| Title | : | Dark Needs at Nights Edge (Immortals After Dark, #4) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 141654707X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781416547075 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 368 |
| Publication | : | First published April 29, 2008 |
A RAVEN-HAIRED TEMPTRESS OF THE DARK...
Néomi Laress, a famous ballerina from a past century, became a phantom the night she was murdered. Imbued with otherworldly powers but invisible to the living, she haunts her beloved home, scaring away trespassers -- until she encounters a ruthless immortal even more terrifying than Néomi herself.
A VAMPIRE WARRIOR CONSUMED BY MADNESS...
To prevent him from harming others, Conrad Wroth's brothers imprison him in an abandoned manor. But there, a female only he can see seems determined to drive him further into madness. The exquisite creature torments him with desire, leaving his body racked with lust and his soul torn as he finds himself coveting her for his own.
HOW FAR WILL HE GO TO CLAIM HER?
Yet even if Conrad can win Néomi, evil still surrounds her. Once he returns to the brutality of his past to protect her, will he succumb to the dark needs seething inside him?
Dark Needs at Nights Edge (Immortals After Dark, #4) Reviews
-
Keeping with the same pattern of earlier books in the 'Immortals After Dark' series, this fifth book in the series tells the story of another "unblooded" male that meets his mate. This time around, the female is a ghost, Naomi, and the male vampire is Conrad, brother to earlier heroes in the series.
The fact that Naomi doesn't have an actual body for a large part of this story put a different spin on things. At times, I was wondering how in the world Ms. Cole would manage to pull off a love story when one of the main characters was little more than air. It certainly made the thought of "blooding" mind-boggling.
However, all my concerns were for nothing. These two characters came together beautifully. Like the earlier couples in this series, their chemistry was off the charts!
If you love a strong, high-handed, alpha-male hero and an equally tough and sassy heroine, this series doesn't disappoint! I'm hooked on this series. It's on to the next one for me. -
“People think happiness will simply fall into their laps. You have to aspire to it. And sometimes you have to seize it when it’s kicking and screaming.”
Dark Needs at Night's Edge surprised me so much that I didn't see what was coming when I thought that this book must be like the others. I fell in love with Néomi since the first scene, her life before she died was tragic and pitiful I feel the deep connection to her character immediately. Conrad is insane, he's brought to the haunted house by his brothers where people declare that there's a ghost.
“I’d planned to kill them, too.” When Néomi glared up at him, he raised his chained hands.
“Past tense. See? Already I’m improving.”
The real story begins when these two first met., so he doesn't know how to approac a woman. It was really fun to read those parts when Néomi teaches Conrad to flirt and he always ended up frustrated. The male has no idea about what has happened between them about an incident occurs and changes it all.
“Dreams can change.”
I loved the author. Kresley Cole brought the main characters together and there's a lot of chemistry there. I swooned over when However, the ending literally broke my heart, yet I liked this sweet disaster and how beautiful it is.
https://goo.gl/bGqrAq -
5 + stars
Dark Needs at Night's Edge was an absolutely fantastic read! I loved everything about this book. In fact, it might just be my favorite in the series thus far. I could go on and on about what I loved about this story, but I'm very anxious to start the next book in the series to find out what happens to Cade, the demon.
Suffice it to say, this book has everything I love in a paranormal AND in a romance book. It has a creative and compelling world, a fascinating cast of motley characters, an endearing and genuine couple, with one heck of an emotional romance. I not only fell in love with the hero, Conrad, and heroine, Néomi, personally, but I fell completely in love with their love story. The overwhelming yearning and desire the hero and heroine had for each other in this book was extremely palatable and written beautifully.
Conrad sums this book up perfectly when he said, "My Bride by fate, my wife by choice..."
Dark Needs at Night's Edge is another fantastic book in what is proving to be an outstanding series. -
Dark Needs at Night's Edge is a modern, more intensely paranormal version of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.
Rex Harrison: making ghosts sexy since 1947.
It is, to date, my absolute favourite book in this series. Not that it's really had that much competition.
So far it stands against an abductor, rapist, Sebastian/Kaderine who rock, and Bowen/Marie who don't.
Conrad, a bloodmad and vicious vampire, is captured by his three brothers and trapped in an old mansion to help recover his sanity. Néomi, a 1920's Prima Ballerina (and former Burlesque dancer) currently haunts said mansion as this was where she was violently murdered.
Burlesque, aye? I like her already!
Of course, the sexually confidant, lively and brazen ghost is the perfect partner for virginal, uptight and angry Conrad. Their seduction and romance is, for most of this novel, based on their attraction to each other and telling each other every little thing they would do if only they could touch.
Néomi absolutely made this novel for me. She was so confidant in her sexuality, so proud of her achievements, so full of life! Conrad's inability to be the typical alpha male with her was also just SO damn refreshing. He couldn't push her around, bully her or trap her. And when it came to wooing her, he couldn't just take her for a walk on the beach or start kissing her.
The creepy atmosphere created at the beginning of the novel, as well as the slow burn relationship build between Néomi and Conrad, separates this book from a genre which is all about waiting for the next titty grap or alpha male bullshit that is supposedly romantic.
This book would have absolutely gotten four stars from me if the ending weren't a little contrived toward HEA. The first 90% of this book was so well written, so romantic, so lovely that I was absolutely enchanted. Spoiled only in the last 10% by Cole bending over backwards to give us a "perfect" ending.
If you never pick up another Cole novel because you are afraid of the romance industry mainstays of the ultra masculine male and the stockholm syndrome suffering female, then at least feel confidant that with Dark Needs at Night's Edge, Cole did something nicely different. -
Conrad Wroth, Vampire & Naomi Laress, Phantom
I am not really a fan of Ghosts in paranormal books – mainly because ghosts have no substance. They are just thin air. Moreover, they are usually stuck in one place. They are not allowed to walk around anywhere else on the Earth. And finally, when there is a ghost, there is also his/her dead body rottening somewhere near. And this is not very appealing.
So, I thought that I wouldn’t like this story:
The story of a really sad ghost and of a crazy from bloodlust vampire. Two tortured creatures, born in different centuries, who were obviously ment to be together. But one could not soothe the other because the ghost was not flesh and blood.
