I imagine that most readers, like me, pick up Playing Easy to Get for the purpose of reading The Warlord Wants Forever - the first story in Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series.

Well, do yourself a favour, and skip straight to that story, because the first two in this anthology, Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Turn up the Heat and Jaid Black’s Hunter’s Oath, probably aren’t worth your time – at least that was the case for me.


Turn up the Heat - Sherrilyn Kenyon
1.5 stars

Thankfully, I’ve read Sherrilyn Kenyon writing as Kinley MacGregor, so I know she can write stories that I enjoy. But I’ve got to say, this one would not inspire me to pick up any more of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s books. I understand the limitations and challenges of telling a satisfying short story, but I have seen it done soooo much better than this.

The writing itself was OK to a point, and I actually kind of liked the premise – a Hideaway Heroine Sweepstakes where you win the chance to become the heroine of your favourite romance novel. Cheesy, yes, but it had potential. Unfortunately, the execution bypassed mere cheesiness and headed straight to utter ridiculousness.

The heroine covered the stereotypes at both ends of the spectrum, starting off as a meek plain Jane, then out of nowhere, morphing into a kick-ass Lara Croft type. And the romance (and I use that term loosely), which also came completely out of nowhere, was completely unbelievable and unsatisfying. This one left me thinking WTF? Enough said.


Hunter’s Oath - Jaid Black
2 stars

This was my second book by Jaid Black, and I must give credit where credit is due – she has a fascinating imagination.

I believe this one is part of her Vikings Underground series, in which clans of Vikings live underground (natch) due to some crazy prophecy, and obtain (read: abduct) their wives from the surface before auctioning them off, naked, to the highest bidder.

Because the kidnapped heroine was not likely to be in the mood after such a traumatic experience, she was unknowingly given erotisk, otherwise known as Spanish Fly (an aphrodisiac), so that the author had an explanation and opportunity to include some hot and plentiful sex scenes.

Again, although the premise won’t be to everyone’s taste, the writing itself was OK. But then, with no warning whatsoever, the story just stopped, and an epilogue was provided with a HEA that came out of nowhere. Again, limitations in length should not be an excuse to stop writing and fast-forward unexpectedly to the end. This one also left me thinking WTF?


The Warlord Wants Forever - Kresley Cole
3.5 – 4 stars

My reason for getting this book was to start the much lauded Immortals After Dark series, with this novella being the first installment. Thankfully, it was longer than the two preceding stories in this anthology, and it showed.

We start with an explanation of the origin of the Valkyrie, one of the many paranormal beings in Cole’s world, which also includes vampires and ghouls. It was an interesting take on the paranormal, with different vampire lore than I have read before. Valkyries are also a first for me, and they made for quite entertaining, if at times conflicting, reading.

The Warlord Wants Forever is quite an interesting, almost brave start to a series, in that Nikolai Wroth, the hero, (a Forebearer, or turned vampire), and Myst, the heroine, (a valkyrie), were not initially particularly likeable characters, who both behaved quite abominably at times.

Myst, in particular, I found difficult to like until we learned more about her. To be fair to Myst, it seems that most, if not all Valkyries in Cole’s world have the potential to be irritating, but Myst in particular ran very hot and cold. That said, she was a fairly well-developed character given the length of the story.

I didn’t quite get the sense of knowing enough about Wroth, because he was so fixated on Myst (for reasons which are very well explained), and this was essentially the driving force behind his almost every action in the story. I must say, though, Wroth and Myst had some very hot scenes together in this enemies to lovers story.

I’ll definitely be continuing with the series. I think Cole has created an interesting world, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she will do with a full-length novel.