In Ashes Of Midnight….we get the exciting continuation of the series and yummy we get Andreas Story. I have truly admired this character for the majority of the series and I love seeing how he has helped the order. This book was quite heartbreaking for me at times because Andreas is going through hell. He lost his coven….they were murdered and not just his men….but women and their children were all slaughtered. He is out for vengeance, and he has a burning hatred building inside him….a burning that may destroy him if not for the good woman he has always loved and stands by him. Claire is going through her own hell, when her mate betrays her and doesn’t seem to care if she is in danger or not. She has always loved Andreas, but he left her and never returned. Now circumstances have changed for both of them, and we see these two and their courage and love they have for each other. These two are split in moments of the book, which is understandable given the circumstances, and I loved the way they protect and stand for each other. It was quite remarkable to see and I just craved more of these two and my heart was so saddened when the book was over. This story was thrilling, passionate and full of adventure and suspense…..gimme more!!!

I'm glad it wasn't a sad ending... But at the same time...that was too conveniently positive. Hmmm

Really, more like 3.5. I've been honestly hooked to Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed series. I loved loved loved the 3rd and 4th book, and the 5th did not leave me disappointed. However there was just something SO frustrating about this book. Don't get me wrong: there were a lot of positives as well. The saving grace of this book, that pulled it up from a 3 to a 3.5 almost 4 was the action. It has probably some of the most intense and most addicting action scenes in the whole series so far. It kept me interested, scared, and on my toes. Holy hell the last fight scene. (LOOK FORWARD TO IT FUTURE READERS!) Also. "Holy hell" Renata is fucking amazing. If I gave her shit for being a bit too standoffish and hard to relate to from the previous book, I want to take that all back. She is so fucking kick ass, I pretty much want to be her. As you can see, I just complimented Renata instead of Claire... yeah, that's because I really didn't understand what was so great about her. I understand she's pretty, she's wise, she can hold her face up in almost any situation, whatever whatever. But honestly I found her so... useless. I honestly need more Renata and Elise's out there. Despite the fact that Andreas called Claire strong and his beacon whatever whatever, I just could not find that strength in her. Even though Dylan in book 4, didn't have the fighting and survival skills of Renata or even Elise, I found her much more logical, strong-willed, and relatable than Claire. Okay, I'm sorry for hating on Claire. It may just be that I will always have this part of me that wishes Helene was a breedmate and her and Andreas ended up working out. Now, HELENE was a strong character and I LOVED her bad ass business women like ways. I was heartbroken when she was killed off in the last book, and was desperately hoping that Claire could step in and be even better than Helene. However, I feel like Claire's a step down from Helene for Andreas... I'm totally being bitter betty, but I can't help it. HELENE WAS AWESOME, OKAY?! I guess I don't want to put all the blame on Claire. I felt that out of all the books and characters so far, Andreas' and Claire's relationship has been the most frustrating. The back and forth dance they did was not fun or exciting-just frustrating. Neither of them made logical sense and I felt like I was witnessing a downward spiral that would only be fixed in the last 3 pages of the book (which is pretty much what happened). Sure there were other illogical frustrating parts to the last few books (ie. Renata-Niko-Mira's relationship, Dylan's spontaneous escape out the apartment window, Elise and Tegan's tango, etc) but... this relationship definitely was the most difficult to read straight through without a few pauses here and there to complain about the two characters. Ah I feel like I only ever say the bad things about books I read, I guess I feel that if I'm giving it a decent rating, then it's an over all enjoyable read, but there were certain annoyances. So in the end I'll say this: Definitely a worth while read to continue the series. However, it's not one of the more memorable relationships in the series, and it's not one I plan on rereading any time soon. Action scenes were great, the secondary characters were fantastic (particularly Tegan and Renata), the sex scenes of course are awesome, just the character development and some of the choices they made, made this rating falter compared to the last few books in the series.