When Conrad is chained at the Elancourt manor by the three other Wroth brothers in an attempt to cure him, he thinks that the beautiful woman that keeps visiting him at his bed is just a product of his imagination. He is obviously crazy and starved since his brother do not allow him to take blood from a vein to feed. He didn’t know that ghosts exist.
Néomi Laress used to be a famous ballerina full of spirit and life before her ex-fiancé stabbed her and brutally took her life. Now in her house for 80 years, she is just a lonely, miserable ghost until a beautiful, chained vampire (obviously crazy) starts talking to her. She didn’t know that vampires exist.
It will be really hard for these two lovers-to-be. They will struggle to accept that:
• Ghosts and Vampires are real
• Néomi is Conrad’s bride
• Conrad has to choose his bride instead of his revenge
• Néomi needs to be have a body to make Conrad’s heart beat again
The brothers will help, the witches will help, the valkyries will help.
And I just loved the end of the story and the way the author managed to make a ghost really likable and sexy. -
25th May 2020
I love it when a book stays fabulous, this book remains a gem and always ensures I finish reading with a smile.
October 30th 2018
So I'm going through a bit of a re-read phase and I'm glad I did with Dark Need at Night's Edge, which remains one of my favourite Kresley Cole books. Cole had me drawn in from the get go, loved the blend of paranormal here, the book gives us Conrad a vampire on the brink of madness and ghost Neomi - a feisty passionate ballerina only visible to Conrad (at least at the start). The chemistry and heat between the two ripples of the page and I found myself once again absorbed despite having read this before.
I also loved seeing more of Nix who I hope will get her own story soon, because in all the books Nix appears she rocks as a character!
This may be part of series but can be read as a standalone, although once you've read one the likelihood of reading another is high. -
"Dreams can change."
I loved this story! After the gruesome prologue there is non-stop action: the plot is thrilling, and so complex, that I don’t even dare to summarize it. Brilliant characterization, incredible sexual tension, and Cole’s hallmark humor make this book unputdownable.
Once both Néomi and Conrad were humans. Néomi became a ghost, Conrad changed to a vampire. Now both of them suffer from being what they are.
In his human life, Conrad was denied any happiness; his change to a vampire infuriated him, and he became a hitman. He went insane by drinking his victims to death because he attained not only their blood, but their horrible memories as well.
Now bloodthirst blurs his mind. He is hunted by his enemies, by hallucinations, by horrible memories of his own and his victims’. He desperately runs to his end. He is a man who definitely needs to be saved.
On the contrary, Néomi lived a full life; she was a celebrated ballerina. It is so touching that as a ghost she is still filled with exhilaration: she tries to brighten her colorless existence with stolen trinkets, and stolen moments. She is unimaginably lonely, still she has a positive attitude.
She is bantering, playful, and I love her delicate sense of humor.
Her abilities are remarkable even in this ghostly existence, but by the end of the story she becomes a very, very special being.
At the beginning of the story, Conrad’s insanity is represented by short, staccato sentences in simple present tense. This fragmented style perfectly pictures how unstable he is. At first, he is unable to make a distinction between reality and unreality. He doesn’t know whether Néomi is a delusion, a fractured memory, a hallucination, or a ghost.
Néomi is incorporeal, so Conrad is forced to behave reasonably and collected if he wants to keep her by his side. It helps him to defeat his insanity. He feels clearer, more focused in her presence. Conrad is intense, morose, feral, but also has a romantic, gentle side.
The sexual tension is incredible in this novel, since they are incapable of touching each other in the larger part of the story. They get to know each other by talking, teasing, and debating. Waiting and hope give an extra sensation to the story.
Conrad and Néomi’s story is a very original and peculiar installment of the Immortals After Dark series.
My favorite quotes. -
A vampire and a ghost falling in love.
This was precious and delightful.
I know I’m rating them 4 stars at the moment but emotionally, these books have been 5 star reads so far. This could possibly become one of my all time favourite series. It’s on the track for it, no doubt.
The joy, the happiness, the contentment.
(I might go back and change the ratings for some of them once I’m through with them all.) -
I had to place my faith in Ms. Cole that this premise of a ghost falling in love with a vampire would work. I just couldn't see how this would go well at all. My faith was rewarded. I loved this book. It starts out so beautiful and even gothic. Neomi Laress is brutally murdered by a spurned lover in her house that she has just bought at a grand party she is throwing to celebrate her retirement from the ballet. She is a beautiful dancer in the early 20th century who has decided to leave her current beau. He stabs her in the heart and kills her. I was like, "Wow." This book already managed to stand out from the previous books, just with the prologue.
Things only get better. We meet Conrad, the long-lost Wroth brother. In the first few books you always hear that there are four brothers alive still (or undead rather), but that Conrad ran off, angry that his brothers had turned him into a vampire. Finally we get to see him, and things aren't pretty. He has become a mercenary/assassin and a vampire killer. He kills by taking their blood, thus having given himself over to Bloodlust. He vows to kill his other brothers for what they have made him. Kill them and anyone they love.
But fortunately, Nikolai, Murdoch, and Sebastian have not given up on their brother. They manage to capture him and have decided to keep him imprisoned until the Bloodlust wears off. Well, they end up keeping him prisoner in the property owned by the deceased Neomi. Unbeknownst to them, her disembodied spirit is still in her beloved home.
Neomi has been alone for so long. There have been people who came and went from her home, leaving her alone again. But none have captivated her like Conrad. Despite his blood-red eyes and his insanity, Neomi is very attracted to the brawny and beautiful vampire. Conrad sees her, which is very unusual, since most of the people who have come through her house cannot.
Thus begins the seduction of Conrad by Neomi. Neomi is a sensualist, she loves beautiful men and their bodies. It's the worst sort of torture to be around a beautiful male like Conrad and not be able to touch him. Conrad is a virgin, never having loved or made love to a woman. He sees the beautiful ghost and believes she is part of his raving insanity. With each person he killed by draining them, he absorbed their memories. This drives a vampire insane. Since Conrad killed the worst of all kinds of demons and vampire, he is violently insane. But somehow the beautiful spirit manages to calm his raving madness. He falls for her very quickly, and determines to find a way for them to be together.
There are problems with this relationship from the start. He wants to feel the same intense desire for her that she feels for him, but because he is a vampire, he cannot feel desire until he is blooded. He feels in his heart that Neomi must be his bride. However, she's a spirit, so she cannot truly 'blood' him. And even if she could 'blood' him, since she's a ghost, they really couldn't get physical anyway.
