Demon from the Dark by Kresley Cole

Demon from the Dark
(Immortals After Dark Installment #10)
by Kresley Cole

Genre: Paranormal Romance

A dangerous demon she can't resist...Malkom Slaine: tormented by his sordid past and racked by vampiric hungers, he's pushed to the brink by the green-eyed beauty under his guard.

A maddening witch he aches to claim...Carrow Graie: hiding her own sorrows, she lives only for the next party or prank. Until she meets a tortured warrior worth saving.

Trapped together in a savage prison...For them to survive, Malkom must unleash both the demon and vampire inside him. When he becomes the nightmare his own people feared, will he lose the woman he craves body and soul?

Carrow, a coven witch, has been recently captured and is being held prisoner within a secret island facility hidden from the detection of all immortal creatures.  With more immortals being caught, held captive, and brutally experimented on every day, Carrow is offered a way out for herself and her 8 year old "niece", who was newly orphaned and is being held captive as well.  Her Mission: Bring in Malkom, one of the rare demon-made-vampires (aka vamon), to the facility using whatever means possible.  Carrow considers this to be an easy task until she meets Malkom and realizes they're destined soul mates; something all immortals realize upon first meeting. Now she's stuck with the dilemma of putting her own future on the line versus the future of her niece or more personally, Malkom.

I read, somewhere, how Kresley Cole commented on how Malkom Slaine might be her favorite male immortal.  Unfortunately, he's not a favorite of mine!  I don't know, I just felt after reading this book that it was missing something.  Something that didn't connect Malkom and Carrow as much as I would have liked or something that didn't really show the true feelings between them.  My #1 pet-peeve within romance novels is rushed love and that was pretty obvious in Demon from the Dark.  I guess overall, I'm not one for the whole concept of love at first sight, thus, I'm not convinced when people only know each other for one week, have amazing sex, and then fall heads over heels in "love".  And yes, I understand the idea of mates within this series, so I don't think I'm missing the idea of chemical attraction.  To me, what Carrow and Malkom have is just lust!  Sure lust is fun to read about in Cole's books, but it doesn't make the story enjoyable for me in the end.  

Some novels can carry this rushed affection theme off well (Kiss of a Demon King was as excellent read since the two main characters had more than one week to discover each other, develop jealousy, even majorly dislike each other, etc. before popping the "L" word!), others not so much.  Maybe I'm a sucker for "hate/love" relationships, who knows?  I do know I was expecting more from Cole's new book and was, sadly, let down. I just felt none of what made KC great (example: I use to laugh out loud during her older books and her wit in writing some of the characters dialogue was brilliant) was truly evident throughout this read; majorly lacking since I didn't even laugh once!

Also, I understand Malkom was emotionally hurt in his past and that kind of personal damage can be a perk for gaining feelings toward a character, but I never got around to understanding Malkom as a man.  Maybe it's because I like my Immortals After Dark male leads to be very . . . manly (or very-whatever creature they are), not exactly a gentlemen, but at least a guy who knows what he wants.  Malkom's innocence wasn't exactly working for me.   At the beginning he's a loyal friend, then betrayer, then land defender, then brute/Neanderthal, then lover to Carrow, etc.  He was all over the place and just not someone I enjoyed reading about.  He just seemed lost throughout much of the book.  He felt lost in his own world and now even more lost in his new world with Carrow.  All in all, I love the series as a whole, but I wasn't thrilled with this one and will hold out for better books in the future!

Likes: I did enjoy that younger versions of the Immortals After Dark characters were being introduced (with Ruby and her gang of witches) and we got to catch up with some of the past characters in the series. That was fun! The secret facility with all the immortal creatures having to interact/bunk together was interesting as well.

Dislikes: From previous books, we've had one or more different beings from the immortal world introduced, but in Demon from the Dark, a whole mess of creatures were introduced.  I don't mind a few here and there, but once all hell broke out, it got a bit overwhelming.

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