After being bitten by two Romanian vampire brothers, not only does Riley Poe recover with tendencies she the brothers’ DNA running through her blood. Victorian gets inside her dreams and Valerian traps Riley inside his body while he makes human kills.
Riley, her brother Seth, and the Dupré family return in this sequel. They are joined by a newly introduced family of Charleston vampires to try and stop the destruction of at least one brother.
Riley, her brother Seth, and the Dupré family return in this sequel. They are joined by a newly introduced family of Charleston vampires to try and stop the destruction of at least one brother.
“Soon, it would be pitch black outside— EVERDARK.[…] It meant, pretty much, everlasting darkness. That is what it felt like, too— an endless night.” (page 64)
On returning from Da Island, Riley Poe knows things will never be the same for her and her brother Seth. Rehab on Da Island spares both from turning into full vampires. Now they are “mostly mortal” with tendencies. Riley knows the truth about her rare, sweet delicious scented blood; being attractive to vampires she will always be hunted. With her tendencies her blood is less noticeable but she still needs to drink her Gullah tea. Riley would die to be able to go back to a normal- running her business, tattooing her clients as normal. Even in her own home and shop she is not safe.
Through out Everdark,the sequel in Elle Jasper’s The Dark Ink Chronicles, Riley is in constant danger and clearly has issues asking for help. This goes with her “badass”, stubborn, hard headed attitude. She states she has never been afraid of other people; this is now true for vampires as well. Fighting vampires can take the energy out of someone I think asking for help would be a necessity. Whether it’s her boyfriend Eli, his family, or her adapted Gullah grandparents she constantly refuses assistance. With her new tendencies growing she’s more powerful than before, her blood leaves her in danger. She is attacked multiple times by both vampires and newlings, those just turned. Never once calling for help, which she can do telepathically, Eli and his brothers Phin and Luc are constantly lecturing her and sending scowls her way.
While I appreciate an independent woman by the end of the novel I was a bit tired of Riley having to constantly fight in ever battle. I’m not saying she should have cowered while she waited for the men to come storming in. Three vamps on one mostly mortal woman with tendencies and special blood can be a mountain for one person to handle. Trying to fight in the two battles where vampires attacked humans is also hard to not be angry with. If Eli and Victorian, who takes no shame in letting Riley know he loves her and sexually enjoys the company in the dreams they share, agree she should not be somewhere then she should probably not be there.
The relationship between Riley and Eli I found boring and unbelievable in the sequel. During the first few sections of the book I felt no passion between the two even while they were in the throws of passion. The relationship seemed more like the two together before Riley had tendencies so they may as well stay together. Riley seems more like an object Eli needs to protect. I just wasn’t convinced that Riley really meant it when she said she needed him, or his kisses and his touch drugged her. The lust and passion between Victorian and Riley is what I really believed. In her dreams Victorian barely touched her and she was ready and willing to orgasm. The want and need he felt for Riley is greater in amount than what I saw Eli feel for her.
Victorian has these almost erotic dreams with Riley. In the beginning she hates the dreams but as she realizes that Victorian isn’t as bad as the Duprés think he is she uses these encounters as a way to question Vick, as she begins to call him.
What Valerian puts Ri, Riley’s much used nickname, is magnificently worse. Valerian traps Riley in his body while he goes on human kills. Seeing everything through life-like visions, the Romanian vampire tends to attack attracted, wasted, young women who believe they are going to have a quickie with this man. Sometimes he fondles the women before he goes for the gruesome kill.
At one point I was reminded of Dracula by Bram Stoker. Having your blood sucked is a metaphor for an orgasm. Dracula’s female victims usually moan and groan while having her blood sucked much like they would during an orgasm. Unlike in Dracula, these experiences were definitely more sexually desirable to Valerian unlike. Lucy Westenra, Dracula’s first victim, clearly enjoys what Dracula does to her. With Valerian there is one instance when a particular woman, if the life was not being drained out of her, may have sexually enjoyed his blood sucking.
“He’d paralyzed her, but her heart still thumped erratically, and with every wild beat, her warm blood pumped just as fiercely into his mouth, his throat, like an ejaculation. It was a sexual rush as well as a frenzied, necessary feed. It got him off, and, as he drained her blood, he came, hard, fast.” (page 152)
For the sake of suspense I was hoping Noah, a Charleston vampire and old friend to the Dupré family, was going to turn out to be a double crosser. There was enough evidence. A scary tension lingered in the air once the vampires and Riley arrived in Charleston whenever Noah was present. Perhaps in the third installment we’ll learn he’s working with Valerian. What a good twist that will make.