This story really captivated me. I was so sucked into it, that I remember sitting at dinner trying to eat with one hand and reading the book held in the other. My mother was so curious about my fixation with the book, she ended up reading it herself.
I liked the way Ms. Cole turned the tables, making Conrad the innocent (sexually) virgin, and Neomi the seducer. I loved the glimpses into other aspects of the Immortals After Dark universe, the Lore, inhabited by all sorts of immortal creatures. Ms. Cole has a way of making these books laugh-out loud funny, but also intense and poignant. Conrad is the type of hero that gets under your skin and you feel for him. Although Neomi had some hardened aspects to her that I typically don't care for in a heroine, I ended up loving her as well. I loved her intense feelings for Conrad, almost from the start. They weren't just lust, but a sense of ownership like he was dear to her. I also appreciated her passion for life and culture, and how much she loved her home. She had a good heart and was kind to the good people who stopped through her home. So it was easier than I thought to come to like her as heroine. Even though Conrad was insane and technically a murderer (really just of bad creatures), I loved him from the start. Seeing his madness and his loneliness really opened my heart to him. Despite the outer wrappings, you could see a deep sort of innocence in him that was more than just sexual.
Even with the obvious issues in their relationship, Conrad and Neomi really came across as soulmates, and very early in this book. I really rooted for this unlikely couple to be together, and the way in which this comes to pass was very well done. I must say, my respect for Ms. Cole as an author went up another notch at how she brought Conrad and Neomi's happy ever after together.
Despite my misgivings when I first heard the storyline for this story, I came to love Dark Needs at Night's Edge with the same passion that I loved the prior stories (and possibly more). Conrad was a new favorite hero, at least until Cadeon and Rydstrom came around. -
I have to rate this another 5 star read by Kresley Cole. Even though the plot was a lot different than the other books in the series, I still found this one hard to put down. It just felt so unusual to me, but in a good way. Mad vampire assassin meets lonely, beautiful ballerina ghost and falls in love against all odds--I just wasn't expecting that! I loved how Conrad and Neomi 'connected' over their long talks while each was a prisoner inside Neomi's estate. Loved their little game of black jack and answer the question. Loved seeing Conrad's vampire brothers making return appearances. Loved the friendship between Mari and Neomi and Nix. Loved the flirting between the un-schooled Conrad and the more experienced Neomi--it was very sensual. And I especially loved when Conrad was finally 'blooded'--wow! The sex scenes in this book were probably the most erotic of the whole series so far! And Conrad was one romantic hero! I thought the ending was a little far out and at times confusing, but I decided to just go with it and enjoy it, and I did! I'm finding all the characters in this series just terribly sympathetic, and I want them all to have a HEA. Now I can't wait to read the demon Cade's story!
-
Spoilers
Another Great book in this awesome series.......
Naomi Laress is a beautiful French ex burlesque dancer turned ballerina murdered by her ex. Refusing to die she comes back as a ghost. She is very sensual and full of life always laughing and enjoying herself and finding happiness where ever she can She is also dedicated working hard when she wants something. Going for her dreams.
Conrad Wroth Had lost his mind turned into something he hated against his will a vampire. He became a assassin and because he had drained his kills he was driven to Bloodlust and madness. He is the bad boy that needs saving. Once the Madness clears he is a man of worth with all the yummy alpha male goodness
OMG I have a thing for the Wroth Brothers So sexy!!!!!!!!! Loved the book loved the ending. I enjoyed seening Bowen and Mari and Nix in this book a lot. They had some funny lines like:
“I suppose that now you’ll want to sleep with me.” Over Rydstrom’s sputtering, she added, “Alas, big guy—I am taken.” “No, you’re not,” Regin said. “Am too,” Nïx said. “Mike Rowe, the star of Dirty Jobs, is soon to realize I’m his beloved.” She sighed dreamily. “He even got his lawyers to contact me on the pretext of a”—she made air quotes— “‘restraining order.’”
“This is the first time I've really looked at my reflection in months." To the Lykae [Bowen], she said, "No wonder you love me. Could I be any cuter?”
“Damn, that werewolf melts my butter,” Mari sighed. “He’s so miserable,” she added delightedly.”
On to the next book :)
-
How the hell does Kresley Cole do it!?A mix of delivery between Awesome action, warm humor and a vigorous Love between a mad vampire-assassin and a ballerina of a ghost,Kresley Cole made a HuGe hit out of this one!Gahhhh How i have come to love "Dark Needs at Night's Edge" with its (sometimes) gothic sense,intensity,passion and raw needs that left you stumbling with excitement, i L.O.V.E everything about it.!Which showes that this book so far is my favourite in these series.!
A very unusual plot,but one i have come to love the most throughout the series it starts with the famous ballerina getting killed by her ex-fiance. Neomi Laress soul being so strong becomes a ghost, and she has since then become a prisoner in her own home in Elancourt. The bloodthirsty vampire Conrad Wroth gets captured and gets taken away by his brothers to Elancourt to help him heal his madness,and that where no one else can, he starts to see this beautiful woman who soothes his anger and gives him peace. He falls very soon in love with her, and the journey of love between these two,just how powerful it was is something i never could describe.!
Neomi Laress is a creature of sensuality who loves dancing,laughter,music and beauty.She is a seductress of her own class and damn well good at it.And i love it how she sees Conrad as "hers" calling him "her vampire" which he also loved,hihi.I could feel with her despair and loneliness being trapped as a ghost in the manor and not having anyone to talk to.Her care and feelings towards Conrad even in his terrible state made me adore her even more, and how she unselfishly grew to love him was a sight to see,as she had never before loved any man.Conrad Wroth are the brother we only heard of before (damn,i think he is my favourite) and WOW,what a badass he was!Being red-eyed he is the strongest of his brothers and having absorbed the memories of the vampires he have killed,he gets mad with the painful misery of it.Having been a assasin since a 13-year old kid,killing and surviving is the only thing he have known and was he notorious when it came to it!Ahhh but he is the most unusual Anti-hero of them all with his innocence that didn`t only lie in sexuality,and i so so so came to FALL FOR HIM!How he instantly comes to crave Neomis presence,and how he sulked when she didn`t appear,ADORABLE!She becomes the one and only woman he have ever loved,and how he claims her when she bloodies him,yum!How they connected during their prisonment in the manor,and how they utterly desired each other,their romance came out so strong that my heart nearly bursted with it.They are so beautiful together!And the angst that came out on the impossibility of touch between them made it all so more sensual,Neomi being the one seducing Conrad was so FREAKING HOT!Conrad worshiped the ground she walked on and would be ready to give up his life for her was BEAUTFUL!They are both beautiful together,and with their golden hearts i just whole-heartedly fell in love with them.I will never forget Conrad and Neomi,never,and they are my currently favourite couple right now in this series.My pounding heart!How i love this book,Kresley Cole has again changed my life for the better and i so look forward to read the next book in the series!
