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Kiss of Midnight (The Midnight Breed, Book 1) |  | Author: Lara Adrian
Publisher: Dell
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $1.56
as of 11/23/2009 20:10 MST details
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Seller: comfycouchbooks
Rating:  172 reviews
Sales Rank: 4971
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0553589377
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780553589375
ASIN: 0553589377
Publication Date: May 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
He watches her from across the crowded dance club, a sensual black-haired stranger who stirs Gabrielle Maxwell’s deepest fantasies. But nothing about this night—or this man—is what it seems. For when Gabrielle witnesses a murder outside the club, reality shifts into something dark and deadly. In that shattering instant she is thrust into a realm she never knew existed—a realm where vampires stalk the shadows and a blood war is set to ignite.
Lucan Thorne despises the violence carried out by his lawless brethren. A vampire himself, Lucan is a Breed warrior, sworn to protect his kind—and the unwitting humans existing alongside them—from the mounting threat of the Rogues. Lucan cannot risk binding himself to a mortal woman, but when Gabrielle is targeted by his enemies, he has no choice but to bring her into the dark underworld he commands.
Here, in the arms of the Breed’s formidable leader, Gabrielle will confront an extraordinary destiny of danger, seduction, and the darkest pleasures of all. . . .
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 172
 Passably good, fairly entertaining. November 20, 2009
ricca (Philippines)
I'm sure other readers would have more flattering things to say about this new paranormal series (well, new for me anyway); but coming on the heels of The Black Dagger Brotherhood, The Dark-Hunters, and even the Dark Carpathians series, not to mention a few more other vampire-romance titles dizzyingly vying for space on bookshelves by up-and-coming authors and even from established ones who have succumbed to the popularity of the genre (like Medeiros, Dodd, and Sands), Lara Adrian's The Midnight Breed, in my opinion (for what it's worth), faces a veritable burden. And that is of needing to have something spectacularly jolting and provoking for it to steal the attention of an ever-widening audience who may already be over-saturated with this popular culture of vampire-slash-paranormal romance.
Frustratingly enough, even though the last BDB I have read was over a year ago (hence, should have dulled my memories of it), Adrian's Midnight Breed felt so much like it. And sad to say, not *really* in a good way.
Frankly, it felt a little bit like a pale version of Ward's.
From the techy-nerd Gideon (who acts a bit like Vishous), the brooding Tegan (who, surprise-surprise, felt and sounded a bit like Zsadist), to even the warrior-leader Lucan (who felt like...guess-who), the Breed Warriors might as well have been the next-door neighbors of the Black Dagger Brothers, regularly coming over to swap secrets of the trade...except that they (the former) come off less like a close-knit family and more like a small corporation with members just conscripted for the job. At its extreme...they sound a bit...uhm...well...boring. Just a tad, mind.
When I read over what I have been saying so far, it sounds so harsh and wholly unfair, I know. But I think that is precisely the pernicious nature of a reading audience--especially romance readers. We are a sensitive, even fickle, lot. And for authors to earn (and keep) our adulation, they have to continually, aggressively feed our need for fascination and novelty.
Adrian's series somewhat fails me on that score. The plot of a band of vampires rounding off their kind who have become renegade, as well as humans who have been brain-washed by the latter is not terribly original. Dress it up in as many other nouns as you could--"rogue," "fallen," "daimons," "lessers," etc.--unless the storyline jumps out at you in a fresh way, these characters would ultimately run the risk of sounding just like any other personas from other books.
Certainly, however, this series does not deserve to be unconditionally written-off. I can personally vouch it to be better than other vampire novels which have lame plotlines and ridiculously over-the-top premises (you can understand if I'd rather not name them--I'm doing enough damage to this one author, I think). In fact, what could be a different ingredient in this series, and may even be lauded by those who wish to have the "formula" twisted, is that the male protagonists are not "heroes" or "protectors" of the human race.
There. Stew on that =)
Anyway, if you are really seeking a large dose of knee-weakening, envy-inducing romantic shenanigans, this book could probably be relegated to the lower rungs of one's "to-buy/read" books.
Read it for entertainment but not much more. It's not a regrettable I-wish-to-god-I-never-picked-this-book-up kind of story, but neither does it make you overly drool, pant, hanker, and itch to grab the next installment...which I've experienced before.
