Midnight's Kiss (Elder Races, #8)

by Thea Harrison

Ever since their scorching affair ended years ago, Julian, the Nightkind King, and Melisande, daughter of the Light Fae Queen, have tried to put the past behind them - and distance between them. But when a war breaks out between Julian and Justine, a powerful Vampyre of the Nightkind council, they find themselves thrown together under treacherous circumstances . . .

Kidnapped as leverage against Julian, Melly is convinced that her former lover won't be rushing to her rescue. But when Julian gives himself up to save her, they both end up Justine's captives. Armed only with their wits and their anger, Melly and Julian must work together to escape. But will they be able to ignore their complicated history, or will the fiery passion that once burned them blaze again?

• ISBN10: 0349403570
• ISBN13: 9780349403571
• Publish Date: 5 May 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 19 March 2024
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Piatkus Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

I’ve loved the Elder Races series from the beginning. I love the Wyrs, especially Dragos and Pia. The most recent two books, including this one have not included the Wyrs, or not really. They have only made token appearances. In Night’s Honor, book 7, Thea Harrison takes us from the Wyr domain into the Nightkind domain. Midnight’s Kiss starts not long after the end of Night’s Honor.

In Midnight’s Kiss, our hero is the king of the Nightkind domain, Julian, who we first met in Serpent’s Kiss, book 3. He was not painted as a kind man or a good ruler. Carling, the heroine of Serpent’s Kiss and his maker, had to flee from him when he tried to have her killed.

The heroine is Melisande, daughter of the Light Fae Queen. They had dated decades before, and lets just say that it ended badly and they can barely speak to each other at the beginning of this story.

Justine, one of the Vampyres on the council decides that she has had enough of Julian’s rule and is going to take him out. So she kidnaps Melisande and hopes to trade her for Julian. She plans to start a war and take over the Nightkind. When Julian does show up for the trade, of course Justine doesn’t release Melisande. Then Melly, as her friends call her, could tell her very powerful mother who kidnapped her.

While I love the Nightkind world (just not as much of as the Wyrs), I was not a huge fan of this book. First of all, I’m not a big fan of the hated ex-lovers who get back together trope. I don’t mind second chance love, but these two couldn’t have a basic business phone conversation without someone else to mediate. And this was all based on a misunderstanding that they are willing to forgive and forget later. I just wasn’t much of a fan. I know there are people who love this trope, I’m just not one of them.

Second, I didn’t link Justine as a villain. I just didn’t think she was very smart. What makes you think you can kidnap the Light Fae Queen’s daughter and make her disappear and that the Queen would never figure it out and kill you very slowly. She also kills a lot of people along the way that points a very large arrow at her before people even know that Melly was missing. Lastly, she uses rough Vampyres to do a lot of her dirty work. They are basically like the methheads of the Vampyre world. Not people I would want to have to put my faith in, that is for sure.

While this story wasn’t my favorite in the series, I still love the overall story arc. Harrison does a great job with the Nightkind domain. I loved the backstories that went with these characters. She took a character that I really disliked in Julian and made me really like him. Melly, on the other hand, I neither liked nor disliked much. I just didn’t have a lot of feelings for her.

I am very excited to see that we are going back to the Wyrs for the next book. I love how Ms. Harrison keeps switching it up and keeping it fresh. I think that is one reason that the series is so long and I haven’t gotten bored yet. Yes, there are books I like more than others, but I’m not seeing a downward trend like I have with some other long running series.

Narration
I’m a huge fan of Sophie Eastlake’s narration. I think she has done a great job with this series from the beginning. Each character has a very distinct voice and she is wonderful at portraying the emotions of each character. I’ve listen to her narrate several different series. I always feel like she is going to give a great performance.

I like to thanks Tantor Media for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[EBookObsessed]

I have been a long time fan of Thea Harrison’s Elder Races series, but the Nightkind King, Julian Regillus, was not among my favorite characters. He was mean and intimidating and never gave that “I’m a lovable vampyre” vibe, but I love when an author can change my mind about a character and in this case, she did it without changing Julian at all.

