Reviewed by Melanie on
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.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 18 May, 2015: Finished reading
- 18 May, 2015: Reviewed