Customer Reviews

A Hunger Like No Other (Immortals After Dark, Book 1)

5 star:		(238)
4 star:		(70)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Ms. Cole's latest effort is "wildly" delicious and entertaining. She has taken the paranormal genre and created her very own legends and lore...filled with ultra entertaining characters.

Emmaline is half vampire and half Valkyrie. She is known in her coven as Emma the timid. Her family is shocked when she decides she wants to travel to Paris alone to find out the truth about her father. While there she is attacked by a handsome, yummy, strong, yummy, scary...oh yes yummy man who scares the stuffing out of her. She is even more shocked to find out that in order to return to Louisiana she will have to help Lachlain MacRieve the leader of a Lykae Clan return to his home in Scotland. She'll do it believing she will be allowed to return home. She has no idea Lachlain is her forever mate and he has no plans on ever letting her get away.

Lachlain has spent the last hundred and fifty years being tortured by the vampire Demestriu. He is slowly going mad and then...he scents his mate. He has been waiting an eternity to find her and he is not going to let her get away now. He is shocked and somewhat disgusted when he finds out his long awaited mate is half vampire. But despite this he can't keep himself from feeling things for the wee little Emma. She fires his blood and he will do what he must to keep her...even if it means to lie to her. Anything to get her home to Scotland where he will be able to keep her safe and protected when he goes to get revenge against Demestriu. But, life doesn't always go according to plan and wooing Emma is just one of those things. Will he be able to keep her safe and with him or will the vampire horde take away the one thing he needs to live?

Lachlain and Emma are wonderfully constructed characters. These two are both strong likeable characters. Their conflict is entertaining as is their way of dealing with what they face. Emma is sassy and quick witted...Lachlain is patient and yummy. This is a great new series and I truly can't wait for the next installment. Ms. Cole has made her mark on the paranormal genre and is an author you need to add to your must read list!

Lachlain MacRieve is the King of all Lycans. For hundreds of years he's been waiting for his mate to appear. He knows that he will recognize her the moment he sees her, or scents her. However Lachlain never expects to find his mate is half vampire. Lycans and vampires have been at war for a long time and the King of the Vampires imprisoned and tortured Lachlain for over 100 years. So when Lachlain finally finds his mate, he can't accept the fact that his enemy will be his Queen.

Emmaline's mother, Helen, was a Valkyrie. Before she died, Helen made arrangements to send Emmaline to her coven, with strict instructions to never let the vampires know of Emmaline's existence. On her first trip away from the coven, Emmaline is on a mission to discover information about her parents. She didn't bargain on meeting Lachlain. Before Emmaline knows what's happened, she finds herself captive to what appears to be an out-of-control Lycan.

Lachlain forces Emmaline to travel with him to his clan's home in Scotland, where he is determined that she will accept her position as his mate. The more time they spend together, the more the passion builds between them. But once Emma's coven discovers that Lachlain has taken her, they wage an all out attack to bring her home. And just to make things worse, the vampires have discovered Emmaline's existence and are determined that Emmaline belongs with them. Can Lachlain fight all these opposing forces to keep his mate? As the emotion deepens between them, will Emmaline accept her place as Lachlain's Queen?


A Hunger Like No Other surprised me! I've read Kresley Cole's historicals and certainly enjoyed them but with A Hunger Like No Other she surpasses her previous work. By turns sensual and laugh-out-loud funny, A Hunger Like No Other brings together the best of paranormal romance. Lachlain and Emmaline hooked me from page one. Filled with vampires, lycans, witches, valkyries and wraiths, you never know what's coming from one page to the next. Readers of Angela Knight and Christine Feehan will find what they are looking for here. E-book aficionados who are fans of Shelly Laurentson will definitely find A Hunger Like No Other right up their alley. I anxiously await the next installment from Kresley Cole in what I am sure will be a must-read series.

Melissa
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

NOTE: After I read this book I realized that there was a prequel to this book in the anthology Playing Easy To Get. I read Kresely Cole's story in the anthology and highly recommend that readers also get Playing Easy To Get as they will also find Ms. Cole's addition to the anthology just as enjoyable as A Hunger Like No Other. It will certainly help set up Emma's story and explain away certain comments made by characters. You can't go wrong with these books!