Raising his bound hands over her head, he again surrounded her with his body. “What if I wanted to do the seducing?” He would. He was so deliciously domineering.
“Why are you always caging me in?”
“Maybe I wouldn’t, if you weren’t always disappearing. You’re as tangible as air, and it’s so damned frustrating, koeri.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means lure.”
She blinked up at him. “Your endearment for me is a synonym for bait?”
“You’re luring me from madness.” Lowering his voice, he said, “The only thing that could possibly tempt me from it.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “Would you follow me anywhere?”
“Into the sun.”
-Conrad and Neomi -
*****4.0 This Series Rocks Stars*****
Conrad Wroth
The Vampire, Conrad Wroth, is a highly paid assassin. He kills other immortals by drinking their blood until he obtains their power and their memories. But all that killing and drinking has caused Conrad to become consumed with blood lust. And he can no longer distinguish his memories from those of his victims. He's pretty much gone mad.
So his brothers buy an old abandoned property and imprison him in the abandoned manor. And as fate would have it, only Conrad can see the ghost that lives there. His brothers refuse to believe him, thinking he is insane in the membrane!! They fear that they will have to end his life if they are unable to rehabilitate him.
Naomi Laress
Naomi was once a talented ballerina…
She was rich and famous…
The epitome of grace…
Until a jaded lover killed her DEAD!!!!
Now she's a lonely phantom ghost, left to haunt her home for the past eighty years…
There is an immediate attraction between these two that can not be denied. But Naomi knows that her heart will only shatter if she allows herself to fall in love with a vampire that will heal and then move away.
Conrad is determined to find a way to be with Naomi. He believes that all obstacles can be conquered. He just needs to kill a few more of his enemies before he settles down. He would hate to put his woman's life at risk. And his list of enemies is Looonngg!!
This book started out great (4.25 stars), but started to drag between the 50-60% mark (3 stars). But then it picked up again at 65% and I was physically unable to put it down (5 stars)!!! So I can give this one a solid 4 star!! I also loved that this was the first couple in the series that wanted to be together. They weren't fighting each other, but fighting circumstances.
I am still digging the PNR world that
Kresley Cole has created. The variety is wonderful. Witches, phantoms, werewolves, vampires, valkyrie, and demons. I look forward to the next book which will finally focus on a demon. I love horned demons!! I can't wait!! *squee*
My Immortals After Dark Reviews:
The Warlord Wants Forever
A Hunger Like No Other
No Rest for the Wicked
Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night
Dark Needs at Night's Edge
Dark Desires After Dusk
Kiss of a Demon King
Untouchable
Pleasure of a Dark Prince
Demon from the Dark
Dreams of a Dark Warrior
Lothaire
Dark Skye -
Well, it looks like my high school French class finally paid off in the end! Again, I breezed through this book! Dark Needs at Night’s Edge was such a thrill to read!
To be honest, I was caught off-guard. I don’t usually enjoy ghost stories so I didn’t expect to be so transfixed by Neomi the French prima ballerina. But I was. The prologue is fantastic and once I started, I couldn’t stop!
Murdered by her ex-husband in a bitter rage, Neomi Laress was stabbed to death in her own home after the brightest moment of her career. Thousands of years after the murder-suicide, Neomi’s spirit still lingers within her beloved home, forever alone and trapped.
But when three brothers haul a crazed and murderous madman into her home, Neomi is helpless in her spiritual form.
Conrad Wroth is a Fallen vampire with red eyes. He is also a skilled assassin who has succumbed to Bloodlust. In an effort to save their brother, Nikolai, Sebastian, and Murdoch have chained Conrad in the long abandoned Gothic manor for him to recover. But despite Neomi’s fear of having another murderer in her home, she is intrigued by Conrad....Intrigued by Conrad and his phD (and no, I don’t mean the academic credentials. I mean his pretty huge dick!! ;P) It seems that as a ghost our little ballerina has developed mischievous hobbies, like stealing from her tenants and spying on people. As a former seductress, Neomi can’t resist Conrad’s body so she takes her fill when she can, ogling Little Con because she knows he can’t see.
But Conrad CAN see her! And although he’d die to touch a single hair on her head, he can’t because she possesses no body. Cole really lays on the sexual tension in Dark Needs and she does a fantastic job with it! The frustration and need that both characters have for one another is conveyed nicely and it’s believable. That’s tough to pull off but Cole manages it with ease.
I also want to mention how bad I felt for these two. The heroine is a ballerina turned ghost and the hero is warlord turned vampire. Both do not like what they have become but they are dealing with the cards that they have been dealt. Even though Con doesn’t try until later on in the book, he does make a pretty miraculous recovery. And even though Neomi is a ghost, she isn’t the sulking and miserable kind that we normally read about. In fact, I’d argue that she has more life in her as a ghost than Conrad did in the beginning. I have to respect her zest for life.
I loved the Gothic Horror feel to this book. The harrowing tone was also perfect for Dark Needs and I think, the next time I pick up one of Kresley Cole’s book, I’ll have more faith in her writing. Because so far, she hasn’t disappointed me at all. -
3.5 stars.
Waitress : Welcome back to the Fetish Cafe. See anything you like tonight?
Me : (closing the menu) Not really. I feel like I've seen all of this before. Alphas who kidnap, Alphas who rescue, Alphas who fight for their women...I'm bored. Are there any betas on special tonight?
Waitress : (smacking gum) Nope. Outta luck. Some Valkyrie came in and purchased our last beta fantasy. She said something about wanting to hold him facedown over a crocodile...
Me : How...quaint. (Gathers things) Well, I guess better luck next time. I guess tonight is Netflix and solo chill.
