Book Reviews of Kiss of a Demon King (Immortals After Dark, Bk 6)

To say that I eagerly waited for this book is an understatement. I was counting down the days until I could get a copy. Normally with this kind of anticipation I read the book all in one sitting, but this book I was able to put down. I might be alone in this, but I didn't think this book was all that and a bag of chips.

Rydstrom is the king of the rage demons, a kind without a crown and throne. His arch-nemesis, Omort the deathless, has taken over Rydstrom's kingdom and made it into an evil fortress. Rydstrom has been searching for a way to defeat Omort for hundreds of years and finally he has found a way. All he needs is for his brother, Cadeon to find a sword that has been reputed to be able to kill Omort (see this story in the fifth book "Dark Desires After Dusk.") Omort's sister Sabine is the Queen of Illusions and through sorcery she has found out that she is Rydstrom's fated mate (the only woman he can have children with.) Through the prophecy Sabine must bear his child and then sacrifice it to keep the evil side in charge. Sabine captures Rydstrom and tortures him into trying to impregnate her. Eventually Rydstrom escapes and takes Sabine with her, turning the tables and using Sabine as his prisoner. They both are distrustful of the other and continue to treat each other badly.

The book was good, but not as fantastic as I had been lead to believe. The characters were both likable (even Sabine grew on me after awhile, and she's very evil.) Rydstrom was a great hero, and as far as sexy tension and romantic scenes the book was full of them. Sabine may have been hard to like at the beginning, but many explanations were given for why she was so dark and evil and I found it easy to empathize with her. The problem was that I was ambivalent as to whether or not the characters ended up together in the end. They both didn't really seem to even like each other, they both wronged each other so many times it was getting a little bit hard to believe when they finally did fall in love. It was a good plot installment in the "Immortals After Dark" series, but I preferred many of the previous books much more. I hope the next one will be about the Valkyries or Sabine's sister Lanthe, no more rage demons for me please, I've had enough.

I'm such a huge fan of Kresley Cole I drove like a rage demon to the bookstore to get this book day it was released. I admire Cole's writing because she's one of the few paranormal romance writers out there who can actually write WELL. But I'm sad to say that along with other reviewers, I found this title the least captivating of the series. I never really became invested in Sabine and Rydstrom and the book was darker and angrier than previous books in the series. It's worth reading to follow the series, but it doesn't have quite the humor and snappy dialogue that I so loved with Regin, Nix, Emmaline, Mariketa and of course the swoon-inducing "men" of her previous 5 books.

After 1500 years of being the 'good brother' Rydstrom meets his much anticipated fated mate - who does NOT believe in truth, justice, or love... The battle of sexes ensues with lots of sparks [figurative, real and illusionary. This book takes place at the same time as the previous 'Dark Desires After Dusk' - DDAD really needs to be read first.

The Immortals After Dark Series

Playing Easy to Get contains a short story (The Immortals After Dark .5)
Nikolai Wroth vampire
Myst the Coveted Valkyrie

A Hunger Like No Other (The Immortals After Dark 1)
Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan
Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire

No Rest for the Wicked (The Immortals After Dark 2)
Sebastian Wroth vampire
Kaderin the Cold Hearted Valkyrie

Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night (The Immortals After Dark 3)
Bowen MacRieve of the Lykae clan
Mariketa the Awaited the witch

Not That Innocent
Murdoch Wroth
Daniela the Ice Maiden Valkyrie

Dark Needs at Night's Edge (The Immortals After Dark 4)
Conrad Wroth
Néomi Laress, a phantom

Dark Desires After Dusk (The Immortals After Dark 5)
Cade of the rage demons
Holly Ashwin Halfling Raised as a human

Kiss of a Demon King (The Immortals After Dark 6)
Rhydstrom, deposed king of the rage demons
Sabine, the Queen of Illusions of the Sorceri

Not That Innocent (The Immortals After Dark 6.5)
Murdoch Wroth vampire
Daniela the Ice Maiden, a Valkyrie with a very difficult problem

In this sixth installment of Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series, dethroned king of the rage demons Rydstrom falls in love with the evil sorceress Sabine, Queen of Illusions.

