Saturday, September 14, 2013

Deeper Than Midnight (Midnight Breed #9 - Hunter and Corrine) by Lara Adrian

After reading most of the series one-after-the-other I made a small break reading sweet novellas that mostly has nothing supernatural about them. 

When I was looking at my "schedule" and saw that the next one "should" be book 9 in the Midnight Breed - a book about Hunter which should be VERY interesting I kind of sighed. I wasn't sure I was "ready" to return to the series for some un-known reason.
So I just opened the book and started reading. first page - bam! action pack of Chase and Hunter. from there it was obvious I won't put this book down...


This book actually had 3 plots. 

The obvious one is of Hunter and Corrine which I absolutely loved. Everything about the way they fell for each other, how they reviled their past to one another (not mentioning here Hunter's gift which is extraordinary and in my eyes fitting his character). Hunter realizes he saw Corrine in one of Mira's visions, he realizes he is going to disappoint her (more like break her apart) and he is struggling with this prospect as he is slowly but surely falls in love with Corrine. Corrine on the other hand find it hard to trust anyone after 70+ years of torture in Dragos's captive. She finds it hard telling Hunter her true objective. the ending of this story-line is phenomenal! 

Plot number two refers to what happens in the compound while Hunter and Corrine are away (he is signed to taking her home to her family). We know that Dragos is going to hurt the Order in some definite way. So we are witnessing then trying to assess what the treat is going to be and how to deal with it. Lucan has realized in the last couple of books that this is not the warrior compound it used to be.. the are a big family know, with their women, Tess soon to be born baby, Mira and Kellan Archer (who was brought there with his grandfather after what happened to their family in the ending of the previous book). This way the un-known treat seems more deadly.. 

Plot number three is actually 2 plots but I'll write it down together never the less. we are learning a little of Dragos sick plans mostly with nothing to do with the Order (that is sort of a surprise most of the book). We have sick glimpses to his brain which I hate whenever they appear in the books. It's not that they are written badly or that they are boring is that he is SO disgusting! mingled somehow into this plot we have Chase - the next book objective. which is suffering for how long now? book 3 (Tegan and Elise)? He is definitely on his way down. He struggles with the bloodlust when he sees and objective he wished to pursue (mainly when it is something to do with Dragos that's why I'm adding their parts together). rest of the time he's just being his usual annoying asshole.. I'll be reading Danika's novella before his book which is a good thing because during all these books I don't know what I feel for Chase. Mostly he annoys me and I feel alienated from his storyline. He fucks up literally everything. He is by far the most fucked up character. Oh well, we'll see how this one plays out..

Final words - Loved this novel! don't know why I haven't being reading this the second I finished the 8th one. though maybe a break lets me appreciate the series even more ;)





Additional Details: Kindle Ebook, 387 pages, 12-14 September 2013 / On GoodReads
 
 
ABOUT THE MCs
 
Hunter
Gen One Breed, Order member. Born August 8, 1956, Hunter was conceived and raised in a covert laboratory environment under the control of Dragos. Given no name at birth, like the rest of his lab-bred assassin brothers, this lethal Breed male answers to the name of the role he was created to fill: Hunter. After his rearing in Dragos’s labs, Hunter’s home base was a meager farmhouse in Vermont, where he lived in an unfurnished, bare-floored cellar, tended by a Minion handler assigned to him since birth. Like all others raised to be Dragos’s personal army of assassins, Hunter had been fitted from childhood with a black electronic collar that contained an ultraviolet light source. This UV collar, if tampered with or triggered remotely by Dragos, would detonate and kill him instantly. Hunter has a special affection for Mira, who, as a child, unwittingly prevented him from carrying out one of his assassination missions (Sergei Yakut) when he looked into the young seer’s gaze and saw the girl would one day spare his life. She made good on that vision later, during the timeline of Veil of Midnight, and because of her, Hunter joined the Order’s fight against Dragos. Hunter was a virgin until he met and became involved with Corinne Bishop while charged with escorting her to her family’s Darkhaven in Detroit. Hunter and Corinne are now parents to her son, Nathan, also a Gen One trained assassin.
Hair: close-shorn, brownish blond  Eyes: golden, hawk-like
Unique ability: blood-reader (Breed and Breedmates only, does not work on humans).

Corinne Bishop
Born the summer of 1917, Corinne had been abandoned at the back door of a Detroit hospital just hours after her birth. Adopted by a prominent Breed family, the Bishops, the infant Breedmate was raised in a life of luxury until her eighteenth birthday, when she went missing while out at a jazz club. Corinne was abducted while under the watch of one of her family’s Darkhaven security detail (Brock) and was eventually presumed dead, a lie perpetuated by the actions of her Darkhaven father, Victor Bishop. After seventy-five years of imprisonment in Dragos’s breeding labs, Corinne is rescued by the Order, along with several other captured Breedmates. It is discovered that she and the others were part of genetic and reproductive experiments, where Corinne gave birth to a son thirteen years ago, a boy she named Nathan. Her quest to find him, and to stop the villain responsible for her suffering, brings Corinne into the middle of the Order’s war against their enemy—and into the arms of one of the most lethal members of the Order, the Gen One former assassin called Hunter. Corinne loves jazz music, particularly Bessie Smith.
Hair: long, sleek ebony Eyes: almond shaped, greenish-blue
Breedmate mark: back of her right hand Bloodscent: bergamot and violets.
Unique ability: Sonokinesis.
 