Waitress : Uh, wait. I think there's a man in the back that you might be interested in.
Me : Oh?
Waitress : You might need to talk with him for a while before he warms up to you. You see, he's not really here of his own volition.
Me : Wait, wait, wait. I don't do forced scenes. That's not my thing. And it's just wrong.
Waitress : I think he could use a friend. That's all I'm saying. And you seem to have nothing better to do...
Me : What the??? Look, Bit-
Waitress : (cuts me off, irritated) I have other customers. Have a good night. *walks away*
I gather my stuff and walk toward the back entrance, hoping to avoid the rage demon that won't stop hitting on me every time I visit the cafe. Walking down the long hall that leads to the back entrance, I pass a series of rooms. As I pass the last door on the left, I can hear screams coming from the room. "Let me out you bastards!" screams a deep, masculine voice. Chills overtake my body. Something's not right here. The door is closed, but the latch hasn't taken hold. Do I investigate, or do I leave before things get worse?
************************************************************
Dark Needs was a different type of read than the previous books. There was less outside story happening due to the lead characters being stuck in one location.
In a way, this both helped and hurt the story. The readers got to learn more about Conrad and Neomi. We also got to see the characters connect in a deeper fashion. Those were positives. But I have to admit that the setting took much of the "fun" element away that was present in the previous books. We had just finished a 2 book arc of characters competing in an Amazing Race type of event. There was non-stop action. And then, all of a sudden, the brakes were put on in favor of watching two people tap-dance their way around each other (okay, so Conrad wasn't dancing because he was chained to a bed, and Neomi was ballet dancing because she's a ballerina, but you know what I mean).
I love ghost stories. There's always been a pull for me with forbidden love, and ghost stories tend to embody that. Never, is it easy for a ghost to be with a human/vampire/wolf, etc. There's always rules in place - often having to do with the fact that the ghost is rarely able to be touched.
I probably could have done an entire fetish cafe episode just on that. But how could I avoid "hot guy tied to a bed?" Um, hello...right?
Even us submissives at heart would have a hard time resisting a hot man tied to a bed. Especially if hot man is suffering. I don't know about the rest of you women, but the fantasy of bringing someone back from the brink is a strong pull. Talk about the gratefulness the man would have. *blinks innocently*
Dammit. I really want to go back and re-write that scene now. I didn't write to this story's full potential. Ah well. Maybe next time.
I enjoyed Dark Needs, but would have appreciated a few cut scenes with other characters to break up some of the monotony of watching Conrad and Neomi fumble their way back to life (him from the brink of madness, her from...well, death and all that).
Nix was awesome, as usual. Love that crazy broad. -
Just over two weeks ago, while boarding a 'red-eye' flight from Vegas to Toronto, I thought to myself 'I know I won't be able to sleep so why not pick a book that's already on my kindle to make the four hours go by faster' so I chose
The Warlord Wants Forever and the rest, as they say, is history.
I've been completely lost in this magical world of Immortals After Dark ever since and can't get enough of it and it's inhabitants! Néomi Laress & Conrad Wroth are the latest couple to steal my heart. I don't think I'll ever comprehend how Kresley Cole manages to take a couple of beings and make their story completely their own! This is the 5th book in the series and never once did I feel like I was reading the same story. The way she puts them in their own setting, fighting a different villain, overcoming a different conflict, etc. is absolutely amazing!
I said this before & I'm happy to repeat myself: after I was finished with book 1, I really didn't care whose story was next because EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in this series is story worthy and I just KNEW Kresley Cole will deliver with each book and boy did she ever!
This author is an auto-buy for me for more several reasons:
1. her ability to deliver a story is TOP NOTCH!
2. her heroines are KICK ASS [I've yet to come across one that I wanted to throttle]!
3. her male leads are BEYOND!!
4. and I'll never get sick of saying this but I LOVE the ever present humor in her stories!!
If you are a fan of this author, this series is a MUST READ even if you aren't a fan of this genre because if anyone could make you a convert, Kresley Cole definitely can!
Cheers!
-
Bumping this up from 4 to 5 stars for my second reread. This is hands down the best Wroth brothers book!
-
After reading the previous books in this series, I was curious to know what happened to young Conrad Wroth. Well, he's definitely not young anymore. He's consumed with blood lust and his brothers are willing to do anything to bring him back to this side of sanity.
Almost 100 years ago, Néomi was a bright star in the ballet world, but when she rejected a man who purported to be devoted to her, she was murdered by him. Once admired and adored, she had become a ghost—she cannot be touched, seen or heard. She was miserable until the day the Wroths brought Conrad to be imprisoned at what she sees as her house.
I don't know if I was supposed to laugh as much as I did with this book, but laugh I did. Not so much at Conrad's pain or struggle, but with his interactions with Néomi. These two were so sweet together. I loved that at first he wasn't sure if she was a hallucination or not. And with her so desperate to finally be seen by someone, I couldn't get enough of them. They fed and offered succor to each other. And they loved unlike any love either had ever known.
Nix was the ridiculous class act I've come to expect. Mari and Bowen had me rolling. The Wroth brothers continue to capture pieces of my heart. And the demon brothers... poor, poor Cade. I'm hoping he gets a taste of the happiness and peace he seems to deserve.
I'll definitely be reading more of this series!!
Always find more
on the blog
-
So listen up everyone. This is a book where the ghost of a burlesque dancer-turned-ballerina falls in love with the blood-junkie virgin vampire detoxing in her haunted house. Also he can't get a boner because that's how vampirism works in Immortals After Dark. There's a lot of plot stuff but it really doesn't matter as long as you buy into Conrad and Neomi's love story.
👻They have non-corporeal sexytimes (just like phone sex but weirder)!
🃏They play blackjack and the stakes are a Q&A about their lurid pasts!
💃🏻SPOILER ALERT:
Do you need to read the other books in the series first? Well, Laine didn't and she still found herself strangely captivated by these two lovers. She was really confused about the Lore and why vampires can't get boners, but honestly, that's all extra stuff anyway. Enjoy.
19-Word Summaries:
Meg: Virgin blood-junkie vampire detoxes in ballerina ghost’s haunted house. She needs a body so he can get a boner.
Laine: True love is the solution to murderous rage, psychosis caused by other people's memories, erectile dysfunction, and being non-corporeal. -
BAD BOY, BAD BOY, WHAT YOU GONNA DO WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU!!!