If you are a fan of the series, you will not be disappointed. The plot was rich and interesting, if slow in a few places. The characters are well developed and engaging. I particularly enjoyed Sabine--she is such a departure from the typical virtuous heroine we see in the romance genre. Furthermore, the world continues to grow and develop at a satisfactory pace. Highly recommended!

This is a good book. It would be a better book, if I didn't already know where they are eventually going to be, due to the previous book. Because I already knew this, I was a little frustrated trying to get to that point for the first 300 pages. So because of Ms. Cole's unfortunate tendency to overlap books, this story drags a little and thus is not as good as it could have been.

Once I finally passed that point, the book did get REALLY good. Loved the last 100 pages the best. But I liked the previous book, about Cadeon, better.

I love most of Kresley Cole's books, but something was missing in this one. I love the werewolves and the vampires. What can I say, this was a kind of blah. Hope her next one is better.

Absolutely the best one in the series to date. Fantastic! The cover model perfectly fit the character...The hero was soooo sexy and I even liked the heroine. Can't say enough good things about this book.

I loved this book! I love the whole series, too. This one had conflicts between H/H like the others but I thought it was very funny. There was more humor around the evil powerful sorceress. I laughed out loud several times. I think the humor offset the dark life the sorceress had to endure. Still had Hot Scenes, lots of actions, Valkyries, Witches, Bad Sorcerers, Werewolves, Demons, Vampires etc. I love the Demon King's story and I enjoyed him & his brother in earlier books.

Summary: From New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole comes this spellbinding story of a demon king trapped by an enchantress for her wanton purposes -- and the scorching aftermath that follows when he turns the tables and claims her as his captive.
HIS OBSESSION...
Sabine, Sorceress of Illusions: the evil beauty who surrenders her body, but not her heart.
HER DOWNFALL...
Rydstrom Woede: the ruthless warrior who vows to keep her at all costs.
THEY WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO WANT EACH OTHER THIS MUCH...
With each smoldering encounter, their shared hunger only increases. If they can defeat the sinister enemy that stands between them, will Sabine make the ultimate sacrifice for her demon? Or will the proud king lay down his crown and arms to save his sorceress?

I have to say, I was a bit disappointed in this book. The whole Rydstrom FINALLY getting throne and kingdom back, I totally thought it would be a lot more climactic than it actually was. I do have to say, I love Sabine's character, she is pretty kick ass. I still love Nix above all else, and she makes a great reference to Gena Showalter's "Lord of the Underworld" series. I would die if they did a book together with them, that would be amazing. I also liked that Cade and his brother made up, that definitely made me happy, especially after everything Cade went through to help get his brother's kingdom back. Not the best in the series, but still not too bad...but not the last in the series either.

Also posted: http://www.bibliophilicbookblog.com/2009/10/book-review-kiss-of-demon-king-by.html

Great book. Loved the story between Ryodan and Sabine.

Let me start off by saying that Kiss of a Demon King is closely tied to another book in the series, Dark Desires After Dusk. To read this book you don't need to have followed the whole series, but I strongly recommend reading the book that I just mentioned. It is the story of Cade, Rydstrom's brother, and has a few scenes that are a duplicate of those in this story. Also, they basically follow the same time line and involve most of the same people.

Sabine, Queen of Illusions, is half-sister to Omort the Deathless. She's in a pretty messy situation. She and her sister, Lanthe, have been stuck with Omort because of the poison he has that they need to live. Omort is not her favorite person, and he's creeping her out with his incestuous lusting. She's determined to get her sister and her out from under Omort's thumb. She believes she has the perfect opportunity in Rydstrom. Omort knows of a prophecy that tells of Sabine being Rydstrom's mate. The child they produce together will unlock the secrets of the Well of Souls. He plans to have Sabine capture him and get herself pregnant. Sabine, being the ruthless individual she is, is totally ok with this plan. She knows that this is her perfect chance to take control. If she has a child she can unlock the Well of Souls for her own use. Better a queen of Rothkalina rather than a king anyway, right?

For Rydstrom's part he's determined to kill Omort and regain his crown. He believes he's finally answered the question of how to kill someone who is deathless. He starts his brother, Cade, on the search for the Vessel and plans to meet up with him. Unfortunately he gets caught in one of Sabine's illusions and becomes trapped in his own castle's dungeon. He's none to pleased about that and is incredulous over Sabine's plan. Unfortunately for her, even if she got pregnant the child wouldn't be recognized unless they were married first. While Sabine is plotting them getting married and getting pregnant, Rydstrom is plotting on how to get free and enact his own revenge against her.

