Another great Lara Adrian villain

Great Moments from last night's reading
Book: Midnight Rising
Author: Lara Adrian
Spoiler level: medium-high

I think Lara Adrian needs to get way more credit for these villains she creates and their mad and horrible plans.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the Midnight Breed romance storylines totally deliver. The romance storylines are the heart of the series, and there seems to be some girl gene in me that makes me revel in the progress of the relationships, even though I more or less know how they will unfold. But I was really astonished at this son of Dragos and what he is up to in Midnight Rising.

For starters, he is holding the Ancient. The Ancient is one of the dangerous alien vampire progenitors who used to roam the earth; he was kept in a hibernation vault for centuries, but son of Dragos nabbed him and woke him up and now he has the Ancient in a cell full of all kinds of creative and horrible restraints. The Ancient:

Many thousands of years old, he was more powerful than an army of humans, even kept as he was currently in a managed state of near starvation. The hunger weakened him, as intended, but it also pissed him off, and rage was always a factor when it came to controlling a powerful creature like the one lifting its hairless, glyph-riddled head within the cell.

And this:

The creature didn’t answer, just peeled its lips back and breathed in slowly, air hissing through the large, elongated fangs. He’d stopped speaking about a decade ago, whether from madness, anger or defeat, his keeper didn’t know. Nor did he particularly care.

Anyway, son of Dragos does all these cruel tests on the Ancient and also forces him to breed, which results in the death of a number of female breedmates—that part is awful and creepy—but I also sort of feel sorry for the Ancient. All the Order warriors are scared of the Ancient and want to kill him, but here we have a different monster holding the Ancient and really abusing him.

I don’t know what Lara Adrian is going to do with this storyline, but it’s an interesting counterpoint to this, Rio’s story.

Rio, as we know, was disfigured in an explosion, and also, part of his childhood was spent in a monstery state of wildness. So of all the Order, Rio has the most beast in him, and even refers to himself that way, like his love interest, Dylan, is a beauty and he is the beast.

I think I know what will happen with Rio and Dylan, and I am greatly looking forward to it, but what what what will happen with the Ancient? I am sure whatever Adrian does will be great. And I'm sure I'll find out tonight. Or maybe not!

Did you ever read a book where you feel a little bit sorry for the villain? 

Midnight Breed: Still Kicking Ass & Freaky thing #1

Here I am in Pewaukee, Wisconsin visiting my parents and sisters and nieces and nephew. In all the commotion, I am not making much progress on LOS, (not to mention getting a serious case of blog withdrawal!) but that's okay, because I am sort of backlogged and I wanted to talk about books I've already finished, and specifically, certain freaky things about Midnight Breed.

I finished Midnight Awakening last week - my predictions didn't come true, but  that's probably for the best. All in all, it was as thoroughly entertaining as the rest of the series.  

In a lot of MB books and others of that ilk, you have a sense of the hero rescuing or fulfilling the heroine in one way, and the heroine helps the hero in a different way. Like pieces of a puzzle - or a hungry bird and lonely bird feeder. But usually their attraction is more based on something animal/chemical. What I enjoyed here was the way Elise and Tegan rescued each other from the same sort of self-destructive vigilantism. I liked that they had that whole lost love/vengeance thing in common. Like that their attraction was based a little more on their characters.

I also enjoyed the part Elise played at the end. I hope the warriors will see from this that they can utilize Elise and the other females more often. I mean, those females have some pretty awesome superpowers. Best of all, I like Savannah's superpower of reading the history of an object and knowing about its owner. That would actually be a cool superpower for a writer to have, too, though not quite as cool a superpower as the power to not have a job.

Anyway, this being the third book I've read, there are a few recurring freaky things I wish to discuss, and all I have time to write about right now is freaky thing #1, but this one is the complexly freakiest anyway.

Entertainingly Freaky thing #1: The infantilization of the breedmate ladies as they suck the warriors blood.

Something about the whole feeding-off-the-warrior thing kept on striking me as a very strange and odd, and I remembered the feeling from previous books. 

Of course I was having too much fun reading to stop and think about it, but finally, then, I did. At first I thought it was just the use of the word mewling to describe the sound the women make. Mewling, if you look it up, is to cry weakly, as a baby or young child, or whimper or wail. 

But part of the effect was also lines like this: "The pinch of her blunt little bite was an erotic pain that went through him like an arrow."  It's always about the blunt little teeth. 

