9 years later, I’ve still not finished Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series. But I do own all of them since Kresley kindly stopped by The Ripped Bodice to sign the re-release of the series.
I adore the new cover of A Hunger Like No Other, which is now a comfort read. I re-read it for TRB’s fantasy book club in July, and devoured it once again! I wouldn’t have guessed that from my first review. But here we are, unabashedly loving fated supernatural mates and all their sexy and tbh quite dangerous hijinks.
There is a prequel, but the first novel in the series was A Hunger. We meet the sheltered valkyrie Emmaline, who is young for an immortal in her 70s. Her older sisters protect her fiercely from their NOLA estate and (understandably) don’t trust men or the outside world. But Emma dreams of independence and travels to France for a journey of self-discovery. The stakes are raised when a lykae (aka werewolf) named Lachlain scents her. He breaks free from his nearly century-long prison inside some catacombs to claim her as his mate. He may be dashing and Scottish, but she’s not falling for that mate crap. Lachlain has some PTSD from his imprisonment, plus the mate urges, which means he impulsively essentially kidnaps her. They eventually come to an uneasy bargain. He will let her go after taking him to Scotland. Cue some nasty vampires coming to play, some sexy banter, and a cross-country road trip to bring them together. Yes, he is a very alpha male, but Emma is no shrinking flower. She has claws and inhuman strength.
I loved re-reading this because Cole deftly hints at part of the larger world-building. It was fun to see the foundation of the lore. I’d forgotten how immature Emma is at the beginning, and was so excited when she came into her own powers. She has a doozy of a family history to contend with in this novel. I highly recommend reading this series and listening to the Fated Mates podcast. It’s campy, plenty of sexy times, and has unexpected supernatural creatures with each entry.