This is the fourth book in the Immortals After Dark series and this series seems to be getting better. So each book tells you the story of a powerful supernatural male and his fight to win his mate and let me tell you there are fights. Easily this book was the most emotional for me so far and very unconventional with the ending and the love story between the two main characters.
Conrad Wroth is feared and he is hated, but no one could hate him as much as he hates himself. He is a vampire and they aren’t well liked and even more so for Conrad, he is red eye vampire which makes him dangerous and a whole lot of crazy. You see Conrad drinks directly from his victims then he kills them and when you take blood directly from the source you get all their memories. The things he kill aren’t your upstanding supernatural beings he kills evil demons and other vampires etc, so to walk around with their memories this means that Conrad is a ticking time bomb. He has no sense of reality, days and time have no meaning to him its like he lives in an altered universe where everyone is a potential enemy and in his case they might actually be. Hell bent on destroying everything even his brothers, but faith is about to set in and the brothers he wanted to destroy, are the ones who will bring his salvation and lead him to his Bride.
Neomi Laress once a famous ballerina loving her success; and boom ex-fiancé aka crazy plunges a knife into her chest, and just like that dead. Trapped in the home she took her last breath in, now a ghost bored out of her mind and she is one bored ghost all she wants is a permanent resident to reside in the home she loved. The resident she gets is hell bent and destroying her home but she cant help but be drawn into his wild and crazy red eyes. A crazy vampire; but she cant help being drawn to him wanting to tame the crazy beast inside of him. The more reason to want him around is that he can see her, he can even speak with her something that has been impossible in the 80years since her death. Seems though Conrad aka Extreme Crazy is trying to ignore her but Neomi has ways to grab a mans attention even in ghost form.
Conrad is falling for the ghost, she is everything he wants in a woman and life just seems a lot more normal when she is around. She relaxes his mind and soothes his hunger to kill. If only there was a way to resurrect her then she could bring his unbeating heart to life and with her he will take his first breath in 300years. Neomi wishes she could be corporeal for the vampire she has grown to love, in this she would give anything. So it begins a love that seems that will only end in destruction will melt your heart. They will have many a obstacles to overcome because Conrad is hated and now he has someone that he cares about, loving him comes with a price.
I have to say I loved Conrad, your heart will go out to him. He is so honest with his feelings whether its hating or loving you. Plus he’s funny in a straight jacket and white padded walls sort of way. I liked him and the ghost together, not a normal relationship which makes it spicy. Overall a fun and interesting read with wicked and delicious characters. Kelsey Cole does not disappoint. Its still raining candy in this one and you need to stop by the candy store. -
Reviewed by:
Rabid Reads.
I strongly suspected that this installment was going to be a miss for me because ghost romances are a personal pet peeve of mine, but I’m listening to this series in order, and it was next up on my to-do list. Kresley Cole’s writing and Robert Petkoff’s narration were by no means at fault here; I still enjoyed many of the secondary elements of this story, the most noteworthy of which being Nix’s dialogue and the author’s phone sex style approach to the earlier love scenes was as erotic as it sounds.
Spooks have their place in paranormal fiction such as hauntings, or sidekicks, my difficulty with them lies in their feasibility as happily-ever-after candidates. There are really only two possible scenarios in this type of situation, and that is for either the deceased half of the couple to be revived by magical means, or for the living partner to join their beloved in the beyond. Option two is kind of a downer, so authors tend to ostracize it in favour of the former which essentially means that a character will be brought back to life thus breaking one of my top three hard no-no rules. Again, this is an individual preference.
Docking an audiobook two stars for the above seems pretty harsh which is why my quibbles with DARK NEEDS AT A NIGHT’S EDGE do not end there. Initially I liked Conrad’s character; he was edgy, on the cusp of madness, and cutthroat to the extreme. Néomi for her part didn’t make much of an impression on me; she was moody, superficial, and rather boring to be honest. Their relationship was comprised of numerous long winded discussions, stop-and-starts, and overall they just lacked chemistry. I enjoyed the other two Wroth brothers, Bowen, Cadeon & Rydstrom’s brief cameos, and as usual the Soothsayer bits were a slam dunk.
I thanked my lucky stars that Robert Petkoff’s narration was there to see my through book 4 because without him I would have been in real danger of giving up on this installment. His transition from present to past tense as he followed Conrad’s progression from insanity to lucidity was a stroke of genius in both its delivery, and Cole’s writing technique. Petkoff stayed true to the French language with his accent, and pronunciations while also conveying Néomi’s coquettish femininity which demonstrated great range considering his aptitude with the bestial alpha males of this series.
My issues with DARK NEEDS AT A NIGHT’S EDGE were wholly my own, so what was only an average listen for me could be, and is an extraordinary addition to the IMMORTALS AFTER DARK franchise for the masses. -
4 stars
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Really loved this book. I ve been searching the other night a ghost romance and stumbled upon this one, and I m so glad I did cos it was super enjoyable.I noticed I ve read randomly other books from this series and now I have again gained the taste of this yummy immortals.
The feisty ballerina phantom and the bloodmad vamp. Whats not to love?
Great read for paranormal romance lovers. -
ReRead: I LOVE THESE BOOKS. This one was so much fun and conrad is sooooooooooooo amazing. I love a good virgin hero
5 stars- Favorite IAD book yet
Gushing Fangirl Thoughts
I'm so happy there is a substantial amount of thorough reviews on this book for I'm about to gush over this like a open wound...:P This book was great. Cole wove an amazing story in "Dark Needs a Night's Edge" I found myself aching for these characters. It seriously amazes me how Cole created such a contradiction of a book. This book made me laugh many times as her books do for it was full witty and sly remarks. However, the book was very VERY intense. I actually wasn't able to predict to the tee everything that would happen in this book nor the ways by which the star crossed lovers would stay together. Romance is always predictable, but not this time. I also deeply connected to the characters. I wanted them to be together so bad I could barely contain myself the some 368 pages... Also, this had the most fulfilling ending :)
Heroine:Néomi Laress- Where to begin. She was a perfect heroine for me. I have no complaints. She is a ghost that had a truly tragic demise. The way she dies was cruel and torturous. When I read that scene, I mulled sadly over the atrocities that we humans commit to one another. Murdered in her home, she became tethered to her estate unable to leave. Despite this cruel fate, She is not some embittered hardened maid. Instead, she is full of vivacity and a zest for life. She truly has a love of life, for it was stripped so early and harshly from her. So many writers to try to create heroines that are "lonely." "oh im so lonely in this house full of people" "Daddy pays me no attention I am so very lonely" I've read it time and time again in Romance. However, Kresley Cole actually created a veritable lonely heroine in this book. It was hauntingly sad the way Neomi was destined to spend her life, bound to a house she was murdered in with no interaction. She was PERFECT for hero.