It actually never occurred to me until now that that's what babies sort of have in common with vampires, that they feed off human bodies for food; and the way the breedmate women feed is more babyish than vampirish, though it's a little of both. And then you add in the sex part, and it's its own crazy deal. Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing here. I enjoy this weird and creative world building. It's just something I think about - briefly, while they are feeding off the warriors, the breedmates turn into these oddly infantilized creatures. Is it just me, or have other people noticed this? It will be interesting to see if this continues in Rio's story, which I have and can't wait to read. (After LOS!)

Okay! Next up, the other 4 freaky things.

Update on my Breed...er...Bird Feeder

No birds have visited my bird feeder yet. As my more clever readers will already have observed from the photo, I have put some string on the bottom of it, to entice them with nest construction materials. Still, they don’t come.

Those birds try to act so tough and emotionless, but they are fragile inside. And so weary of fighting! They have fought all the way up here from the south. Others have fought a punishing winter here in Minneapolis. They need to experience the healing goodness of a full bird feeder.

My bird feeder is the one thing that can save them, if only they would open their steely hearts!

I see birds visiting my neighbor’s bird feeder, which is empty, yet they try to feed from it. They don't understand: THAT FEEDER is so wrong for them, whereas my bird feeder is perfect for them, bursting with yummy goodness, yet it hangs lonely and forlorn.

If only they would cast aside their pride and fly over here to discover my bird feeder, they would able to gorge themselves, and they’ll see that they needed my bird feeder all along. And my bird feeder would be fulfilled, nourishing them from its own body.

Oh, God, will they ever be together??? The tension is killing me!

High hopes for my birdfeeder - and for Midnight Awakening !

Okay, I was working really hard this week, and feeling sort of downtrodden and sorry for myself, so yesterday after a totally unpleasant meeting with somebody who I felt was OVERLY CRITICAL toward me, I got a new bird feeder at Target. I have always wanted a bird feeder. I just got this cheap plastic one, I don’t know, I’m not sure what a good bird feeder is, so I thought I’d start with something modest.

Anyway, now I have it here, with some very yummy bird seeds, but I need a bracket of some sort. I am so excited to put it up, and I considered rigging it up with a hanger in this certain way, but what if it fell down while birds were on it, and the birds were injured? So I have to get to a hardware store. Except there is not one in my neighborhood so I need to wait for the car. I will update you on when I get it up! Maybe a photo of my first bird visitors!

Okay, I just started Midnight Awakening. In fact, I am so early in the book (page 58) I don’t have much to say, but I have formed some specific high hopes!

High hope number 1: I hope that Elise becomes part of the Order! She is already sort of like Linda Hamilton in Terminator Two. Maybe she won’t fight alongside them, but I would be so into it if she could be like the one who sniffs out the Rogues with her super psychic senses.

High hope number 2: In the meantime, I would like to see her and Tegan really be a Rogue and Minion killing team on their own. It says on the back of the book that an alliance will be forged and a vow made. Could it be them as a killing team? Maybe I have been working too hard but this is something I do want to see.

High hope number 3: Tegan is sort of on the fringes and anti-social. Usually these Breedmate women sort of soften and socialize their men. I would love to see Tegan and Elise remain on the fringes, though, and be the freaks everybody is sort of frightened of, like Tegan is now.

High hope number 4: It would be cool if Elise and Tegan could combine their powers to be a superpower. She can hear thoughts, he can hear emotions. What if together they could do something that was greater than the sum of their parts?

Even if my wishes don't come true, I am sure I will love this book from what I have heard from LesleyW and MaryKate and others. In fact, I am sure by page 100, something even better may be true.

Even more likely, by page 100 I'll just be totally focused on wishing Tegan and Elise would hurry up and have sex while sucking each other's blood and I won't care whether they are a killing team, but for now, my hopes are of a purer sort.

Final report: Kiss of Midnight kicks ass

Okay, Lara Adrian's series has officially now moved up to the BEST EVER series zone, taking its place alongside other fabulous favorites of mine.

Damn! All that time I was chucking books across the bathroom floor from the tub, and I had no idea this gem was in my TBR. It looked like just another vampire book! Now I see what everybody else was talking about.

Yes, sorry Sula, Kiss of Midnight has risen above even BDB in my mind. I feel closer to the psyche of the characters in this one. The world feels fuller. I can't believe I'm writing this post right now; I'm currently on a deadline for a brochure.

But can I be any more late to the game? I may as well have a blog about how great chocolate is. Hey you guys! Chocolate is amazing! Anyway, books two and three are currently out, and then I understand from MaryKate that Rio's story is next.

Hola.