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Kiss of Crimson

Lara Adrian

Published 2007        400 pages

Synopsis

Dante is a Breed warrior - a member of the Order, a select band of vampire warriors, charged with protecting both the human and vampire race from blood addicted Rogue vampires. 

Tess Culver is a veterinarian, working late at her struggling animal health clinic.  When Dante is seriously injured in a Rogue attack he ends up crawling into Tess’s clinic for shelter.  Tess’s first instinct is to help the wounded man that she has found - but her instinctive need to help is soon changed to terror when she finds out that the only thing he needs is her blood.

Unable to stop himself, Dante feeds from Tess.  When he regains his senses he is horrified to find that Tess bears the distinctive birthmark of a Breedmate (one of the rare human women compatible to his alien vampire DNA.)  By drinking from Tess, Dante has already completed half the bonding process and the last thing that Dante wants is a Breedmate - haunted by visions of his own death, he has no future to offer a Breedmate and he lives each day like it’s his last.

When youths from the protected Darkhaven vampire communities start to go missing, Dante is assigned to help find the missing young male vampires.  When the missing young vampires start to reappear, they are in the grip of a terrible bloodlust and have turned Rogue.  All the evidence points to a deadly new drug called Crimson being responsible for their rapid turn from Breed to Rogue.

As Dante investigates the Crimson he finds that Tess might be linked to the dangerous drug.  Unable to forget her since he first tasted her blood, Dante is not a man used to denying himself pleasure and getting closer to Tess will definitely be his pleasure.

The Review

Kiss of Crimson is the second book in Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed series and follows on from Kiss of Midnight.  This time Dante finds his Breedmate in the shape of veterinarian Tess Culver, as well as slaying plenty of Rogue vampires and stopping the spread of the deadly Crimson drug.

Like Kiss of Midnight, Kiss of Crimson is another fast paced page turner with plenty of exciting Rogue slaying action and heart stopping romance in just the right proportions.  The sensuality in the sex scenes is hot and again in just the right proportion for the story.  The characters are also well written, both multi-dimensional and complex - with additional new characters Elise and Chase providing an interesting sub-plot line.

The vampire mythology created by the author for this series - that the Breed are a separate living species originated from alien vampires cross bred with human women - works well and makes a welcome change from the majority of classic vampire mythology where the vampires are all (un)dead. 

Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed series is a most promising new paranormal romance series and I can guarantee that Kiss of Crimson, the second instalment in this series, is a novel that should satisfy even the most demanding paranormal romance reader. 

Highly recommended reading.  If you like your paranormal romance with an edge you should check out Kiss of Crimson - you won’t want to miss this!

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