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Kiss of a Demon King

Kresley Cole

Published 2009         417 pages

Summary (from the book jacket)

His obsession…
Sabine, Sorceress of Illusions: the evil beauty who surrenders her body, but not her heart.

Her downfall...
Rydstrom Woede: the ruthless warrior who vows to keep her at all costs.

They were never supposed to want each other this much…
With each smoldering encounter, their shared hunger only increases. If they can defeat the sinister enemy that stands between them, will Sabine make the ultimate sacrifice for her demon? Or will the proud king lay down his crown and arms to save his sorceress?

The Review

Kiss of a Demon King is the sixth full-length novel in Kresley Cole’s hugely popular Immortals After Dark paranormal romance series. Each novel in this series is a stand alone romance, so strictly speaking you don’t have to read these books in order, but with a cross over of characters and a story arc that loosely encompasses the whole series new readers might want to seek out earlier the earlier books rather than starting here.

Certainly it’s no hardship to read the previous books in this series - not only are they all rather good but like eating chocolates or cookies it’s nearly impossible to read just one of them without wanting more. And Kiss of a Demon King is no different to the others in this respect.

Readers who are already familiar with this series will be aware that the opening events of Kiss of a Demon King, namely the kidnapping of the deposed demon king Rydstrom by his archenemy the sorceress Sabine, already happened within the plot of Dark Desires After Dusk, the previous novel in this series.  Since then readers have been left pondering the fate of Rydstrom at the hands of the evil Sabine.

Male demons have one fated mate and if they never mate with this one special female they are unable to ever sire children.  Rydstrom has been waiting for his mate for 1500 years, but during that time he has never forgotten his duty to free his kingdom from the rule of Sabine’s evil brother Omort or his responsibility to free his enslaved subjects.  He has many preconceived notions about what his mate will be like when he finally finds her, mistakenly imagining that she will be a virtuous and noble female.

Instead, Rydstrom’s fated mate turns out to be an evil sorceress – vain, selfish and wicked – and worse, the sister of the man who stole his kingdom.  The realization that Sabine is his mate happens in the early pages of this story – at about the same time that she kidnaps him, locks him in a dungeon and chains him to the bed, determined to make him mate with her so that she can get pregnant with his heir.  The romance plot of Kiss of a Demon King is not so much about Rydstrom finding his mate, as it is about the battle of wills that results between Rydstrom and Sabine from their first meeting.

Sabine is determined to follow through her evil plan to its conclusion - she plans to make Rydstrom so desperate to mate with her that he will agree to anything she wishes. Rydstrom is determined to turn the tables on Sabine and make her beg for him, in order to have his revenge.  The game of wits that ensues, played out across a landscape of desperate need and desire, is the stuff that great romance novels are made of.

The plot-line and pacing of Kiss of a Demon King rockets the story along at a frantic pace and a one-sitting reading is not an unlikely possibility since this book is just so damn readable.  Character and relationship development aren’t neglected either, making Sabine and Rydstrom’s complex relationship a pleasure to unravel.

Kiss of a Demon King has all the right ingredients to delight paranormal romance fans. After all, with loveable demons, likeable evil sorceresses, humorous soothsayers, hot romance, and the occasional vampire thrown in for good measure – what’s not to like?

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