Kresley Cole - Dreams of a Dark Warrior

Immortals after Dark Series:

Book 11:

Dreams of a Dark Warrior: Declan Chase a.k.a. Aidan the Fierce and Regin the Radiant

Summary:

Declan watched his entire family massacred by immortals and then was taken captive to have his flesh dined upon and his blood consumed.  Declan hates immortals with a fierce loathing and has manifested itself into an obsession.  He has made it his life’s work to exterminate all immortals.  When the “Order” (a mortal organization that captures, experiments on and kills immortals) rescues Declan he immediately joins the group and for the next 20 years is merciless in his destruction of immortals... until... Regin has always been the fun loving prankster of the Valkyrie, as well as one of the most feared immortals of the Lore.  At the young age of 12 Regin meets Aiden the Fierce when she needs help finding her half sister Lucia whom she fears is in mortal danger. Aiden is the fiercest Berserker in the history of the Berserkers, Aiden recognizes the proud young Regin as “his” from the moment they met. Knowing her tender years he tells Regin that he will wait until she is grown before claiming her as his, which is the wrong thing to say to Regin. Regin is not about to belong to anyone so she leaves Aiden to set out on her own. Years later Regin is about to go through her change into immortality and seeks out Aiden, as he said she would do to help her through some of the “side effects” of the change. When Aiden is killed in Regins arms by a Vampire he vows that he will find a way to return to her; and he does 4 other times throughout history as reincarnations of himself. However, he is cursed each time “Aiden” remembers his former self his is violently killed with Regin as witness within hours.  Declan is a reincarnation of Aiden the Fierce and has no idea of his former self.

Declan/Aiden:

As a kid Declan always knew there was something different about himself. It was like he had a beast within himself trying to get out and nothing seemed to ease the restlessness. He turned to drugs at a young age in attempt to curb the feelings with not much success.  Even his attempts with woman made him feel sick and empty. When he returns home, he finds his entire family dead and himself taken captive. Declan soon realizes that his family were the lucky ones, for days the immortals peeled flesh from his torso and arms eating his skin and drinking his blood, he begged to die, death would have been preferable to the torture he endured.  Immediately following his rescue Declan cleans up and joins the “Order”.  When he captures Regin the Radiant it should have been just another routine capture but his entire being recognizes her as.. what???  While Regin is in captivity over and over he found himself watching her with confusion, recognition and desire, and then she tells him that he is her dead lover reincarnated. If he was to believe that it would rock his entire belief system to the core there is no way he could be one of them, as a Berserker. Yet, it would explain so much....

Regin:

Over and over Aiden has been returned to her only to die within hours of remembering everything about his past lives. For 1000 years Regin has remained faithful to her proud Berserker, only to lose him all too soon. As soon as Regin sees Declan she recognizes him as her Aiden reincarnated but what she can’t believe is how he turned out. None of the past Aiden’s have been able to inflict her with pain, yet this A-Hole has tortured her! Regin’s heart aches for her man but soon realizes that he must die if she is going to get herself and her friends out of this facility alive. Now all she has to do is seduce him and get him to remember. But in seducing him she finds herself seduced, can she bring an end to this proud warrior to save herself, to save her friends....

Review:

As usual Kresley Cole DELIVERS! This book is fantastic! I could not put it down, I was sitting there at work trying to work and read at the same time (let me tell you it didnt go so well) and I wished I could tell my customers to leave me alone so I could read. LOL! Since that didn’t go so well I was up until 4 am finishing the book.  Declan and Regin are portrayed to perfection. I found myself tearing up in places, which is an ultimate compliment to an author. You really feel for Regin and Declan and root for them, hoping they can bridge the whole Aiden torturing Regin “misunderstanding”.  You will see another side to Regin, you see a vulnerable side to her that you have not seen in any of the other books leading up to this one. (Regin has been a regular in previous books in this series.) She has always been so confident and dare I say obnoxious but in a fun, reminds you of your favorite younger sister sort of way. Declan is heartbreaking, the way he hides his internal and external scars, never even allowing himself a friend in his stark existence.


Lothaire Enemy of Old plays a fairly large role in this novel, which is going to set up the next book which K. Cole has already announced will be her next novel. Many new Lore beings are introduced in this book as new alliances are made in the confines of their cells. Also, as with previous novels this one is part of a series but if you haven’t read any of the previous books that is ok, you could pick this one up without having previously read any of the rest of the series. It can stand on its own, but I would suggest at least reading the book prior to this one Demon from the Dark, it will fill in a few gaps here and there. Kresley Cole just gets better and better with each book she puts out. I for one cannot wait until the next one.

Rating:

5 moons out of 5