ABOUT THIS SERIES
 
Midnight Breed by Lara Adrian is one of my absolute favorite Paranormal Romance Series. Like many of the series in this genre, we have a group of vampire warriors who are in charge of defending their race. 

The Order mainly protect the general population (vampire AND humans) from rouge vampires. Vampires whose crave for blood have reached a point of no return meaning they can no longer control themselves and since there is nothing to be done about this situation these rouges vampires have to be put down. Besides obvious risk to the human population, rouges / rabid vampires also are a treat in the sense that vampires live in secret groups (called Darkhavens) there they can live their separate lives without probing human eyes. Naturally they are a part of the general population but the way they live, in a sort of community, helps them maintain their traditions and way of living. 


In the recent years, the Order became infamous. There is no respect for the members of the Order and moreover they are treated like "barbarians", the vampire population doesn't believe that they are even needed but boy oh boy they are wrong.. dark days are ahead.. 


In the beginning, years and years ago, a group of highly strong vampires crushed on Earth. They are the base of the vampire population nowadays. As is seems there are no female vampires, only males. The females that can reproduce with vampires are called "breedmates" and they can be distinguished by a certain mark (crescent moon with a drop) that each breedmate has somewhere on her body. Each breedmate also has a special (inhuman) ability which she transfers to her vampire son. Thus every vampire has a special ability passed to him from his human mother. Breedmates need to drink blood in order to enhance their special ability and sometimes so they can control it and it won't take over her life.  It takes time until the ancestry of the breedmates is explained, it adds another layer to the story and brings the Order with another adversary they weren't expecting. 


Each book has it's separate story in which each warrior finds himself a breedmate / compatible mate. As you can guess, the Order isn't notorious for no reason.. most of the warriors are somehow "damaged", preferring to live a life in the Order rather than build a life of their own. Finding their mate makes them deal with their past and free themselves from its bindings. Beside the personal plot line there is also a bigger plot line about the main villain progressing from the first book until the 10th. From the 11th book (till the final 18th installment) there is a very significant change following a progression in 20 years changing the whole setting of the series with different villains as well as introducing new characters to the series - some the sons and daughters from the first 10 installments and of course we get to meet the older version of the parents as well. 


The main issue I had with the series in the beginning was the similarities between it and the general setting of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward. It only feels this way at the first, it takes a TOTALLY different direction plot-wise and character-wise which after reading enough of the two series I gotta say I MUCH prefer this one (I actually abandoned that one a while back..). 


HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!

When the whiffs of the end of this beloved series started to get suffocating Lara announced a Spin-Off called "Hunter Legacy". The series will consist of stand-alone novels of the "Last Boys" - the Gen One Hunters who were bred as weapons of war by Dragos and were freed by The Order round the middle of the series. 

Books:
0.5 A Touch of Midnight [Gideon & Savannah] (published 15 July 2013) ★★★★★
1. Kiss of Midnight [Lucan & Gabrielle] (published 1 May 2007) ★★★★
2. Kiss of Crimson [Dante & Tess] (published 29 May 2007) ★★★★★
3. Midnight Awakening [Tegan & Elise] (published 27 November 2007) ★★★★★
4. Midnight Rising [Rio & Dylan] (published 25 March 2008) ★★★★★
5. Veil of Midnight [Niko & Renata] (published 30 December 2008) ★★★★ 
6. Ashes of Midnight [Andreas Reichen & Claire] (published 26 May 2009) ★★★★★

7. Shades of Midnight [Cade & Alex] (published 29 December 2009) ★★★★  
8. Taken By Midnight [Brock & Jenna] (published 28 September 2010) ★★★★★
9. Deeper than Midnight [Hunter & Corrine] (published 28 June 2011) ★★★★★
9.5 A Taste of Midnight [Danika & Malcolm] (published 5 December 2011) ★★★★★
10. Darker after Midnight [Chase & Tavia] (published 24 January 2012) ★★★½ 
 --- The Midnight Breed Series Companion (Volume #1) (published 26 June 2013) ★★★★★

 
11. Edge of Dawn [Mira & Kellan] (published 21 February 2013) ★★★★★
11.5. Marked By Midnight [Mathias Rowan & Nova] (published 30 June 2014) ★★★★

12. Crave the Night [Nathan & Jordana] (published 5 August 2014) ★★★★★
12.5. Tempted by Midnight [Lazaro & Melena] (1001 Dark Nights #10) (published 14 October 2014) ★★★★★
13. Bound to Darkness [Carys & Rune] (published 30 July 2015) ★★★★
13.5 Stroke of Midnight [Jehan & Seraphina] (1001 Dark Nights #26) (published 13 October 2015) ★★★★★
14. Defy the Dawn [Zael & Brynne(published 1 June 2016) ★★★★★

14.5 Midnight Untamed [Ettore & Bella] (1001 Dark Nights #47) (published 11 October 2016) ★★★★
14.6 Midnight Unbound [Scythe & Chiara]
 (published 14 March 2017) ★★★★½
14.7 Midnight Unleashed [Trygg & Tamisia] (1001 Dark Nights #69) (published 10 October 2017) ★★★½ 
15. Claimed in Shadows [Aric Chase & Kaya Laurent] (published 23 January 2018) ★★★ 
16. Break the Day [Xander Raphael "Rafe" Malebranche & Devony Winters] (published 30 July 2019) ★★★★½ 
17. Fall of Night [Micah & Phaedra] (published 31 January 2021)) ★★★★½
18. King of Midnight [Darion Thorne & Selene the Atlantean Queen] (to be Published 31 March 2022)

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