Hero:Conrad Wroth- Wow what a man. Conrad Wroth is a vampire and a red eyed, bloodlusting, horde ceding one at that. He has succumbed to bloodlust do to drinking his victims to death. However, i want to point out that the killing isn't as mindless as it seems for he is a mercenary. It is mentioned in the book that he never killed woman, children, and everyone he killed was a bad person...thus them having bounties on them. He has 3 other brothers, Nikolai, Sebastian, and Murdoch. These brothers should be familiar to you if you are reading this in correct order, I must confess I read this in order of interest not chronologically ( it is fun trying to piece this crazy Lore world together out of order =^_^= )Going against their leader, they capture and lock up Conrad in hopes of getting him to recover from this crazy bloodlust. Conrad is horribly thirsty, gets enraged by literally everything, and has consumed all the memories of the people he has killed. The memories thing is really the kicker. Conrad killed rapists, and murderers, and torturers. He is constantly seeing and hearing the abhorrent actions of the porcine filth he killed. I loved Conrad. He is a proud and strong man, so very strong. He has so much pride but his ability to lay it on the line with out any hesitation for what he fights for his beyond commendable. His life has been shrouded in complete loneliness. After being turned, he ran away from everyone and ended up succumbing to bloodlust. He has lived his life bereft of soft feelings, love, and care, all were replaced with constant warfare. Neomi Changed that however...
.Neomi and Conrad: This couple is amazing together. They both have endured such heartbreaking loneliness. They are able to heal each other like no other for they alone understand the stark pain of each other's pain. It is deeper than a love match. Its a pain match too, for both of their pain is one in the same as they fight for lucidity. It was so poignant how they interacted while Neomi was unable to feel anything as was Conrad unable to feel her (reminder: She's a ghost :[ ). They had to connect on levels beyond the tangible. By omitting the physical, Kresley allowed me to easily see and believe in the relationship of Neomi and Conrad that surpassed the tangible boundaries. It literally surpassed life as two different variants of immortality were intermingled. I was so happy to finally read a book where the male did not have to show his mate that he was the one through physical prowess. Conrad literally scoured the earth, fought life and death as we know it to get back his Neomi. He embodied desperation as he fought for the only thing in his life worth fighting for. This couple was so perfect and ill fated my stomach was in knots reading this one.
overall...
I know that this review might make the book sound too somber, but please don't take it that way. The book is highly emotional however, Kresley perfect places the scenes as to not overload the reader. For that, I thank her. The ending is SO FREAKING HAPPY. WARNING THIS IS NO SIMPLE SPOILER. THIS IS THE SPOILER OF ALL SPOILERS! YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK!!! I loved it and will read it again, and again. -
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★Book Basics★
Genre: - Paranormal Romance
Series: - Fifth in the series.
Love triangle? -
Cheating? -
HEA? -
Would I read more by this author/or in this series? - Yes
Rating - 4 stars
★Review★
An enjoyable read, but so far probably my least favourite of the series.
I struggled with both the heroine and hero, and the story just did not grab me as the previous ones have done so far.
It was a bit slow going for me to start, and as i say, struggled to connect to either main character. It felt a bit flat and I was not really feeling the connection between Néomi and Connor, almost as if they were "fated" lovers by circumstance.......Néomi was hardly going to come across anyone else.
Also, it felt like certain plot points were never really explored, or finished a little too neatly and perfectly, almost like a forced HEA against all odds. A little to neat and tied up with a big bow.
Still an enjoyable read, but not as good for me as previous. -
★★★★★ (This is a review of the audio book.) What can I say about hearing one of my favorite installments of Kresley Cole’s wonderful Immortals After Dark series brought to life on audio book? Terrific? Wonderful? Awesome?
They all seem woefully inadequate.
I’ve read this book several times, and I loved listening to it. Robert Petkoff continues his breathtaking narration, kicking it up a notch this time to tell us of Néomi Laress and Conrad Wroth’s love story. His voice is dreamy and he does the international cast of characters wonderfully, maintaining differentiation. His French Quarter accent for Néomi and Estonian accent for Conrad are great...nevertheless, I loved his Nïx the best! She, the “Ever-Knowing” soothsayer, is perplexed in this one and Mr. Petkoff has her inflection – with just the right touch of arrogant attitude thrown in – down perfect.
At the beginning one is inclined to wonder how Ms. Cole will ever get these two together. Néomi is not just a former femme fatale and burlesque dancer who rose above her roots to become a prima ballerina of the jazz era, she is a ghost! Worse yet, Conrad is not just a vampire, but one of the “Fallen vampires” and a master assassin. …Oh…and his is just on the edge of insane.
Talk about obstacles!
Not to mention, Conrad’s brothers have imprisoned him in Elancourt, Néomi’s abandoned New Orleans manor, in order to rid him of his insanity and bloodlust. They can’t see Néomi, so they believe he is not improving, but really losing it.
Still, despite the rage and madness, Conrad, the youngest of the Wroth brothers, manages to come across on the pages as… ** whew…fans self**…H.O.T.! I had forgotten how overpowering, demanding, possessive, and relentless he is in his desire for Néomi. I'm not as much of an alpha-hero lover as some of my GoodReads friends, but this one definitely works for me. The love scenes are sizzling. Yet so much of it is – at least in the beginning – cerebral.
I don’t want to give the whole story away; however, there are parts of this account that are just plain poignant. Ms. Cole has taken traditional things that we know about and written a wonderful Paranormal-Romance that is truly original. All the while continuing to interweave other characters’ story-lines without the reader getting frustrated by too little or too much information. Fabulous! -
Dark Needs at Night's Edge by
Kresley Cole
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance, Suspense
4.75 Stars
This is the 5th book in the IAD series. And each book is better than the book before it.
Kresley Cole has an amazing imagination.
