Shades of Midnight

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Synopsis

As a child, Alexandra Maguire witnessed the murder of her mother and younger brother at the hands of creatures who were like nothing she'd ever seen before. Fearing that no one would believe her she'd kept it to herself for years. Now working as a bush pilot in the Alaska wilderness, she comes upon a scene of carnage that reminds of the past. She instinctively knows that whatever killed these people now are the same monsters who killed her family, but to voice it out loud would make her sound crazy. Then a stranger comes to town and she senses that he's somehow different. As Alex and Kade grow closer, she begins to relate some of her experiences to him. Far from mocking her like she fears, he instead gradually draws her into the fantastical world of the Breed and makes her aware of the fact that she's a Breedmate, one of the rare females who can mate with vampires. However, just as she's starting to fall for Kade, Alex witnesses him running with wolves and killing a man, making her think that she's invited one of the monsters she's always feared into her life.

Kade and his twin brother, Seth, both inherited their mother's ability to psychically connect with animals. However, where Kade always tried to keep his ability carefully controlled, his brother gradually became wilder and wilder until Kade couldn't bear to watch his self-destruction anymore. Since Seth was the golden child, Kade always felt like an outcast, so he went off to Boston to join the Order. After a drug dealer posts snuff photos of the scene of the slaughter Alex witnessed online, the Order sends Kade back to his birthplace to figure out what's really going on. After seeing Alex at a town hall meeting, Kade befriends her, sensing that she could be helpful to his investigation, and when he becomes aware that she's a Breedmate, he starts to realize she's his mate. As he looks into the killings, he becomes convinced that it's probably the work of Rogues, and fears that Seth may be the culprit. Then he discovers a hidden compound linked to their mortal enemy, Dragos, and finds out that the last surviving Ancient is on the lose, posing a serious threat to Alex and all the residents of her sleepy little Alaskan town.

Review

Shades of Midnight is the seventh book in Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed series. In this one, we have Kade, a more recent recruit to the Order, who unexpectedly meets his Breedmate, Alexandra, when he's tasked with a mission back home in Harmony, Alaska. Alex is a bush pilot who, while she's making supply deliveries, happens upon the grisly scene of an entire family who've been brutally slaughtered. Back in Boston, the Order's tech wizard, Gideon, finds out about it when a shiftless drug dealer in Harmony posts snuff photos of the murder scene on the dark web. Thinking Rogues might be to blame, Lucan sends Kade to investigate, and with it being a small town, he quickly crosses paths with Alex with whom he feels an instant connection, but he struggles with being back home. He's always felt like the black sheep of the family and doesn't entirely feel welcome in their Darkhaven. Then there's his twin, Seth. Both of them inherited their mother's ability to psychically connect with animals, which resulted in a certain wildness in both of them while growing up, except that Seth took his to a more lethal level, and Kade fears that his brother may be the culprit in the murders. Alex proves helpful during Kade's investigation, and eventually he becomes aware of her being a Breedmate. Then Alex relates how she witnessed the killings of her mother and brother as a child, something he's all but certain was perpetrated by Rogues. Kade fears that if she knows the truth about him, she'll see him as a monster, too, as he sometimes views himself like one because of his wildness that has been difficult to master. He also discovers a Breed compound that appears to be linked to their mortal enemy, Dragos, and becomes aware of the last surviving Ancient on the loose, both of which pose serious dangers to both the Order and the people of Harmony.

