Kiss of Midnight

The Midnight Breed, Book 1

By: Lara Adrian

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

He watches her from across the crowded dance club, a sensual black-haired stranger who stirs Gabrielle Maxwell's deepest fantasies. But nothing about this night---or this man---is what it seems. For when Gabrielle witnesses a murder outside the club, reality shifts into something dark and deadly. In that shattering instant she is thrust into a realm she never knew existed---a realm where vampires stalk the shadows and a blood war is set to ignite. Lucan Thorne despises the violence carried out by his lawless brethren.

A vampire himself, Lucan is a Breed warrior, sworn to protect his kind---and the unwitting humans existing alongside them---from the mounting threat of the Rogues. Lucan cannot risk binding himself to a mortal woman, but when Gabrielle is targeted by his enemies, he has no choice but to bring her into the dark underworld he commands. Here, in the arms of the Breed's formidable leader, Gabrielle will confront an extraordinary destiny of danger, seduction, and the darkest pleasures of all.

©2007 Lara Adrian (P)2010 Tantor

Action & Romance

If you could sum up Kiss of Midnight in three words, what would they be?

No doubt an addicting, even titillating, story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The chief characters, Lucan & Gabrielle, consume the story. It is a romance novel between a human and a vintage vampire.

What does Hillary Huber bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

As narrator, Huber makes an effort to alternate tones and accents to uniquely identify characters as well as periodically emphasizes moments. She does a far better job over most narrators but I would've enjoyed a bit more acting in her dialogue. That said, Huber's voice and translation of the story is VERY enjoyable.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Some extremely graphic language is unexpectedly used and was a welcome surprise.

Any additional comments?

If you like JR Ward's paranormal romance efforts, Adrian will blow you away! I'm off to "Kiss of Crimson" (Book 2) next.

New to the series.

Found this one in the Romance Package and thought I'd try it. The story was good and I look forward to the next book. Hilary Huber did a nice job. Would I listen again? Probably not, but borrowing it was entertaining.

Overall entertaining.

The story was entertaining enough, if predictable. The narrator wasn't the worst I've heard, but could definitely have been better. Having both a Male and a female narrator would not have been out of place for this story. Huber's Male voices weren't convincing, and her gay man and latino accents bordered on insulting. Any moment I was waiting for her to either break out in a heavy lisp, or shout OLÉ!

3rd time

No matter how many times I read this book I enjoy it . Love all of her books. Keep writing.💕

Love The Series

Love the entire series of three books. Fantastic to listen to. I suggest starting at the first one because you will want to take another bite out of this brilliant author. ;) The narrator, Hillary Huber, is fantastic. You won't regret buying!

Good Kiss

This was a very good read that was picked for me in a challenge. Gabrielle Maxwell witnesses a murder outside the club, reality shifts into something dark and deadly. In that shattering instant she is thrust into a realm she never knew existed—a realm where vampires stalk the shadows and a blood war is set to ignite. Lucan Thorne is a breed warrior vampire who watched Gabrielle in the club Gabrielle and Lucan share a history although either of them know it at the time. This was a very good book that I listened to. Lucan didn't want to be attracted to Gabrielle, but he couldn't help himself and when Lucan goes to take her blood he sees her mark Gabrielle is a Breedmate he can't take her blood because he doesn't want to be mated. Lucan is also suffering from bloodlust. This book was a lot like BDB and I loved that series and I also liked this first book in a new series to me as well as a new author. Lucan the leader of an elite group of warriors, the Breed only works to protect humans from vampires that have let Bloodlust overcome them and become Rogue. When it seems that the Rogues are somehow organizing their ranks and starting a war in the human world, Lucan is determined that Gabrielle won't end up in the middle of it. This book was dark and edgy and I really liked it I am looking forward to reading or listening to the rest of this series. Ms. Adrian has gained a new fan. I would recommend this book to anyone who liked BDB.

It was decent, except for...

The storyline was pretty decent & I liked the twist on the evolution of vampires. It's not a BDB book so don't go into this thinking you'll be"OMG'ing" & constantly blushing lol. It's a bit softer to me. It kept me engaged though & the narrator was good.
The only problem I had w/ this book was the main character Gabrielle. She started off strong & w/ a backbone & almost midway through, she melted. She sounded needy, a bit childish & selfish. She just annoyed me & a few times I found myself literally yelling aloud at work, "come ooooonn woman! Seriously?!?!Wtf!" only to clarify to my coworkers that I wasn't talking to them but listening to my audible again (don't judge me lol). Don't get me wrong, Lucan wasn't much better, but I could understand his hesitancy after finding out about his parents & fighting off bloodlust for almost a millennium.

A different spin on vampires

A lot of the past reviews compare this series to BDB. It’s a fair comparison as you have a group of vampire warriors/fighters going out at night to “clean” up the streets of their enemies to make it a safer place for both humans and vampires. These vampires in this series are also a little bad too and can become bad with blood lust. This is not the case with BDB. Bonded pairs in this series are also not as strong as in BDB as the vampire can kill his mate and the mate can also become crazy and turn against the breed. I personally didn’t really like this aspect because the bond looses its importance when it can be so easily broken. Although there are some things I didn’t really like this first book in the series is interesting enough to continue to the next.

The readers voice RUINS THIS STORY

I cannot handle this woman’s voice. She could be paid to sound like a computer for those automated calls that annoy people. I cannot handle her voice devoid of any emotion. This ruins the story.

Audible, you make so much money why would you choose such a HORRID sounding woman to read books. And if they’re not in charge whoever hired this woman should be ashamed.

disappointed

Are their any books out there where the main character doesn't automatically do whatever everyone expects from them and actually puts their foot down for once