Romance Reviews: Midnight's Kiss and Grave Phantoms

MIDNIGHT'S KISS
Elder Races #8
Thea Harrison
Paranormal Romance
290 pages
Berkley Romance
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
In the latest Novel of the Elder Races, two souls who have long buried their passions are about to be consumed…

Ever since their scorching affair ended years ago, Julian, the Nightkind King, and Melisande, daughter of the Light Fae Queen, have tried to put the past behind them—and distance between them. But when a war breaks out between Julian and Justine, a powerful Vampyre of the Nightkind council, they find themselves thrown together under treacherous circumstances…

Kidnapped as leverage against Julian, Melly is convinced that her former lover won’t be rushing to her rescue. But when Julian gives himself up to save her, they both end up Justine’s captives. Armed only with their wits and their anger, Melly and Julian must work together to escape. But will they be able to ignore their complicated history, or will the fiery passion that once burned them blaze again?

MY THOUGHTS
Midnight’s Kiss is a romance that could have easily been more frustrating than swoon-worthy given the longstanding history between Melly and Julian, accusations of cheating creating a roadblock with the possibility that neither will find their way around. The two of them were at each other’s throats in the previous book, making us equal parts nervous and excited as we wonder how that animosity will play out once they graduate from secondary to main characters. What we quickly learn, however, is that Melly and Julian have no plans to spend majority of their story sniping at one another and nursing old wounds, instead they bring a smile to our faces when they set aside their shared pain in favor of solving the more immediate problems before going back and talking everything out.

Melly is a spitfire, full of fight and vigor and completely unafraid of Julian’s flash of fangs when he gets upset, but she’s not so blindingly independent that she doesn’t know when following an order from Julian is the best course of action. She gives and takes in equal measure as Julian does, the pair of them are a force to be reckoned with while at the same time riddled with enough vulnerabilities to ensure they find an empathetic audience in us.

Julian, despite being utterly convinced Melly was unfaithful to him years ago, does an impressive job of not holding it against her when it matters, able to set aside his feelings in order to focus on the task at hand. When it comes time to confront the past, he does so intelligently rather than emotionally, finally allowing Melly’s vehement denials to penetrate and giving her the benefit of the doubt he wasn’t able to give twenty years prior. They both work to make sure their relationship survives the second time around, and the two of them are as beautifully fun and sexy as all the couples who came before them.

Overall, Midnight’s Kiss is yet another check in the plus column of a series already decorated with such marks, and while our time with Melly and Julian is thoroughly enjoyable, we can’t help but be excited about a return to Dragos’s Sentinels with Graydon’s story next.

Rating: 4/5
 

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GRAVE PHANTOMS
Roaring Twenties #3
Jenn Bennett
Paranormal/Historical Romance
320 pages
Berkley Sensation
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Feisty flapper Astrid Magnusson is home from college and yearning for the one thing that’s always been off limits: Bo Yeung, her notorious bootlegging brother’s second-in-command. Unfortunately her dream of an easy reunion proves difficult after a violent storm sends a mysterious yacht crashing into the Magnussons’ docks. What’s worse, the boat disappeared a year ago, and the survivors are acting strangely…

Bo has worked with the Magnusson family for years, doing whatever is needed, including keeping his boss’s younger sister out of trouble—and his hands to himself. Of course, that isn’t so easy after Astrid has a haunting vision about the yacht’s disappearance, plunging them into an underground world of old money and dark magic. Danger will drive them closer together, but surviving their own forbidden feelings could be the bigger risk.  

MY THOUGHTS
While possible to read as a standalone, Grave Phantoms will be infinitely more satisfying for those who have watched Astrid and Bo dance around one through the two previous books, our desire to see them together at a fever pitch by the time we're finally able to dive into their story in its entirety. The two of them don't disappoint, the tension between them in the first third of the book so thick our hands feel like they're moving in slow motion as we turn the pages, hearts in our throats as their feelings for one another are continually silenced by nerves and rampant prejudice. Luckily for us though, Astrid and Bo don't make us wait with bated breath too long before they decide their love for one another trumps anyone else's thoughts on the rightness of their relationship, and we then get to glory in that love while the pair of them further embroils themselves in a well-executed paranormal mystery.

Though Astrid and Bo's complicated feelings for one another (as well as her young age and the fact that Bo works for her brother) are what has kept them from voicing their mutual attraction, the main hurdle this pair faces is the fact that Bo is Chinese in a time and place that assigns little worth to anyone other than white, wealthy men. While neither Bo nor Astrid spend an enormous amount of time dwelling on that fact as they face far more pressing paranormal problems, it does give their romance a very real obstacle to overcome and has us rooting for them to say “screw it” to society's disdain for interracial couples.

The romance is of course as delightful as the previous two in this series, but equally as satisfying is the supernatural mystery surrounding a recovered yacht with a handful of amnesic survivors. The entire Magnusson clan is a magnet for all things ghostly and strange, and Astrid proves herself a Magnusson through and through when she finds herself plagued by visions of the sinister deeds done on the deck of the Plumed Serpent. Ms. Bennett always does an outstanding job of perfectly balancing the romance and suspense in this series, giving us just enough of both to keep us glancing at the clock to determine if we can fit in another chapter before bed.

Overall, Grave Phantoms is as enjoyable as its predecessors, highly recommended for those who love strong couples that give as good as they get, and paranormal happenings just creepy enough to inspire chills in the dark of night.

Rating: 4/5

Find Jenn:

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These books were sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.