I was bewildered as to how she would work things out. It was a complex story with astonishing twists & turns.
The characters in each book become more defined. Their personalities substantial. Their world more tangible.
This story is about Conrad & Neomi.
Neomi is a ghost. Conrad a vampire.
And this is a fantastic book! -
I really loved this book! It is a very well written and enjoyable story. I loved Conrad- what a cranky, sexy beast of a man! He was so smitten with Naomi and was able to go against his nature and be gentle with her. Naomi is an awesome heroine- very brave and able to soothe Conrad. And the steamy scenes are hot, hot, hot! The secondary characters are great too. Especially Nix- she is funny! As much as I loved this one I'm not sure about the others in this series- I don't think many of them are safe like this one.
-
Book 5 in the series was disappointing for me. Book 4 was so good I was expecting something along the same lines or better. I didn't feel much attraction between Néomi and Connor and when they did finally come together it was anticlimactic. It took so long for something to happen that when it did it fell flat. Something didn't click to make me believe that they really wanted each other the way the other couples in the previous books did. It was a strange kind of tension. I didn't like how she would leave Connor for days and be all pouty when she met up with him again. Connor had potential but he never really shone.
Mariketa turns up again in this story but she's a totally different person--very annoying and irritating when she wasn't like that at all in book 4. Bowen, her hubby, makes an appearance and he's good --too bad it's so brief.
Hopefully book 6 is better. -
June 2019 Re-read.
Erm. Well, we started this buddy read in 2014....and I've let it languish. Time to get going on it again. So, here I am catch up with
Sarah ;)
Book 1:
The Warlord Wants Forever
Book 2:
A Hunger Like No Other
Book 3:
No Rest for the Wicked
Book 4:
Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night
I gave this three-stars before, apparently, but I think I was being generous then - because I hated this book for the longest time. The first time I read it, was on a cross-country flight. I had nothing else to read, and nothing else to do for the entirety of the flight. I wasn't in the mood for it, and felt that way from the moment I opened the book. But what else could I do? I hate sleeping on flights. So, I forced myself to read it. And it was, I think, that forced reading that made me hate it so much. I couldn't stand anything about the story. Not Conrad, not Neomi, not the love story, nothing. Except maybe Nix. 1-star for Nix, that's what it should have been previously rated.
I'd tried re-reading it a few times prior to this massive re-read with Sarah, and each time I got bored a couple of pages in and gave up, skipping directly to the next book. Happily, this re-read has improved my opinion quite a lot. I'd give it a solid 3-stars now. It's still not my favorite of the series, and probably one of my lower-favorites, but it's good.
Neomi's an awesome character. Despite the fact that she's a ghost and has been for eighty-some-odd years, she's strong. She was always ahead of her time, independent, wealthy, smart, and confident. I think that she's amazing. I didn't always love how much she capitulated to Conrad's angers and rages, but she also forced herself not to value herself as less, too. She took her fate into her own hands, and made herself - just as she had in life. I truly appreciated that about her character.
Conrad, well, he was the biggest problem that I had with the book initially. And don't get me wrong - all the characters in these books can be assholish, so it's not just that he was an ass. I do get why he reacted the way he did quite frequently, it makes sense with his history, and his training, and then the madness; a very real thing for him with all his victims' memories floating around in his head. And I even liked his single-minded approach to setting his goals, and removing the obstacles to those goals from his path. I just never really fell for him. This is probably a hold-over from my first reading (first impressions do stick), so I won't try to hold it against him too much. The other part of the problem is that the vampires are probably my least favorite part of the Lore in this series. There's just so many more interesting factions and groups to be with!
I've talked about the world, and plot/pacing of these books at length in my previous reviews - and I think I'd just mostly be repeating myself if I extoled about them again here. But I will say that I continue to be awed at the way that Kresley Cole has interwoven all these storylines and characters and plot-lines. It's truly amazing. There's a plot here that's been brewing for a few books already and doesn't come to fruition for a few books on yet. There are mentions of things happening off page, that we only truly learn about later. This is absolutely my favorite part of this series. It's so tightly woven and created that I've never - in all my years of re-reading it - caught a timeline, or consistency error. And when you're talking about this many characters and things going on and this long of a series .... that's impressive.
I can't wait to go onto the next book, because some of my favorites are coming up. -
★★★★★ (This is a review of the audio book.) What can I say about hearing one of my favorite installments of Kresley Cole’s wonderful Immortals After Dark series brought to life on audio book? Terrific? Wonderful? Awesome?
They all seem woefully inadequate.
I’ve read this book several times, and I loved listening to it. Robert Petkoff continues his breathtaking narration, kicking it up a notch this time to tell us of Néomi Laress and Conrad Wroth’s love story. His voice is dreamy and he does the international cast of characters wonderfully, maintaining differentiation. His French Quarter accent for Néomi and Estonian accent for Conrad are great...nevertheless, I loved his Nïx the best! She, the “Ever-Knowing” soothsayer, is perplexed in this one and Mr. Petkoff has her inflection – with just the right touch of arrogant attitude thrown in – down perfect.
At the beginning one is inclined to wonder how Ms. Cole will ever get these two together. Néomi is not just a former femme fatale and burlesque dancer who rose above her roots to become a prima ballerina of the jazz era, she is a ghost! Worse yet, Conrad is not just a vampire, but one of the “Fallen vampires” and a master assassin. …Oh…and his is just on the edge of insane.
Talk about obstacles!
Not to mention, Conrad’s brothers have imprisoned him in Elancourt, Néomi’s abandoned New Orleans manor, in order to rid him of his insanity and bloodlust. They can’t see Néomi, so they believe he is not improving, but really losing it.
Still, despite the rage and madness, Conrad, the youngest of the Wroth brothers, manages to come across on the pages as… ** whew…fans self**…H.O.T.! I had forgotten how overpowering, demanding, possessive, and relentless he is in his desire for Néomi. I'm not as much of an alpha-hero lover as some of my GoodReads friends, but this one definitely works for me. The love scenes are sizzling. Yet so much of it is – at least in the beginning – cerebral.
I don’t want to give the whole story away; however, there are parts of this account that are just plain poignant. Ms. Cole has taken traditional things that we know about and written a wonderful Paranormal-Romance that is truly original. All the while continuing to interweave other characters’ story-lines without the reader getting frustrated by too little or too much information. Fabulous!
