Review: Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night by Kresley Cole

Title: Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night
Author: Kresley Cole
Series: Immortals After Dark #3
Pages: 359
Publisher: Pocket Star
Format: Paperback
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Library

Synopsis:

Bowen MacRieve of the Lykae clan was nearly destroyed when he lost the one woman meant for him. The ruthless warrior grew even colder, never taking another to his bed -- until a smoldering encounter with his enemy, Mariketa the Awaited, a powerful sorceress from the Louisiana coven of witches. When sinister forces unite against her, the Highlander finds himself using all his strength and skill to keep her alive.  Temporarily stripped of her powers, Mari is forced to take refuge with her sworn adversary. It's rumored that no one can tempt Bowen's hardened heart, but soon passion burns between them. Though a future together is impossible, she fears he has no intention of letting her go.If they defeat the evil that surrounds them, can Mari deny Bowen when he demands her body and soul -- or will she risk everything for her fierce protector?

My Review:
With the Immortals After Dark series, what you see is what you get. The covers and synopsis's (synopsii?) are a tad cheesy and extremely on the cliche romance novel side of things...but they are amazingly fun and totally hot! :) I hate to admit it, but I am a little embarrassed to be caught reading these books in public. I love them, and I know that they have fantastic witty banter, hilarious characters, and pretty awesome plots...but when friends or even random strangers catch sight of the covers...I can't help but feel like they are thinking..."that chick is totally reading vampire porn right now..." lol...especially with a title as raunchy as Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night...which, now that we're on that topic has NOTHING to do with the story...they spend half their time in Guatemala for goodness sake...anyways, despite the embarrassment, I would still read the IAD series anywhere, because they are definitely some of the best paranormal romances you can find and Kresley Cole is a very talented and entertaining writer. :)

The plot of Winter's Night picked right up where No Rest for the Wicked ended. In fact, it goes into detail about events that occur in the previous book simultaneously so it was great to get a different perspective of the events that were so climatic in the last one. Where we left Mari, Bowen had locked her in a tomb, thinking that she could get out because she's this all-powerful witch. Little did he know that her powers are VERY unstable. So unstable that she blows up her target 99 times out of 100 tries. He also happened to forget the fact that there were centuries-old evil incubii that lived in the tomb, oh, and Mari is mortal so if she is left there longer than a few weeks, she will die from starvation, exposure, and thirst. Bowen is appalled to find out this information...three weeks after he locked her in. He can't figure out why he feels so strongly for Mari...his mate Mariah died centuries before, and the lykae are supposed to only get one mate, one true love, for their entire lives. But Bowen can't stop thinking of Mari, and despite his hatred of witches, he feels compelled to risk his life to guarantee her safety and return to her coven. They have to travel through a war-torn South America with two demons as their companions, to get home before the witches bring about a war like none of the lore have seen for centuries to get their "awaited one" back. Definitely fun stuff :)

Mariket and Bowen make a super adorable couple. Both of them have their insecurities and their strengths, but they work really well together. My heart goes out to Bowen especially. Cole knows how to create the perfect mixture of insecurity, tormented past, and alpha-male hotness in a man to create pretty much the ultimate paranormal hottie. Bowen is especially tormented by the death of a woman he thought he loved, which makes him all that more attractive. The other men who have been featured have lost family, or were tortured, but none of them lost the love of their lives and I think that definitely gives Bowen an edge. As much as I loved Mari and Bowe together, they seemed to click a little to quickly for tastes...they hated each other at first so when they were all the sudden like...ripping each other's clothes off I was a little like...wait...what just happened???

Individually, both of them were fantastic lead characters as well. I really liked Mari, just because she is a little different from the Valkyrie who were featured in the first books. Where most of the Valkyrie have been alive for centuries and already honed their powers, Mari is still figuring out what to do with herself and trying not to blow things up in the process. It was also nice to read about a witch for a change. Witches are some of my favorite paranormal characters and I feel like I rarely get a chance to read books featuring them. They just aren't as popular as vampires and werewolves right now...*sigh*...But Mari was totally kick-ass and is an amazing combination of power and instability so she's this constant tension throughout the book because you don't know how her powers will strike out. I do wish we could have learned a little more about Mari's coven and the witches in general. We find out SO much about the Valkyrie and their crazy, hectic, sorority-house of a family that you really want to see something similar or at least equal to the Valk's awesomeness.

I HAVE to keep saying that this is a series that you should definitely read in order. Although you are apparently(according to author website and Goodreads, Amazon, etc.) able to read them in any order you want, I feel like I would be super confused if I read them out of order. All of the characters from past books make cameo appearances in this one, and they reference events that happened in their own book so I would definitely recommend reading them in order. Plus...if you hadn't already read about Kaderin and Sebastian, Lachlain and Emma...etc...you wouldn't be able to giggle and fawn at their total epic cuteness in the following books.  I would also read these books as close together as possible because I found myself really confused with the different characters after I read the books a month or so apart.

I give Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night 4 Stars. I'm grading this purely on a genre standpoint. No it's not intellectual or containing earth-shattering revelations about the human condition, but it is an excellent example of paranormal romance. You get super hot love-scenes, dramatic fights with supernatural fuglies of all sorts, and of course magical adventures of the paranormal sort.

This book qualifies in the Witchcraft and Witches challenge at Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf