Wicked After Midnight
Author: Delilah S. Dawson
Reviewer: Jennifer
Rating: B
What I’m Talking About:
Delilah S. Dawson has created a unique world with her Blud series. The Strangers are human who has been transported to Sang from Earth. Tish (Wicked as They Come) came by way of her dreams, Casper (Wicked as She Wants) has a motorcycle accident that left him in a coma, and now Wicked After Midnight we have another Stranger, Demi who drank too much while partying in college and died of alcohol poisoning.
Demi was saved by Criminy, the hero of Wicked as They Came, and her boss as the ringmaster of the caravan she works at. He found her in Sang naked and nearly dead, he bludded, aka turned her into a Bludman to save her life. She has been working for him for the last 6 years.
Demi maybe 6 years older but in many ways, she still asks like a bratty college co-ed. She dreams of running away from the circus (while others dream of running away to the circus). She wants to become a famous star in Paris within a cabaret. She and her best friend, Cherie, another bludman in the caravan, run off to make their fortune (although Cherie is fine staying put).
On the road to Paris, Cherie is taken and Demi works with the mysterious Vale to try to find her. Vale and Demi have an attraction. For much of the book, Demi got on my nerves because of how she treated Vale. He clearly cared about her and she often forgot about saving her friend because she was too busy enjoying the fame she found in Paries. But once it became apparent that was part of the villain’s plan to get Demi into his trap I started to see her differently.
Wicked After Midnight deals with the dangers of getting what you wished for and how those things might not be the best thing for you. There were some dark elements to the story like the addiction and sexual abuse. I felt like Dawson did a good job keeping some light within the dark by sprinkling humor into the story. By the end of the story, I wasn’t 100% convinced that Demi deserved Vale. I feel like he was the better person of the two and he loved her more deeply than she did him.
Wicked After Midnight is the last full-length novel in the Blud series, but there’s a novella about Tish and Criminy, Wicked Ever After and few short stories I would like to read. If you’re looking for a short series to binge read in the paranormal romance genre with unique world-building I would highly recommend the Blud series.
My Rating: B, Liked It
Jennifer
About the Book:
A contortionist and a rakish brigand navigate the cabarets of Paris to rescue a girl taken by slavers in the third steampunk-tinged romance of the Blud series.
Life as a contortionist in Criminy’s Clockwork Caravan should be the height of exotic adventure, but for Demi Ward, it’s total dullsville. Until her best friend, Cherie, is stolen by slavers outside of Paris, and Demi is determined to find her.
On the run from his own past, Vale Hildebrand, a dashing rogue of a highwayman, hides Demi from the slavers…but why? He pledges to help her explore the glittering cabarets of Paris to find her friend, but much to Vale’s frustration, Demi soon attracts a host of wealthy admirers. The pleasures of music, blood, and absinthe could turn anyone’s head, and it would be all too easy to accept Cherie’s disappearance as inevitable—but with Vale’s ferocious will and Demi’s drive to find her friend, they soon have a lead on a depraved society of Parisian notables with a taste for beautiful lost girls. Can Demi wind her way through the seedy underbelly of Paris and save her best friend before she, too, is lost?
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Publisher: Pocket Books
Series: Blud #3
Genre: Steampunk, Paranormal Romance
Format(s): paperback (429 pages), e-book
Book Source: Purchased
Purchase Info:
Amazon (affiliate link)
Reviews in the series:
Wicked as They Come by Delilah S. Dawson (Blud #1)
Wicked as She Wants by Delilah S. Dawson (Blud #2)