Oh, shoot. Too much info? *runs off in shame*
 Great Series November 13, 2009
C. E. Harris (Santa Rosa, Ca United States)
This series is fantastic. I would compare it to JR Ward BDB series, or Lords of the Underworld. It each book is easy to follow and is engaging. Yet when you look at the series as a whole, the story line is complex, and the character development is great. It is entertaining and hard to put down. The romance is always a good...and you truely love the characters in this series.
Sultry page turner November 3, 2009
Timothy J. Heflin (Littleton, Co USA)
Not only did this book have suspense and great characters, the romance was arousing to say the least.
A second reading makes for a better review, looking for improved writing skills. October 31, 2009
Born in a Library (California)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Kiss of Midnight was one of the first vampire books I read a year ago when I started reading paranormal romances. I was instantly drawn into the intense world of the Breed Warriors who pledged for thousands of years to protect humans from the bloody massacres and victimization of Rogue vampires who have become addicted to human blood. The original Breed came from outer space and landed eons ago to earth and found human beings to be easy and delicious prey. A select group realized that some of their kind had fallen victim to BLOODLUST that meant endless hunting, killing and deadly blood draining of human beings. Lucan the hero of the story leads an impressive group of Breed Warriors who protect humans from Rogue vampires. Lucan Thorne is the oldest of the group and he is the leader. He is the vampire of every romance readers dreams. 100% alpha male. One night he is on the prowl for a group of Rogues who are at a nightclub hunting for people to murder and drain. He is unexpectedly "helped" by Gabrielle Maxwell, a beautiful photographer who follows the group of Rogues and photographs them as they are viciously murdering a young man.
Thorne is drawn to Gabrielle and lies to her that he is a detective following up on her "unbelievable" report that she witnessed a group mugging and murder outside the nightclub. Although Thorne has never been bonded or fallen in love with any female, he is mysteriously drawn to Gabrielle. He finds out that years ago he had stopped the murder of Gabrielle's mother by a Rogue Warrior and saved Gabby's mother's and her lives. Gabrielle had only been a babe in arms when she was taken away from her maddened mother. Unfortunately, the blood drawn from Gabby's mother and the terror she endured, drove her insane and she died. Gabrielle was placed in a series of foster homes, where she grew up to be a beautiful, independent photographer, only starting to get recognition for her moody pictures of urban decay.
Lucan continues to see Gabrielle and sees on her neck a unique mark that she is a BreedMate. Lucan does not want to be mated with a Breedmate and he leaves her. A breedmate is a special woman who is destined by her mark to love and be bonded for eternity with a member of the Breed.
Suffice it to say, the entire book builds up to the exciting climax of the Breed warriors destroying a huge nest of Rogues in the rapidly accelerating WAR between Breed Warriors and Rogue vampires. In the mean time, Lucan after 1000's of years of solitude, bonds with the brave, lovely and in love with Lucan Gabrielle. Much exciting sex in enjoyed by the two and the book ends with a hint of bigger battles to be fought between the Breed warriors and the evil Rogue vampires.
The second read reinforces my earlier opinion that Lara Adrian has added to the fun and mystique of the whole paranormal vampire genre. She writes interesting characters and keeps a brisk pace of action and romance. I could not give this the 5 stars that I did for Halfwav to the Grave by Jeannine Frost or the books of Kresley Cole is because some of the writing and most of the dialog was really done poorly, like a bad soap opera. The way she described the battle scenes sounded like a teenage boy would talk. "Two Rogues bit it in the first seconds of the engagement." "Tegan let a dagger fly and nailed one in the throat." The characters are great, the universe created in fun and intricate, the love story engaging, the sex sizzling, but the action descriptions were written poorly. Hopefully with the success of this series, Adrian's writing improves and I look forward to read more about Lucan, Tegan, Dante, Gideon and the rest of the Breed Warriors.
Not worth the hip October 26, 2009
Kristen M. Lewis (Dallas, GA USA)
About a year ago I got into reading books about vampires. After reading all the high reviews for this book I thought I would give it a try. Unfortunatley it didn't meet the hip.
The whole vampires came from aliens thing REALLY lost me. And the story line isn't anything special. I did end up finishing the book, because I just kept hoping it would get better. But alias it did not.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 172
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