In the last pages of the novel, a battle breaks out in a club when vampires attack mortals. Our vampire avengers show up. Eli wants Riley gone and physically pushes her away. Mean while Victorian has been trying to drag her out. Riley lets him, willing getting in Vick’s car and driving off with him. Eli and Riley are now separated and she is the hands of Eli’s enemy.
On returning from Da Island, Riley Poe knows things will never be the same for her and her brother Seth. Rehab on Da Island spares both from turning into full vampires. Now they are “mostly mortal” with tendencies. Riley knows the truth about her rare, sweet delicious scented blood; being attractive to vampires she will always be hunted. With her tendencies her blood is less noticeable but she still needs to drink her Gullah tea. Riley would die to be able to go back to a normal- running her business, tattooing her clients as normal. Even in her own home and shop she is not safe.
Through out Everdark,the sequel in Elle Jasper’s The Dark Ink Chronicles, Riley is in constant danger and clearly has issues asking for help. This goes with her “badass”, stubborn, hard headed attitude. She states she has never been afraid of other people; this is now true for vampires as well. Fighting vampires can take the energy out of someone I think asking for help would be a necessity. Whether it’s her boyfriend Eli, his family, or her adapted Gullah grandparents she constantly refuses assistance. With her new tendencies growing she’s more powerful than before, her blood leaves her in danger. She is attacked multiple times by both vampires and newlings, those just turned. Never once calling for help, which she can do telepathically, Eli and his brothers Phin and Luc are constantly lecturing her and sending scowls her way.
While I appreciate an independent woman by the end of the novel I was a bit tired of Riley having to constantly fight in ever battle. I’m not saying she should have cowered while she waited for the men to come storming in. Three vamps on one mostly mortal woman with tendencies and special blood can be a mountain for one person to handle. Trying to fight in the two battles where vampires attacked humans is also hard to not be angry with. If Eli and Victorian, who takes no shame in letting Riley know he loves her and sexually enjoys the company in the dreams they share, agree she should not be somewhere then she should probably not be there.
The relationship between Riley and Eli I found boring and unbelievable in the sequel. During the first few sections of the book I felt no passion between the two even while they were in the throws of passion. The relationship seemed more like the two together before Riley had tendencies so they may as well stay together. Riley seems more like an object Eli needs to protect. I just wasn’t convinced that Riley really meant it when she said she needed him, or his kisses and his touch drugged her. The lust and passion between Victorian and Riley is what I really believed. In her dreams Victorian barely touched her and she was ready and willing to orgasm. The want and need he felt for Riley is greater in amount than what I saw Eli feel for her.
Victorian has these almost erotic dreams with Riley. In the beginning she hates the dreams but as she realizes that Victorian isn’t as bad as the Duprés think he is she uses these encounters as a way to question Vick, as she begins to call him.
What Valerian puts Ri, Riley’s much used nickname, is magnificently worse. Valerian traps Riley in his body while he goes on human kills. Seeing everything through life-like visions, the Romanian vampire tends to attack attracted, wasted, young women who believe they are going to have a quickie with this man. Sometimes he fondles the women before he goes for the gruesome kill.
At one point I was reminded of Dracula by Bram Stoker. Having your blood sucked is a metaphor for an orgasm. Dracula’s female victims usually moan and groan while having her blood sucked much like they would during an orgasm. Unlike in Dracula, these experiences were definitely more sexually desirable to Valerian unlike. Lucy Westenra, Dracula’s first victim, clearly enjoys what Dracula does to her. With Valerian there is one instance when a particular woman, if the life was not being drained out of her, may have sexually enjoyed his blood sucking.
“He’d paralyzed her, but her heart still thumped erratically, and with every wild beat, her warm blood pumped just as fiercely into his mouth, his throat, like an ejaculation. It was a sexual rush as well as a frenzied, necessary feed. It got him off, and, as he drained her blood, he came, hard, fast.” (page 152)
For the sake of suspense I was hoping Noah, a Charleston vampire and old friend to the Dupré family, was going to turn out to be a double crosser. There was enough evidence. A scary tension lingered in the air once the vampires and Riley arrived in Charleston whenever Noah was present. Perhaps in the third installment we’ll learn he’s working with Valerian. What a good twist that will make.
In the last pages of the novel, a battle breaks out in a club when vampires attack mortals. Our vampire avengers show up. Eli wants Riley gone and physically pushes her away. Mean while Victorian has been trying to drag her out. Riley lets him, willing getting in Vick’s car and driving off with him. Eli and Riley are now separated and she is the hands of Eli’s enemy.