Lachlain MacRieve is leader of the Lykae Clan. After enduring centuries of torture in catacombs beneath Paris by the vampire horde, he's finally found a reason to escape when he senses his destined mate nearby. When he finally holds her within his arms though, he's literally disgusted to find she herself is a vampire...and something else too. Intending to deal with the detestable female in due time, he cannot dismiss the eerie calming effect she begins to have on his long raging mind. Lachlain intends to have his revenge, and just maybe through their connection as mates, his little vampire will be able to help him focus.

Emmaline Troy is tired of living under her very powerful family's shadow. She's taken a trip to Paris in a first step bid to win some independence. Dismissing the dire warnings of her family, she nevertheless regrets her behavior soon when she's taken prisoner by a mad Lykae. Not only is this deranged, too-sexy-for-words male making her life miserable, but the vampires, a race she's never had occasion to meet, is hunting her as well. Could it be her half Valkyrie nature they're after? Whatever the case may be, she's got plenty to deal with in terms of her captor, a frustrating, mesmerizing mess of a Lykae king who's all to ready to Kill her one minute and protect her the next. It's enough to make this vampire/Valkyrie hybrid more than a little mad, and more than a little leery of her heart.

Now THIS is paranormal romance! Action, drama, suspense, wit and more intriguing supernatural beings than we can shake a broomstick at coalesce into one of the best paranormal romances ever. This is an amazing intro into a very promising series, one with plenty of well-rounded secondary characters to carry on what begins here. Lachlain is at once a rough, anti-hero alpha and achingly caring and sexy. He's very complex given the nature of his last several centuries and he couldn't be better complimented by Emma's sweet, yet not-so-biddable nature. She's weak in the beginning, yes, but morphs into a powerful, kick butt type the longer she interacts with our hero. She's smart, witty and possesses a timeless grace that others around her can only dream of possessing. Her family of Valkyries is very intriguing and I'm glad to see Cole keeping their stories coming as well. This is a very fresh, very consuming addition to the world of paranormal romance. Very much worth as many rereads as the book itself can handle. It's on to the second in the series next, No Rest for the Wicked and the third, Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night, releases October 31, 2007.

Now comfortably organized among my favorite novels, I can't plug this title enough to friends and family who are fans of romance - paranormal or otherwise. Super hot page turner, it had me giggling within the first naughty (*ooo! naughty!) ten pages, and two days later I'm ready to pick it up again for the long weekend. This is one you hold on to and keep rereading.

Thank you Kresley Cole! My tastes run more historical with romance genre rather than preternatural, and after my last fiasco into the category, I was ready to call a major time-out (see my reviews). However, this is as perfect as it gets - a super-charged attraction, endearingly flawed hero and heroine, compelling backdrop. You don't have to wait before it gets going. The tension starts on the first page and doesn't end until the end... ah, wonderful, wonderful cheese!

He's the ancient werewolf king (of course, heh) recently escaped from a tortured imprisonment, and she's a recently-spawn half vampire / half valkyrie, but a compassionate wimp - a creature who can't bring herself to harm anything - even to nip enough blood to keep her healthy. Admirable, but worrisome. I've a penchant for the whole 'alpha-male / alpha-female / trouble ensues' and usually slink away from the 'weak, whining female stereotype,' because normally, I just want to slap them, but fragile Emmaline Troy has enough modern-style chutzpah to take on overbearing protagonist Lachlain on her own terms. On the streets of Paris, she's seeking the story of her unique lineage, and when he scents her deep within his horrifying confinement, he draws strength enough to break free in search of his one true mate (ahhh, me). Enter the conflict: vampires, werewolves and valkyrie tribes have been battling for countless centuries... the gods must hate them both. When he abducts her, the journey is a never-want-to-end romp of desperate desire, hilarity, property damage and ooooh, mature sexual content... mmmm mmmm good!

