Midnight Soul (Fantasyland, #5)

by Kristen Ashley

Against his will, Noctorno Hawthorne, an undercover vice cop, finds himself embroiled in magic, mayhem and parallel universes. Too late, he meets an amazing woman only to find she’s destined for his identical twin in another world.

And things aren’t going real great there.

Noc is recruited to help save that world.

What he doesn’t know is his destined love resides there.

Franka Drakkar wears a mask. A mask she never takes off to protect herself in a world of malice, intrigue and danger.

When Franka meets Noc and he discovers her secrets, convinced she carries a midnight soul, having shielded herself from forming bonds with anyone, she struggles with accepting his tenderness and care.

When Noc meets Franka, over wine and whiskey, her mask slips and Noc knows it’s her—only her—and he has to find a way to get her to come home with him.

And then make her want to stay.

• ISBN10: 0692736948
• ISBN13: 9780692736944
• Publish Date: 15 August 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Kristen Ashley
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 500
• Language: English

Reviews

[Romance Schmomance]

Ahhh, this series!

I can never get enough of this series. Midnight Soul was a re-read and I've enjoyed it infinitely more than the first time I've read.

More of a review to come!

[leelu92]

Too slow moving. Couldn't get into it.

I appreciate a good redemption story and I had high hopes for reading Franka's. I just couldn't hang in there long enough to get to the heart of her and Noc's love story. :(

[Linda]

Midnight Soul was a great ending to the Fantasyland series - which was like Rock Chick on steroids in a parallel universe ;)

[stacey_is_sassy]

I’m sad to be experiencing Fantasyland for the last time.

Well, this is the end. I’m sure I’ll be going back to visit every now and again but this will be the last time that Fantasyland will be new and exciting for me. There’s a tear in my eye, but joy in my heart that the journey these characters haven taken prove that Love is everything.

Geez, what an emotional goose I sound…but I have an excuse. I’ve got a cold. I was supposed to be having a Friday Night KA Party Night and I had the wine and nibbles all sorted. Then my nose started running and after half a glass of wine, I knew that the party wasn’t going to work out as I planned. Which, I found in hindsight, was a blessing in disguise. See, I started reading Midnight Soul and I was COMPLETELY LOST! I mean…who??? What??? HUH??? I couldn’t remember who all the players were, what they were all doing and why they were all doing it. Ummm… I'm pretty sure the dude with the sated look on his face from getting it on is supposed to be the hero of this book? I didn’t want to see him looking invigorated and satisfied by a woman other than the heroine. What has KA done? Where is she going with this? How will I cope? Well, the answer becomes clearer later on, but it still stuck in my craw a bit, to be honest.

So, Friday night ended up being a research night. I went back and read the last couple of chapters of Broken Dove and then did a search on Franka’s name. What was surprising for me was that I didn’t hate her as much after re-reading about her. Yes, Franka was nasty, but we all know that nobody is perfect and even I can be a bit awful before my first cup of coffee. My words are not like daggers as Franka’s are, but I’m sure that my 9-year-old thinks I’m being nasty when I say at 6:30 in the morning that I don’t CARE about last nights footy scores.

So, I woke up Saturday morning ready to get cracking on Midnight Soul. I decided to reserve my judgement and just take the ride. Half an hour later and I’m a blubbering mess. Poor Franka, I did not see that coming. It was hideous and disgraceful and I wanted to reach into my kindle and knock some heads together. Luckily, I didn’t need to do that because Noc, Frey and a few of the guards sorted it all out. Now, this is where things start to get a little interesting. Everyone is looking at Franka a wee bit differently. They’re questioning everything they’ve seen and heard from her. Are the sympathy and new found humour in her cutting remarks right? Should we forgive her her foul deeds because of what we now know about her torturous upbringing from the age of 5?

I think the life Franka has lead up to now excuses some of her decisions but definitely not all. Did Frey, Finnie, Cora and the rest forgive her too quickly? Yes, but you could tell it was still with a little trepidation. I think her part in saving the world and the wives of Frey, Lahn, Tor and Apollo probably helped.

It was interesting to see Noc being her shield from attack and also the person who helped her the most. I could see that he had his heart in the right place, but I struggled to forget the first page of the book. Is this just his way of helping her and becoming her friend or does he really want to be her man?

Noc, you’re going to have to convince me you’re the hero of this story.

There were parts I loved and parts I did not love in Midnight Soul but all of it was told in Kristen Ashley’s usual style so I enjoyed it all the same. Yes, maybe it was a little long and maybe it wasn’t like the rest of the Fantasyland series, but it was the story that Kristen Ashley wrote. I get that this was different because instead of one of us going to a new world to experience new things and adventures, it was the flipside. But, see we live on the flip side, so to us, it’s not an adventure or new experiences. I tried to look at it from Franka’s eyes and I managed to have some good laughs, while also seeing that we may have done some major damage to our beautiful world. So, Midnight Soul did not disappoint me or let me down, it just made me look at things in a different way.

Now, here is my honesty…I wish Kristen Ashley had switched the storylines around. I myself would have loved to have read a full story of Mr Dax Lahn…The Savage meeting and falling in love with Circe in our world, and Franka and Noc being the additional storyline. BUT…I got over it and managed to set aside a couple of minutes (a good half hour) to go searching for Jason Momoa in a suit pictures because he’s my Lahn. I wanted to know more of Mr Dax Lahn, the shrewd, sly, razor-sharp and ruthless attorney. I wanted to see the big man and how he talked the very scared Circe into trusting him. I got a bit…I just wanted…no…needed...more. But that… is my cross to be bear. ;)

I really enjoyed Midnight Soul but I’m sad to see this wonderful series come to an end. As per usual, I have probably gone overboard with my ramblings, but I struggle to read a KA and not have overwhelming thoughts and feelings at the end. I still get the high from finding a Kristen Ashley book pop up on my kindle and I’m pretty sure that will keep happening for as long as she keeps writing.

To buy Midnight Soul from Amazon - http://amzn.to/2byUDpp

I’m an Aussie chick who loves to read and review romance, drink coffee, be a Style Setter and stalk David Gandy. To see more of my reviews, fashion, food and pervathons -

[nitzan_schwarz]

First half: 5 stars
Second half: ??? What was that?? I couldn't finish, no rating :((

Whaaat, a second DNF rating in a row?? What is going on with me!!

It's actually fairly simple, actually. I pre-ordered this book. This entire series is a guilty pleasure for me because it's *not that good* and yet it's sooooooo good. I started it the day after it came out, and I gulped down the first half of the novel like a hungry troll. 

And guess what? I loved every single thing about the first half. It was, quite literally, everything I had ever dreamed of from Frannie's story, right down to the redemption arc. Those 50%? A 5 star read for me. Seriously. I may actually re-read this half at some point because I loved it so much (and, if I'll manage, finish the other half, but that would depend on my mood I guess). 

So naturally, I was super duper excited for the rest of the novel. And then, fairly quickly, I no longer was. We made the trip to our modern day world. Things slowed down dramatically. And I found myself.... bored? Oh, so incredibly, utterly, mind numbingly bored. I simply couldn't do it. The difference in quality (to me) between the first half and the second is so jarring.

I would open the novel, read a page, and stop. Repeat the next day. Then repeat the next month. Then stop. 

But I can't bring myself to leave this novel unattended. I also really really wanted to rate it because it's simultaneously the most satisfying and most disappointing experience of my life, and that's a hard title to own. 

I do recommend this series, though. It's great, sexy fun even when it's weird or contradicting itself. My hope is that one day I'll bring myself back into this world and finish this one just for the sake of finishing it.