I know that many people found Sabine unlikable, but I didn't. I was impressed with her `look out for number one' attitude. She's died again and again throughout her life. I'd think she was a fool if she wasn't always plotting about how to turn a situation to her advantage. I loved that she was able to move beyond the fact that her group, the Sorceri, weren't very strong compared to the rest of the Lore. I really liked the fact that she stayed basically the same character throughout the book. As she and Rydstrom got closer they had to adapt and be willing to bend with each other, but never did either of them break some supposed `bad' trait in each other. Very refreshing.

Rydstrom was less of a favorite character for me. However, I think it's because I sympathized with Cade more in the last book and thought his brother was a butthead. I guess I never really got over that. I liked that I got to see his point of view on the reasons that Cade got sent away. The reminiscing over little Cade made me have an `awwwww' moment for Rydstrom. I actually liked that Rydstrom was such a stick in the mud in the beginning. I think he and Sabine really complimented each other. I love that Cole did not make Rydstrom a martyr. I loved the insight into how he sometimes felt the burden of his people and all their expectations. I thought that was very realistic.

I guess my major dislike about the book was the ending. All that buildup through various books and the fight for Rothkalina is over? Hmmmm... Very unsatisfying. I thought I'd get more than a page of the fight. I had to re-read to make sure I hadn't skipped something. Very anticlimactic. Also, all this time was devoted to Rydstrom's kinky fantasies and there seemed to be no follow through. There was one spanking scene but that was it. I wondered why the kinkiness was brought up so often if nothing was going to be done with it.

One thing I really loved: A reason for being a virgin that makes sense. Finally! Also, someone who admits to being a virgin in only the technical sense. I thought that was more realistic than most virgins (or near virgins) who hated anything to do with sex because of one bad experience.

I'm also so glad that the titles have stopped being so similar. I was getting really confused!

cute book. Quick easy read.

While I enjoyed this book, it was my least favorite of the "Immortals after Dark" series. That said, I still give it a 4 star rating.

1st one i've read! loved the writer!

I really enjoyed this; I read it all at once. But I think that it wasn't quite as good as the others in the series...but I do really like the ending!

I really liked the other books in this series but just couldn't get into this one. The heroine is beyond boring and I just didn't give a rat's ass how it was going to end. I think I made it to page 100 before I gave up on it. Hopefully the next in the series will return to the previous writing style and be worth the $7.99 price.

It was a good book but could have been better. It kept to the Immortals story line, but I just couldn't quite get into it like the others.

I liked this book but not as much as some of the others in this series. I loved Dark Desires After Dusk (Cade/Holly) so much that I dove right into this one and it just wasn't as good. What can I say, I'd pick Cade over Rydstrom any day.

two words...LOVE IT. Almost wish I had my own demon king...lol

another great one by cole

This book fills in the blanks from Immortals, Bk5. What a talented writer, Ms Cole is! Parts of the book parallel "Dark Desires," while other parts show glimpses of the rage demon history.

It starts out quite steamy with very little story but ends up filling the story in midway through and ends with a bang! I found it difficult to put down, wanting to find out more about Rydstrom and Sabine. (And realizing that Omort is just plain creepy! The ultimate bad guy. {shudder})

It is a true triumph of good over evil and the heart ruling the head. I laughed out loud, found my heart racing in parts and would find myself stealing moments out of reality to sit down and read it! And well, Ms. Cole's talent for eroticism is outstanding: not too graphic or violent, just intriguing enough. All of the Immortals, like most romance novels, have a happy ending but this was the best ending of the series.

Hope you enjoy it as I did!

Ooh la la! This book was smoking hot. I loved the interaction between the two. Another Kresley Cole hit!

Another great installment in one of my favorite paranormal romance series that has a great paranormal world but still focuses on the romance of a different couple in each book. This is Rydstrom's story. It took me a while to warm up to Sabine, his heroine, but once I did, I thought she was a great character and I appreciate that she wasn't expected to change who she was for the sake of her relationship. This could be read as a stand alone, but the series is better read in order. I will be looking forward to more from this author.

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