Kresley Cole is able to masterfully mix the familiar with her own spawned lore, and throw in a few contemporary references to make you laugh out loud. She adeptly mixes IPods with primeval weaponry and nail polish with ancient customs. It's a smart book, well-written and an absolute keeper. The characterization is fully formed, locations lushly depicted, supporting characters quirky and interesting... and I'm sure I'm not the only one impatiently waiting to see which one stars in her next novel. You'll just love Emmaline's doddering valkyrie aunt Nix, and feel for Lachlain's friend Bowe's misery. Try not to double over in laughter when you learn who Emmaline's mom is. The boyfriend almost made me stop reading for fear I would choke myself with it. Poor guy, he had to sit so patiently when I was compelled to give him a play by play of the plot.

Read this book, it's so entertaining. Warning: don't bring this as beach reading, you're likely to forget to turn before you get a serious sunburn. Get all the chores done, find a quiet spot indoors, turn ON the air conditioner and enjoy!

As far as vampires go, Emmaline Troy is a petite and timid half-breed. Guarded by her overprotective Valkyrie aunts, Emma has a strong aversion to pain and conflict and much prefers to study other Lore creatures. If cornered, her grand fight strategy is to run.

As far as werewolves go, Lachlain MacRieve is a massive beast on the edge. The Lykae Clan's leader, it's been over a century since he disappeared into mindless torture, and the world has changed.

Mortal enemies, vampires and Lykae aren't supposed to like each other, let alone fall in love. So when Lachlain is led to his mate, he's horrified to learn Emma's true nature. Emma isn't thrilled either, but at first, she's too intimidated to escape the warrior's grasp.

While Emma is held captive at Lachlain's castle, all hell breaks loose at the Valkyrie coven where Emma's aunts live. Soon, it's more than her family that's threatened, and Emma must connect with her deeply buried strength and courage in order to save them all. If she's lucky, she might find the love of an immortal lifetime.

In this dark and edgy romance, Cole has created a vivid story with characters that clutch the heart. This tale is about more than fighting evil creatures and falling in love. It's about betrayal, pain, forgiveness, passion, and coming of age.

Some readers may be uncomfortable with the level of violence and explicit love scenes, but this is truly a tale that cannot be told without it. These events are catalysts for the changes that occur within the characters, and therefore worth the journey.

Although a large cast is introduced, the secondary characters' unique personalities come to life without overshadowing the hero and heroine. This new series promises one fresh story after another with the wonderful assortment presented here.

Definitely a recommended read for fans of paranormal romance.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
5-11-2006

JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood "Lover" series got me hooked on paranormal romance. I've been on the look-out for anything that is even close to as good. I've tried Nalini Singh's psy-changeling series and although interesting, it's not in the same class as the brotherhood. After reading Cole's first two Immortal After Dark books....the first being the novella in the book Playing Easy to Get and now A Hunger Like No Other, I'm convinced that this series rivals the "Brotherhood" in it's intensity and appeal.

This is a story about a Lykae king and his half vampire/half Valkyrie mate. Lachlain is the king who was imprisoned and tortured heavily by a vampire. He is in agony, chained to a wall in a fiery furnace like hell when he scents his mate. He amputates his own leg to escape and find her, only to find that she is a vampire...the same kind that imprisoned him and are his sworn enemies.

Emma is none to pleased either when she is taken to his home and told that she was his mate. Their journey to Lachlain's home is laced with humor and sexy interactions as both try in vain to fight their growing attraction.

I really like this world that Cole introduces us to. It's not difficult to understand like I've found Singh's to be, and I really like all the different aspects of the Lore and how they relate to each other. As in the first book, The Warlord takes a Bride, this book is speckled with fun secondary characters that would make great books of their own.

No matter what, "A Hunger Like No Other" will remain a favorite. I loved the evolution of this relationship. What begins as disappointment and disillusionment with each other becomes "oh so much more" as they realize just how suited they are despite the seemingly unsurmountable odds they face. This is a passionate, sensual, and unique love story.

Don't Miss It!

After enduring fifteen decades of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, king of the Lykae Clan, finally scents the predestined mate he has waited millennia for. He does the unthinkable to escape and track her down. But upon doing so, he is enraged to find that she is a vampire, a bloody leech! It hardly matters that Emmaline is half Valkyrie too. Yet she is the one, no question about it.

