First up, here's my preliminary review of Kresley Cole's Demon From the Dark. (I'll do a full review once I've re-read the book!)
Here's the book blurb: From New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole comes this scorching tale of a demon outcast poisoned with vampire blood and the vulnerable young witch he vows to protect—even from himself.A DANGEROUS DEMON SHE CAN’T RESIST . . .
Malkom Slaine: tormented by his sordid past and racked by vampiric hungers, he’s pushed to the brink by the green-eyed beauty under his guard.
A MADDENING WITCH HE ACHES TO CLAIM . . .
Carrow Graie: hiding her own sorrows, she lives only for the next party or prank. Until she meets a tortured warrior worth saving.
TRAPPED TOGETHER IN A SAVAGE PRISON . . .
In order for Malkom and Carrow to survive, he must unleash both the demon and vampire inside him. When Malkom becomes the nightmare his own people feared, will he lose the woman he craves body and soul?
My Review
*Note - no spoilables were harmed in the writing of this muddled, awe-stricken post*
Ok guys, you all know how much I love Kresley and her work. She is my romance idol, and I want to be her when I grow up.
I was REALLY looking forward to DFTD. Unfortunately, sometimes when you're really looking forward to something and you build it up in your mind, it can be a disappointment when you finally get to it. More often than not, that's how things usually go.
THAT WAS SO NOT THE CASE WITH THIS BOOK!
Malkom without a shadow of a doubt is the best male character of Kresley's, period. I've been in love with Ethan McCarrick, Lachlain and Bowen MacRieve, and The Woede - and don't get me wrong, they're all wonderful...very well written characters...but that's just IT with Malkom. He doesn't seem to have been WRITTEN at all. He jumps off the page and grabs you by the heartstrings. It's not even so much his "tortured" hero vibe. Their (Malkom's and Carrow's) challenges with communication really force the reader to invest in and cling to anything that can be taken as a form of outreach bewteen them. This is the GENIUS of DftD - Kresley literally PINS you down, forces your psyche into submission, and commands, "TAKE MALKOM INTO YOUR HEART - FOR I LEAVE YOU NO CHOICE OTHERWISE!"
From the time that Malkom enters the stage (aka page ONE) the reader is force-fed his awesomeness...everything about him is AWESOME. No...really.
-His size - awesome.
-His strength - awesome.
-His capacity for self-loathing - awesome.
-His resilience (even in the face of the most impossible situations) - awesome.
-His willingness to trust, though NO ONE in his life has given him reason to do so - awesome.
-His sexy-quick-learning-man-virgin-vibe - AWESOME!
-His capacity to love, protect, nourish, and cherish - awesome!
-His uncanny ability to make a reader sigh out loud when she's sneaking a chapter in at work? - Awesome...and dangerous!
Now don't get me wrong - Carrow was awesome and I loved her character. I'm a Valkyrie girl m'self, but Carrow is probably my favorite non-Valkyrie female at this point - yes, even above Mariketa. That said, this is MALKOM'S book. I think that his character is going to be pivotal to the series going forward, because he brought such a level of emotional attachment/investment. Usually when I read a Kresley book, I'm in ON the story...with this one - I was WITH Malkom IN the story with him. He took me along for the ride.
I love Kresley, but this one almost felt like Malkom was a real person who's story needed to be told and he was using Kresley as the medium to get that accomplished. She's said that he wrote himself - I TOTALLY believe that.
If this book doesn't win the RITA next year, then Riora must have deemed it impossible for Kresley to win it again. But seriously folks, this book totally took the series to the next level. Kresley's career is already taken off - but I think this is the start of something untouchable in the genre. Seriously.
F*ck 5 stars....I rate this TEN HARD-ONS!
(P.S - If you're a Kresley Cole fan and you'd like to join in on the fun with other IAD-freaks, come and join us in her FORUM! My screen name over there is Lilashriel!)
