Lothaire by Kresley Cole

ORDER A COPY: Lothaire

Publisher: Gallery
Publishing Date: January 10, 2012
Paperback: 468 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Driven by his insatiable need for revenge, Lothaire, the Lore’s most ruthless vampire, plots to seize the Horde’s crown. But bloodlust and torture have left him on the brink of madness—until he finds Elizabeth Peirce, the key to his victory. He captures the unique young mortal, intending to offer up her very soul in exchange for power, yet Elizabeth soothes his tormented mind and awakens within him emotions Lothaire believed he could no longer experience.

A DEADLY FORCE DWELLS WITHIN HER

Growing up in desperate poverty, Ellie Peirce yearned for a better life, never imagining she’d be convicted of murder—or that an evil immortal would abduct her from death row. But Lothaire is no savior, as he himself plans to sacrifice Ellie in one month’s time. And yet the vampire seems to ache for her touch, showering her with wealth and sexual pleasure. In a bid to save her soul, Ellie surrenders her body to the wicked vampire, while vowing to protect her heart.

CENTURIES OF COLD INDIFFERENCE SHATTERED

Elizabeth tempts Lothaire beyond reason, as only his fated mate could. As the month draws to a close, he must choose between a millennia-old blood vendetta and his irresistible prisoner. Will Lothaire succumb to the miseries of his past . . . or risk everything for a future with her?

Elizabeth Peirce is living a quiet life in the Appalachian mountains until her body is hijacked by the soul of the vampire goddess Saroya. Whenever Ellie has a blackout, that means Saroya has gone on a killing spree. Ellie ends up on death row for those murders, until she is rescued by a red-eyed vampire.

Lothaire, the Enemy of Old, cannot have a lowly mortal bride. He needs to get back the Ring of Sums in order to remove the soul of Elizabeth Peirce and make the goddess Saroya immortal in Ellie’s body. Then he will finally be ready to claim the throne of the vampire horde army.

Ellie is not ready to let go of her life so easily and give Saroya and Lothaire a HEA with her body. If she needs to seduce the gorgeous, but deadly, vampire, then so be it. She’ll show him that life with a down-to-earth, mortal mountain girl can be more exciting than ten millennium old vampire goddess.

Will Lothaire sacrifice Elizabeth to reach his Endgame or will he decide there are more interesting things to life than being a vampire king?

If you are a fan Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series, you will agree that this is an awesome addition to the series. If you not a fan, why not??

Although Lothaire isn’t my normal idea of a great hero, you have to admit he is an interesting character. We have seen bits and pieces of Lothaire throughout the past 11 books in the series and watched him collect his blood debts from the other immortals in an attempt to reach his Endgame. So it is very exciting to finally see what the Endgame that all those 11 books were leading up to.

Elizabeth Peirce is an interesting choice for Lothaire’s Bride, but her quick wit and cunning mind makes her perfect for him. She is as nice as he is evil but they heat up the pages together and she balances him nicely.

We get to see a little more insight into Lothaire’s relationship with Nix, the Ever Knowing, Valkyrie soothsayer extraordinaire, and we get to meet some interesting new characters.

I was a little leery of the two souls in one body storyline, and jumping back and forth in the story, but that quieted down soon and we got to spend much of the story with Ellie and Lothaire. There is no surprise to anyone familiar with the series that he won’t end up with the goddess since we see quickly how Ellie is the better match. Since she is the only person in a millennium to stand up to Lothaire, it is funny that he is like a kid at Christmas at certain points waiting to hear what she’ll say next. It is a great story and many open story lines from prior books get settled throughout Lothaire’s story.

I am still crossing my fingers that the next story will be Lanthe and Thronos, please, please, please…!!!!! But I definitely enjoyed Lothaire’s story much more than I thought I would. Lothaire being Lothaire, and the Enemy of Old, and all that, it is nice that he can find his true love, but that doesn’t necessary mean that he ends up joining the our good guys and going soft (Example, Eric from True Blood going all needy and clingy and ruining his hot, aloof, bad-ass vampire vibe.) Lothaire is still the scariest, bad-ass in town!!

Great story!! Definitely put on your must read list for 2012!! If you haven’t tried a Kresley Cole IAD book, now’s the time.

Just for fun – Check out my guest blog over at Heroes & Heartbreakers:

Immortals After Dark Casting – Part I

Immortals After Dark Casting – Part 2

Favorite Scene:

“Imagine my abject disappointment in you, female. Lothaire the Enemy of Old—the most feared vampire alive, the son of one king and the grandson of another—paired with a mortal? Much less a mortal of no distinction. I’m given to understand that your people are worse than peasants.”

Instead of indignation, curiosity lit her face. “Wait. I came first? You didn’t find me because of her? Hey, are you saying you’re a prince?”

“Yes, peasants,” he repeated slowly. “The lowliest of the low among humans.” Then he enunciated, “Exceedingly backward and vulgar hillbillies.”

“Been called worse, mister.” At his raised brows, she exhaled impatiently. “Bootlegger, moonshiner, Elly May Clampett, mountain mama, redneck, backwoods Bessie, hick, trailer trash, yokel, and, more recently, death-row con.”

“No references to mining? I’m disappointed.”

Sadness flashed in her expressive eyes. “My father died in a mine collapse. Ever since then, none of my kin will work underground.”

“Naturally the big bad coal company was at fault?”

“I’m sure there are nice, safe coal companies out there; Va-Co isn’t one of them. Mining’s over for us.”

“And so you remain appallingly poor.”

“S’pose so. The bottom line is that insults only hurt when they come from someone I respect.”

“Then no one’s taught you to respect your betters?”

“You think you’re better than me because you’re a prince?” Had she sounded disbelieving?

“I’m a displaced king of two vampire factions. Now I work to reclaim my thrones.” Why am I telling her this? He didn’t give a damn if she respected him. “As for the other, I think I’m better than you because you are demonstrably my inferior in every way. Intelligence, wealth, looks, bloodline, should I continue?”

She waved that away. “How’d you find me? You’re obviously rich—oh, and royalty—why would you be in one of the poorest areas in America?”