Emmaline "Emma" Troy never knew her parents. She grew up with a coven of Valkyries at Val Hall Manor, just outside New Orleans. At the young age of seventy, Emma sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents - until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae, and their notorious dark desires, ebbs as Lachlain begins a slow, wicked seduction to mark her as his - forever!

As the Valkyries prepare for war to get Emma back and Lachlain vows to never release her, there is another ancient evil searching for Emma. Will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be?

***** OMG! You have GOT to read this one! If I ever find this title in hardback I will not hesitate to buy it. I plan to search the book clubs immediately. But I simply had to spread the word about this enthralling series! Author Kresley Cole has created a world that DEMANDS another visit from readers. I was so engrossed in reading it that my husband asked if I had super glued my eyes to the pages. I can hardly wait until "No Rest for the Wicked" is released later this year. Do not worry, each title is a stand alone story. But the author will have her hands full to top this one. On a side note, my favorite secondary character is Nïx. She is a soothsayer. Uh, excuse me, she is "predeterminationally abled". I look forward to seeing her again! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

This book was recommended to me by the many people who thought her work in "Playing Easy to Get" was the best in the anthology. I've been leery of trying new paranormal romance books because the market seems to be flooded w/ a great deal of them that are not very good. I'm glad I tried this book however. This series will now be an auto-buy for me.

With all the paranormal entities in this book, I'm surprised the author kept everything on track so that the reader wasn't inundated about this new world.

The plot was set at a great pace. The love and sensuality was appropriate for the length of the book. The best feature of the plot however was the characterization.

The hero is a werewolf who has been tortured for the last 500 years, and when he gets a whiff of his mate, he gets the strength to free himself to hunt for her. Since he's been dying and rebirthing for the last 500 years, it's understandable he's a little caveman and crazy like when he kidnaps his heroine.

The heroine is a half Valkyrie & Vampire. She's been so intimidated by her Valkyrie aunts so long tha she has no self esteem and is a truly cowardly lion. Emma the Timid is what they call her. So many paranormals these days, the heroines are so strong, snarky, and independent, that Emmaline makes a nice change in flavor. I loved her character. The entire plot is paced so that she begins to peek out of her shell and grow a back bone. It's wonderful that Kresley Cole was able to make her heroine transition smoothly into a stronger and likeable character w/ insecurities instead of making her into an overnight superhero.

Some people may be cringe from the near rape scenes in the beginning. But rest assured there was no rape in the book, in fact the true love scenes aren't until the mid 200 pages so this makes the connection between the heroine and the hero all the more realistic.

Highly recommended.

After spending nearly 200 years being tortured in a firey hell by the Vampire Horde, Lykae (read: Werewolf) Lachlain MacRieve escapes, swearing revenge on the vampires. His escape is spurred by his sensing of his eternal mate, but when he finds her, he's maddened to discover that she is a half vampire. Emmaline Troy is a half vampire/half Valkyrie in Paris searching for information on her biological parents. She's accosted by Lachlain and forced to accompany him back to Scotland. All the while, they are pursued by vampires trying to steal Emma back, as she's the only female vampire left.

Oh, where to start on this book. Cole writes a very sexy book, with fascinating characters. If you like your heroes alpha, then Lachlain fits the bill. The book moves rapidly, and the secondary characters really come to life. I started out not liking Emmaline very much. She seemed weak and wimpy and indeed, the character herself says she's a coward and weak. However, Cole grows Emma from a scared, timid heroine to a very strong and empowered woman able to stand up to the alpha male trying to run her life. And considering her "youth" (she's 71 years to his 1200 years), she needs some assertiveness to handle him.

Cole also captures the essence of each "creature." Emma is sexy and there's no question, but she talks about clawing and pawing things, and she hisses. Lachlain's beast really comes out, and even in the cover, the model's hands are very beasty looking. I like the realism.

Cole's book completely captivated me, but I did have some issues. The primary problem I had was that her dialogue tended to leave the subject out. Quite a bit of the Lykae dialogues were incomplete sentences, and I could never figure out if it was just a trait in their speech patterns. Whatever it was, it didn't work for me as I read the book. Maybe if I heard it spoken out loud the way the author heard it, it might sound more natural, but unfortunately, it bothered the bejeezus out of this English major. Also, Cole tends to switch points of view pretty frequently, almost like you're watching television. It was disruptive for me.