Warning: By the end of this book, Julian is not going to become a lovable, kind or warm-hearted character, but you will love him anyway.

We have met the Julian Regillus, the Nightkind king, in several other stories. Julian had Carling segregated on an island in the otherland and he would have assisted in killing her if he could have gotten council approval. This has brought him up against Drago Cuelebre, Lord of the Wyrkind on occasion, and he has no fear of the great dragon. Julian even got a little joy in frightening Olivia in The Wicked.

The millennia old vampire, was born a Roman slave, become a gladiator and won his freedom. He then rose through the ranks of the Roman army to become a General until he met his maker, Carling Severan. He is cold man who spent most of his life seeking power, and for the past two centuries has ruled the Nightkind. Until the last novel, Night’s Honor, at no other point during the series had we seen Julian as anything more than the cruel, power hungry vampyre desperate to keep Carling out of his territory.

In Midnight’s Kiss, we see there is much more to Julian than we knew. We only saw Carling after she and Rune were able to “stabilize” her, but before Rune arrived in her life, Carling’s disease was making her dangerous and unpredictable. She was giving Julian conflicting orders which not only made him insane, but as she was his maker, he was compelled to do whatever she ordered no matter what. As the former Queen of the Nightkind, her instability made her a danger to everyone in her territory. Julian managed to get Carling segregated from everyone and he needs to keep her away since even now she has the power to order him to do her bidding no matter what the request.

Julian also holds tight to his reign as King since that was the last order Carling gave to him before she went away. He cannot walk away from the position unless Carling were to reverse her order or he is dust, and he cannot trust the unstable Carling anywhere close enough to give him an order. So Julian has no choice but to rule the Nightkind until the end of his life.

But after centuries of fighting for freedom and power, he doesn’t want to fight anymore. He just has no choice. The only thing he wanted was the love of the one woman who betrayed him.

Twenty years ago, Julian fell for the heir to the Light Fae Kingdom, Melisande Aindris. Not everyone was happy for them. Many feared the balance of power if the King of the Nightkind and the future Queen of the Light Fae were to marry. When Julian found out that Melly had been unfaithful to him, he would not stand for that kind of betrayal. He walked away from her and any future they might have had. Since then, they can’t even be in the same room without it breaking down into a screaming match.

Now a member of the counsel is making a power play for the rule of the Nightkind. Justine has set up her supporters and has made an attempt upon the lives of Julian’s most trusted allies. As a centuries old frenemy of Julian, Justine knows his greatest weakness — Melly. She has kidnapped the Light Fae heir and will trade her life for Julian’s.

To Julian there is no question that he will exchange himself for Melly’s freedom, but Justine shows her true nature when she keeps them both. They will have to set aside decades of hurt feelings and work together to escape. Will their reawakened attraction be enough to keep them together after they find freedom or will old betrayals win out?

THOUGHTS:
I love that Thea Harrison could make me happy for Julian and Melly without changing Julian’s character at all. She did it before in Oracle’s Moon, when we fell for the Djinn Khalil. He was pompous and overbearing but we managed to find that charming by the end, and he’s still one of my favorite characters in the series. In Midnight’s Kiss, she hasn’t turned Julian into a favorite character, but she’s gotten me to understand him better and see why life made him the man that he is, and even a cold, vampyre like Julian has the capability to love someone more than himself. Awww.

Just like Pia, Melly is a strong woman who will stand up to such a powerful male and not allow him to walk all over her. She might not have been able to convince Julian that she was not unfaithful, but after they have a second chance, she won’t stop until she gets him to accept that her feelings were always just as strong as his and she had no reason or desire to cheat on him.

One interesting note is the Melly’s twin sister is Bailey who works in Jamaica. In The Wicked, Sebastian’s expedition teams run their headquarters out of Jamaica and his 2nd in command is named Bailey. I don’t think this is a coincidence. We didn’t see any interaction between Julian and Bailey when he arrived at Sebastian’s ship, but they must have come across each other while Julian’s people searched the ship.

This was a very enjoyable addition to the series which I would highly recommend to any paranormal romance lover.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.