Mary Wienckowski Wienckowski itibaren Perovo, Moskovskaya oblast', ರಷ್ಯಾ, 140479 itibaren Perovo, Moskovskaya oblast', ರಷ್ಯಾ, 140479

Dark Needs at Night's Edge is a modern, more intensely paranormal version of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Rex Harrison: making ghosts sexy since 1947. It is, to date, my absolute favourite book in this series. Not that it's really had that much competition. So far it stands against an abductor, rapist, Sebastian/Kaderine who rock, and Bowen/Marie who don't. Conrad, a bloodmad and vicious vampire, is captured by his three brothers and trapped in an old mansion to help recover his sanity. Néomi, a 1920's Prima Ballerina (and former Burlesque dancer) currently haunts said mansion as this was where she was violently murdered. Burlesque, aye? I like her already! Of course, the sexually confidant, lively and brazen ghost is the perfect partner for virginal, uptight and angry Conrad. Their seduction and romance is, for most of this novel, based on their attraction to each other and telling each other every little thing they would do if only they could touch. Néomi absolutely made this novel for me. She was so confidant in her sexuality, so proud of her achievements, so full of life! Conrad's inability to be the typical alpha male with her was also just SO damn refreshing. He couldn't push her around, bully her or trap her. And when it came to wooing her, he couldn't just take her for a walk on the beach or start kissing her. The creepy atmosphere created at the beginning of the novel, as well as the slow burn relationship build between Néomi and Conrad, separates this book from a genre which is all about waiting for the next titty grap or alpha male bullshit that is supposedly romantic. This book would have absolutely gotten four stars from me if the ending weren't a little contrived toward HEA. The first 90% of this book was so well written, so romantic, so lovely that I was absolutely enchanted. Spoiled only in the last 10% by Cole bending over backwards to give us a "perfect" ending. If you never pick up another Cole novel because you are afraid of the romance industry mainstays of the ultra masculine male and the stockholm syndrome suffering female, then at least feel confidant that with Dark Needs at Night's Edge, Cole did something nicely different.

Like "The Stolen Child" and "The Time Traveler's Wife", this story is so endearing and full of emotion that you can't help but love them all. I just love these stories that are so fantastical and impossible but so full of haunting, thought provoking emotion. I loved this one and I absolutely loved Max. Can't stop thinking about it!