My other issue was that Emmaline's foster family -- the Valkyries -- were interesting, but seemed there to provide nothing but comic relief. The book started out pretty intensely serious and dramatic, but as it progressed, it felt like the author decided on twisting it into a bit of comedy. Not too over the top, however, and I grew to really like them.

And for those who are bothered by rather forceful sex, and near rape-scenes, you might need to skip this one. Lachlain is a touch crazy in the beginning (I would be, too, after 200 years of having the flesh burned off my body), and has a very strong dislike of vampires, so he treats the heroine very shabbily and while there isn't any actual rape, there are some close calls that made me uncomfortable.

Overall, however, despite the sentence syntax and the switch in styles, I really enjoyed the book and I'll look forward to the next one.

I tried to read this one some time ago, and gave up, frustrated. So I gave it another go, and I liked it more, but still had some issues. In fact, I started off wanting to rate this one star, but after a second chance, and some thought, I'm going to give it three (more like three and a half stars).

I'll start with what I liked.

Once I got into it, I really did like the main romance a lot. The main characters do change a lot, learning to become who they need to be in order to survive together. They make a lot of mistakes along the way, and there are struggles, but that makes their romance all the more special. If it weren't for the distractions of all the other characters I think I would have rated this book much higher.

The love scenes were imaginative, but the constant build-ups to sex only for something to happen to stop them - over and over again - became annoying. But the relationship was wonderful, with the oddest mix of caring, passion, hatred and desire. I loved that they were thrown together even though it's the last thing either wanted. I love that they found their way to each other.

The twists and turns in the plot were great, and the final third of the book was really exciting...until the last few pages when the author turned cutesy on us and I wanted to groan.

Now the bad.

The side-story with the aunts is uninteresting and distracting, with far too many characters to either remember or care about. It was clearly the set-up for later books in the series, but I didn't enjoy being hit with all of them at once. And then right when the story became interesting again we'd be hit with an information dump.

I think my biggest problem with the story is that I like paranormal romance to have some connection to the real world. My favourite books in this genre involve some characters who are human or strongly connected to humans. This series has so many different species - many of them hundreds or thousands of years old - so it felt more like a fairytale (albeit a very grown-up one!). I missed that link to humanity as we rushed from ancient Lykae to a Russian castle full of vampires and on and on.

Every point in the story where the Valkyrie came in the feel of the book changed. It was so cutesy I was downright annoyed. In this genre you have to decide what kind of book you're writing. Either it's charming and quirky a la Charlaine Harris, or it's more serious. It can't be both.

The American expressions (such as `I could care less' - it's `COULDN'T care less') were out of place, grating. And outside of North America the `first floor' is known as the `ground floor' - the `first floor' is the first one up. Things like this should be researched. Non-Americans know the differences; there is no excuse for American writers not to know cultural differences. Additionally, the author generally worked hard to show us how it would be for a man who's had no exposure to society for a few hundred years, but there were times where she slipped up and had her hero too modernised.

I did not enjoy the way all of the characters seemed to have connections to real icons. Helen of Troy, Dracula's Mina...everybody seemed to be somebody else. Once or twice it might be amusing, but more than that and it's just stupid.

But, in the end, I did enjoy this book enough to keep reading in the series. It wasn't perfect, but there's something captivating about Kresley Cole's writing. She may not be up to the standard of Jeaniene Frost, but her books are a good choice for an entertaining read.


Spoiler warning!
Romance novels - of any kind - are notorious for their obsession with babies. This book annoyed me to no end, because it was PAINFULLY obvious from the first mention of Emma's infertility that she was going to find out by the end that she CAN have children. I hate this kind of thing. It's like in the horrendous Twilight series; Bella thinks she's sacrificing babies to be with Edward, but bang! - suddenly she has one. I hate a deus ex machina of any sort, and this certainly appears to be one.

Another deus ex machina favourite is the heroine suddenly developing one skill after the other - whatever she needs to save the day, that day. Emmaline goes from one strength to the next, She doesn't learn anything, quite simply `discovers' she can do these amazing things, at the exact moment she needs them for the plot to develop. It's frustrating to read.