rubya

I really liked the concept behind the Immortals After Dark series, particularly since I'm looking for some good paranormals after The Black Dagger Brotherhood. This novella acts as an introduction to the series and it left me mildly disappointed. The story felt rushed and it felt like the author was trying to do a whole lot in a very short book. I feel like this book would have made a very good 300 pager, and I was a little annoyed at how crowded the plot was and how undeveloped the characters were. I mean, there's a reason fantasy fiction tends to be tremendously long in terms of page length and I think it's because the author must create a new world for the reader and introduce him/her to it. In reading this novella, I felt thrown into the universe of the novel and didn't get a good feel for the way things worked. The "romance" between Myst and Wroth confused me and didn't quite move me because I didn't have an opportunity to see who these characters were so I couldn't really care about them. As a taste of the series and an introduction to Cole's writing style (in some ways, very Wardian,) this novella does its job and I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into the first (real) book of the series. As a standalone novella, The Warlord Wants Forever is mediocre at best in my opinion.