her continually how much he cared for her, but it was extremely difficult for her to trust him. Now, she did have her reasons and some of them were justified, however, a little more communication between them would have been nice. The chemistry between them was there and one of the reasons I kept on reading.

I thought the pacing was too slow. Things didn't get exciting until the very end and I found the first three quarters of the book boring. I am curious to find out about the kidnappings, so I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series.

[kimbacaffeinate]

review to post shortly

[littleread1]

The first half was meh, with lots of "her lips say no but her body says yes" scenes and those always make me a bit ill. The last half was better, though still a scene or two with dubious consent. I still would love to se a story where the MC's don't lie to each other. A "Hey, this is my big secret why I can't be with you right now though I want to" and then followed by "Here is how I will help you so we can be together" and then they do.

[Melanie]

I love how Kresley Cole writes this series. The timelines all overlap with one another. This story actually starts before books one starts. You get glimpses into the other stories of the past and even see something that you might not understand the significance of at the time you read this story, but you figure out more when you read the next story. Since this is a re-read, first time listen for me, I'm noticing many of these things. That is not to say that you are lost when you read the books. You just see more and more as you go through the stories. And because of this, it is best to read the stories in order, even though the books aren't really told in chronological order, but you are not lost if you read out of order.

This story, we have, Garreth MacRieve, the reluctant acting king of the Lycae who sees a valkyrie while playing a game of rugby with demons. While researching her, he finds out little more than she is the best archer in the world. She rarely misses, but feels unbelievable pain when she does miss.

Lucia the Huntress, is very secretive about her past. Little is known about her, including who or what her mother was. She is best friends with Regin the Radiant, who is also her sister valkyrie. They are rarely, if ever separated. Regin is the only one who really knows about her past. Well, her and Nix the Everknowing, because Nix knows pretty much everything if she can remember it. Lucia is celibate and worships the goddess Scottie, which only Regin and Nix know why.

Together MacRieve and Lucia travel to the Amazon to hunt down the only weapon that can kill a god. They have quite an adventure through the jungle, seeing animals so large you wouldn't believe they were real.

Robert Petkoff's narration is great as always. Especially, since MacRieve has a Scottish accent, which is my favorite. He also does a wonderful job with the voice of Cromm Crauch, who is the god that Lucia is trying to kill.