Kresley Cole - Dark Needs at a Night’s Edge

Immortals After Dark:


Book 5:

Dark Needs at a Night’s Edge: Conrad Wroth and Néomi Laress

Conrad Worth is a fallen vampire and a Lore assassin who is riding that fine line to turning fully insane and is hunted daily by his many enemies. Conrad’s three brothers have been searching for him for 300 years and now he is ready to take them out for turning him into the one thing he was sworn to destroy. Néomi Laress was a prima ballerina in the 1920’s, who is brutally murdered and is now a ghost haunting her home called Elancourt.  Conrad’s brothers manage to find him and capture him determined to bring him back from the brink of insanity and to join them on the side of good.  The brothers bring Conrad to Elancourt to try to bring him back; Néomi is instantly intrigued when it appears that Conrad may have seen her in her ghostly form, which has never happened before. As Conrad comes in and out of his madness he is convinced that he is seeing things again but this time he can actually hear and smell the vision which has never happened before. As he starts recovering from his madness he realizes that the vision is really a beautiful ghost trapped at Elancourt with him and she seems to be the only thing that is able to focus him.

Conrad is an almost insane vampire done right! He is just the right amount of crazy to sanity ratio.  He is crazy enough to make you believe that he really is insane but sane enough to make you really believe that he can be brought back from the brink by Néomi.  Néomi acts like a focusing tool for Conrad and he is able to hold it together so that he can function and maybe truly be reformed. You also find that Conrad for all of his power and aggression is surprisingly vulnerable and it really makes him a real character for me of all the male heroes in the first 5 books so far Conrad is my favorite male at this point.

Néomi is a ghost trapped to the grounds of her house she cannot leave Elancourt and for the last 81 years she has been lonely as family after family comes and goes from her home. No one has been able to see or hear her until Conrad the crazy fallen vampire arrives. At first she sticks around his room to see if he can see her again but then as she finds out more about him she finds herself feeling more and more connected and attracted to him. Néomi’s loneliness and vulnerability is clear in this story, your heart breaks for Néomi and all the years she has spent wondering her estate with no one to talk to, so when she finds someone that she can communicate with you are thrilled for her. Now if only she wasn’t dead so she could get on with making a life with Conrad.

This truly is a book of opposites attracting!  Néomi is everything that is laughter and fun as a dancer from the roaring 20’s. Conrad is everything serious and cold and all he has known is war and killing.  You wonder if the tiny ballerina can tame the half crazy wild beast and if she even can will it be too late for them?

Rating:
5 moons out of 5