Midnight Awakening [Mass Market Paperback]

I have been following this author since the first book and Tegan has to be one of my favorite characters. The lone, stoic, fighter who gets the job done but gives no quarter to emotion. He has totally closed himself down and lives only for justice and vengence.

Tegan lost his breedmate to the Rogues, 500 yrs ago and still he can't forgive them or himself. He feels he should have been there to protect her. The only way he exists is to focus totally on fighting the Rogues who threaten his people. Not that his people really appreciate the men of the Order.

Elise Chase has come to the place Tegan is, her son got hooked on the drug, Crimson, and turned Rogue, he was killed by her brother-in-law right in front of her. Four months later she has left the Darkhaven and is hunting minions with her psychic power. Although she is not able to shut out the many minds pierceing her brain she continues to fight for justice and vengence.

Tegan finds her being attacked by Rogues, he saves her and follows her home where he discovers she is hunting and killing minions by herself. A minion is a human totally belonging to a master vampire. Elise has stumbled on a rare book desperately wanted by Marik, the leader of the Rogues. Rescueing her from the Rogues one more time Tegan takes her to the Order. Everyone is trying to understand the old diary she has found.

All of the people we have met before are here in the story. And all are trying to decifer the verse in the book. More secrets are revealed and Elise demands Tegan help her in the battle by sharing his blood with her. The blood bond between mates in not to be used in this way and there will be a price for her and Tegan.

I loved this one it reminded me of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, I could not put it down and I recommend it highly. I have already pre-ordered the next book in the series. Lots of action, romance and a challanging plot. You do not have to read them in order, each book stands alone, but they are better and you understand more about the main characters if you read them in order.

MIDNIGHT AWAKENING, book three of The Midnight Breed Series, features Elise Chase, a widowed Darkhaven female, and Tegan, the deadliest warrior of the Order.

Breedmate widow Elise Chase moved out of the Darkhaven enclave after the death of her son Camden. Vowing that he will not have died in vain, Elise uses her gift of hearing people's thoughts in order to stalk and prey upon the Minions of Rogue vampires. She has one focus in mind. Vengeance. She wants to avenge the death of her son and if she has to kill to do it, then she will kill. And for months she does so with outstanding precision until one night her gift's sensory overload is almost too much and Elise is seen leaving the scene of her latest kill. As if her night couldn't get any worse, she runs into a spitting and voracious Rogue bent on her destruction. Her unlikely savior just happens to be the deadliest vampire the Order has to offer. Later, once the battle is over and Elise is once again trying to drown out the thoughts of others, she comes face to face with Tegan and asks him to help her weed out and focus on those thoughts that will help her with her mission. Tegan does the one thing that Elise begs him not to; he refuses.

Tegan, a Gen One vampire, is the toughest and most deadly of the Order. Nightly he battles ruthlessly in the conflict against Rogue vampires and it is on one such night that he sees a small figure leaving the scene of a crime. Stalking the figure's scent, Tegan is led to an alley fight in which he realizes that the woman fighting for her life against a Rogue is none other than Elise Chase, a beautiful Darkhaven widow. Tegan orders Elise home where he follows her once cleanup is complete. Wanting to know why she is no longer within the safety of the Darkhaven, Tegan is surprised when Elise asks for his help to learn self control in dealing with her psychic gifts but not surprised enough to refuse. That is, until he realizes that the gift she possesses is slowly killing her inside.

The two unlikely lovers form an alliance. Each is committed to annihilating the Rogues that prey upon human and vampire alike. So committed in fact that they don't realize how much each will depend on the other for friendship, passion, and the ultimate - love.

Having been hooked on Lara Adrian's writing and this series since the release of Kiss of Midnight, I have been craving MIDNIGHT AWAKENING tremendously. Elise, the stunningly beautiful widow of a Darkhaven vampire, was pampered most of her life and told that vampires of the Order were the worst of vigilantes. I loved how her mind changed when she got to know the warrior that was Tegan. Most importantly, I found her character refreshing. While often times I was scared for her, I knew that Tegan would keep her safe. Ms. Adrian's series just gets better and better with Tegan now as my favorite of the vampire warriors. I found him to be quite realistic. Distrustful of commitment because of his past, Tegan vowed that Elise would mean nothing to him. That is one vow that I liked seeing this hero break. And break it he did - tenfold and quite sensually.

MIDNIGHT AWAKENING was exactly what I hoped it would be and then so much more. I was thrilled to see past heroes and heroines from the two previous books as well as a look at upcoming heroes. Tons of questions were answered and just when I thought I knew where the book would lead, Lara Adrian threw me for a loop and stumped me with the storyline. Intrigued, and without a doubt completely hooked, I am lying in wait for Midnight Rising, the next installment of this series. April 2008 can't get here quick enough.

MIDNIGHT AWAKENING releases from Bantam Dell on November 27, 2007. May I suggest running, not walking to the nearest bookstore and grabbing this book right off the shelf. You will be instantly addicted - I know I was.

"Midnight Awakening" is the third in Lara Adrian's Vampire Breed series and it's another great read. Comparisons with J R Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books continue, especially as this third book is about the emotionally damaged and loner vampire who finds his match in a damaged woman who no longer feels her place is in the society of her peers (rather like Z and Bella in Lover Awakened). However this story also has many differences, particularly in the locations in which it is set. Most of the action in this book takes place in Berlin and it's clear the author has some familiarity with the city, although I felt there were occasional lapses when the locals seemed to speak English automatically. However overall the change of setting made it an interesting book.

The hero of this book is Tegan, one of the Gen One vampires who are oldest and strongest but also the most liable to go 'rogue' and become bloodlusting dangerous vampires that have to be killed. He connected briefly with Elise, a vampire widow and sister-in-law to Sterling Chase, in the last book. In this book they find themselves meeting again unexpectedly and Tegan is shocked by the situation into which Elise has moved. She has vowed vengeance against the Rogues who killed her son and goes out at night attacking them; Tegan eventually has to take her to the warriors' mansion for her own safety, and it's at that point where they find themselves beginning to connect. When Elise has to come with him to Berlin to follow a lead, their relationship becomes more complex.

Much of the romance aspect of this book sees the characters alternately wanting to be together and wanting to stay apart to protect themselves from the fragility that love can bring. This sometimes felt a little repetitive, especially as various misunderstandings were occasionally engineered that were resolved a page or so later. We were introduced to a new character, a German man named Andreas Reichen, who may well feature in a future book as he was an intriguing person. However the bulk of the story follows the interactions between Tegan and Elise with the other warriors and their mates very much in the background.

The plot moved along reasonably in this story although towards the end it felt perhaps a little rushed. In some ways the 'baddie' was finished off rather easily but this was just to open the story up to the extra layer, the new 'baddie' who is rather badder than the old one! Elise's vengeance also seemed to subside as the book went along and it was unclear by the end whether she'd given it up, handed it over to Tegan or just forgotten about it. Although the story clearly continues, this particular episode finished in an acceptable manner and I found myself looking forward to the continuation of this interesting series. It's not groundbreaking stuff but it's still a good read.