Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole

OMG!!

Like seriously, I need you to join me in a moment of silence for the rocking blockbuster this book is!!

I'm not sure if you've noticed or not but I don't give out perfect grades for books much if at all. I can call a book a keeper, one I will re-read with great joy but I also can see it's imperfections and will easily call 'em as I see 'em.

Well, let's just get this out of the way:

KEEPER, KEEPER, KEEPER, KEEPER, KEEPER!!!!

A+

No really, an A friggin' plus.

Did I love this book?

Oh hell, yeah.

I want this book to be with me forever. I actually wish I could follow MacRieve and Lousha (like swoon) through more books! I love romance books granted, but it's rare for me to like a hero and heroine separate from each other and damn if I didn't like these two immortals like best friends.

MacRieve - Garreth - where to start? He's a werewolf without all that 'alpha asshole' crap going on and he wasn't whiny or over bearing or illogical, which I have come upon with many paranormal characters. The last book I read by Kresley had a heroine I loved with a hero I could have clubbed with a 2x4 for being such a dense piece of work.

I also don't normally care for charm in a male. It can come off squirm inducing, like he's played the game many times before and knows the outcome. Garreth had charm but it wasn't because he was a lady's man, or believed he was all that (although he was all that), he had an earthy sense of humour and darn if he wasn't like me when angry. All mad and huffy and then just fine. For me, he made no mistakes and I love him for being smart and calm and not a huge thunderhead that erupts in anger.

Lousha (Lucia) was also a gem with a soft heart, although she didn't believe she had one. Her past is horrorville with a capital H and is something kept secret from all but 2 who know her. The secret is kept from the hero for a long time - longer than I like in a story but really, if I had that history, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to share that with the man I lusted for.

Once again Kresley Cole used the 'mate' idea and plays with it till both H/H don't know if they are coming or going. I love that Cole tests the 'mate' concept and allows her characters to wonder if they even like each other let alone love each other. Some authors use 'fated mates' as a shorthand to love forever and ever the end.

In Cole's world I think there could be mates (not that I know this or not) who don't really like each other much at all but who have to be together at the very least during the full moon. I don't want to read that story as a romance because I have to assume there would be no romance there but the concept is interesting and it would be neat if Cole could allude to mates who didn't like each other but had to carry on regardless.

You know me, I don't like to tell too much of a plot because I want you to read it without me spoiling something I didn't mean to. Let me just say that I loved the setting as I think I may have a thing for river boats. That's all I'm saying.

Oh! And honour. Don't you just love a man of honour. Garreth keeps his word and he's so funny to me because he'll mess up and be all 'shite, I really cocked that up.' even though the one thing that happened wasn't something I considered his fault.

So yeah, this book is going in a special place - probably among my Anne Stuart's. I'm also glad that I have a few of her books I haven't read yet because I am chomping at the bit - but I'll wait.

In the end, I think Kresley Cole will be able to keep knocking stuff out of the park because she doesn't seem to recycle her characters. Each hero and heroine have been so different from each other that it's impossible for her characters to have similar stories because each set reacts completely different from another.

I'm all awed and shit. Seriously.

Kresley Cole, welcome to my auto buy author list. You have only two others in there with you and at this time, you're kicking the stuffing out of both of them!

Go forth and read!!