A Novel with Thoughts and Ponderings

DARKER AFTER MIDNIGHT

Author: Lara Adrian ISBN: 9780345530875 2/2012 PARANORMAL Publisher: DELACORTE

Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian
In the dark of night, a blood war escalates within the hidden world of the Breed. After existing in secret for many long centuries, maintaining a fragile peace with the humans who walk beside them unaware, a single act of retaliation has put the entire vampire nation at risk of discovery. It falls to the Order--a cadre of Breed warriors pledged to protect their own and humankind alike--to stop Dragos, the power-mad vampire at the center of the conflict, before his push for domination can explode into catastrophe.

At the center of the Order’s quest is Sterling Chase, once a morally rigid enforcer of Breed law, now a warrior fallen from grace, whose biggest battle is the one he wages against his own savage nature. With addiction beckoning him toward eternal darkness, Chase’s path to redemption has never seemed more out of reach--until he finds himself drawn to a beautiful young woman who may be something much more than she seems . . .

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

DARKER AFTER MIDNIGHT is Sterling Chase’s story, a once tough breed warrior that Lara Adrian uses to turn the Midnight Breed series into a new direction.  This book was pivotal.  Any fan following the series has watched Chase go from an honorable member and enforcer, to a man on the edge of going rogue and letting his blood lust consume him.

Tavia Fairchild, assistant to the senator, finds herself in the middle of Chase's downward spiral.  She notices changes to the senator, but doesn’t agree with Chase’s insistence he's a minion to a master vampire.  After being attacked and watching his reckless actions, she's more convinced that Chase is the one that needs help. Sterling recognizes that he’s out of control, but doesn’t care as long as the villain Dragos goes down with him. 

At the end, Adrian gives it an almost absentminded touch, and it comes off with a whimper instead of a bang the readers will be expecting.  However, watching Chase and Tavia gradually fall in love during the most hectic time for the breeds, watching Chase struggle to find his place again among friends, was often painful but was more real for the edge it contained.  The story's pace is refreshingly faster than a few of Adrian's previous novels. The excitement was back, and now, as the warriors regroup, readers are left to wonder what happens next.  The author did a good job with this, and it was nice to see that Chase was able to redeem himself and finally find a woman of his own.

Christina Baker

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