Up until now, we haven't learned a great deal about Kade's past, as he's mostly been in the background as a newer and younger member of the Order. He was born and raised in a Darkhaven on the Alaskan frontier to a Native American mother and what appears to be a Russian (or perhaps Eastern European) father, who is the leader of their group. Growing up, his twin, Seth, was the favored son, leaving Kade feeling left out. He and Seth often played games using their psychic talent with animals, increasingly pushing their limits, but Seth crossed a line when he started using his talent to kill, becoming more and more addicted to the high of it. Unaware of his son's issues, their father always believed that Seth was the "stable" one who would one day take over the Darkhaven and his business interests, so when Nikolai (Veil of Midnight) offered Kade an opportunity to join the Order, he jumped at the chance to get away from his dysfunctional family. He's been mostly out of touch with them for the past year, and doesn't exactly receive a warm welcome when he returns. Then there's his mission to figure out what killed the people in the remote settlements, something for which Kade fears Seth is to blame. His first night in Harmony, Kade attends a town meeting about the killings where he meets Alex, to whom he feels a connection. The pair end up working together on the investigation and grow closer with Kade eventually figuring out she's a Breedmate. He didn't think he was ready for a mate, but sometimes fate calls the shots. First, though, they have to find the killer, deal with corrupt locals, figure out what Dragos is up to, and find the Ancient who's escaped, which is a lot for one supposedly sleepy little town. I liked Kade and thought he was a good guy, who simply struggles with the wildness in himself, as well as feelings of guilt for not doing more to stop his twin from going down a dark path. However, I didn't quite fall for him in the way I wanted to or the way I have some of the other heroes of the series.

As a young girl in Florida, Alexandra was traumatized by witnessing monsters killing her mother and little brother. She knows what she saw that night, but it's been difficult to process, so she keeps it to herself, fearing that no one would believe her. Afterward, her father, who was a pilot, wanted a fresh start, so he moved them to Alaska. He only recently passed away, so she's taken over their business, delivering supplies to people in the remote interior of the state. On one such run, she discovers the bodies of an entire family who've been slaughtered. She instinctively knows that the same kind of monsters that killed her family, also killed these people, but she knows that to voice it out loud would make her sound crazy. Then she meets Kade at a town meeting about the murders and senses that he's different and just might believe her. Alex wrestles with whether to tell him, and as they grow closer, she decides to take a chance. Not only does he not mock her, he gradually introduces her to a fantastical world of vampires, and the knowledge that she is one of the rare women, known as Breedmates, who have a genetic mutation that makes it possible for them to reproduce with the Breed. As Alex and Kade investigate together, she falls in love with him, but when she witnesses Kade running wild with wolves and killing a man, she wonders if she's fallen for a monster. I liked Alex and thought she was a good heroine. She's accepting of Kade in spite of the wildness in him that he fears, and helpful in a number of ways with the investigation and his family. She's also a skilled pilot who can do some pretty impressive flying. However, the thing that disappointed me about her is that we never really see her Breedmate talent in action. She's basically a human lie-detector who has the ability to discern dishonesty by merely touching a person. While she did have some sixth-sense moments regarding certain people lying to her, I don't recall a single incident of her actually touching someone to know for sure, which left me feeling unsatisfied.

Overall, I generally enjoyed Shades of Midnight, but it wasn't without its weaknesses. For one thing, I felt like the pacing was uneven. It got off to a good start with the murders, but after that the story was a little slow to develop. Eventually some more exciting events start to happen as Kade and Alex get together romantically. Then more bodies turn up, and we learn of Dragos's operation and the Ancient on the loose. But all of that climaxes about fifty pages from the end. After that it felt like a bit of a slog to the final page, with it mostly being about Kade performing a grim duty with his family and finalizing his mate bond with Alex. It's not that these parts weren't important or that I didn't find them to be emotional. I also admit that I'm not sure how the author could have done it differently, but the events just didn't feel like they were in the right order or something. We also don't really learn what Dragos's objective was, whether he was restarting his entire operation in Alaska or if it was a smaller branch of something larger. All we learn is that it's there, and the Order takes it out. The other main thing that wasn't quite up to par for me was the romance, which I felt developed a little too quickly to be entirely believable. I know that insta-love is common in paranormal romance, and I'm fine with it as long as the emotional connection is there, but a little something was missing for me here that I'm not quite able to put my finger on. Maybe it's because everything felt a little too easy between Kade and Alex. There's not a lot of conflict in their relationship to speak of, and even when a little tension arises, it's smoothed over in pretty short order. Otherwise, I liked Shades of Midnight. I liked Kade and Alex as characters and I'm willing to accept that they're right for each other. The story adds a little to the overall series arc with the Ancient doing something mysterious to Alex's best friend, Jenna, that I'm sure will come into play in the next book, where she'll be paired with Kade's best friend and fellow warrior, Brock. I think these two have a lot of potential, so I look forward to reading their story, Taken by Midnight, soon.

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Lara Adrian

Themes

Amazing Animals
Tortured Heroines