Midnight Rising by Lara Adrian

Midnight Rising by Lara Adrian


My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
I didn't like this book as much as Midnight Awakening. The main issue I had was Dylan flat out annoyed me in some scenes. Especially with her escape attempt. What was that about? She could have went along with Rio's plans to scrub her and then went about her life. I think it was just a plot point to drag out the story, frankly. My other issue was: Okay, this sounds really sexist, but her potty mouth was really bugging me. It seemed like the woman could not express herself without expletives and oaths. I'm not overly found of foul-mouthed heroes (probably Sam from the Suz Brockmann books is one of the few notable exceptions), but a bad-mouthed woman really is like nails on a chalkboard. It's a small thing, but that didn't help to endear her to me. Also, she just seemed too abrasive at times. She was used to being a survivor and being tough. The whys were revealed and it made sense, but I never felt for her the way I wanted to. I feel I'm being too hard on her. She was a good person, and I admired her dedication to her mom, and her sense of loyalty. She had a good head on her shoulders, and she did the right thing when it came to the pictures and story about the hibernation chamber. But, she just rubbed me the wrong way.

I really liked Rio. I felt bad for him for what he had lost. I think he had some self-pitying moments, but with his breedmate betraying him, I couldn't blame him too much. Overall, he was a good hero.

The romance itself seemed a bit rushed. I wasn't sure I completely bought into Rio falling so hard and fast for Dylan. Probably needed about fifty more pages for me to feel that. However, I liked the way Eva's ghost manifested to try to make things right after what she did. That was a nice paranormal touch.

My issue with this story is no fault of Lara Adrian's. It's me. I just like more going on in my paranormal romances. Compared to some of my other series (and it's wrong to compare, I know it), this series seems less vivid. I like the rich worldbuilding that I am treated to with some of the other paranormal faves. I'd be the first to admit that I'm not that keen on aliens as a plot device, and the whole alien vampires came to Earth and bred with special human women to form the Breed is just not floating my boat that much. I miss all the various paranormal species that interact with other. Heck, I'm a supernatural girl. I came out and said it, okay! Anyway, that's probably why I'm not in love with this series.

But, for what it is, I think the intrigue was good, and the conspiracy behind the spectres that Dylan was seeing was pretty interesting and rather disturbing. I feel bad for those poor girls.

As far as the story wrap-up, it was a little abrupt, but left some loose ends. I guess I'll have to see how this picks up in the next series. In the end, Midnight Rising was a good read, but it didn't set me on fire.

Overall rating: 3.5/4.0 stars.

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