Even though I’m STILL waiting for some kind of resolution to the Immortals After Dark series, I mean I am keeping hope alive that eventually Furie, Nix, and Kristoff will get at least a HEA, I have a Kresley Cole addiction, which means I IMMEDIATELY wanted to get my hands on a copy of Ravenous as soon as it was announced. Did I care that this would be all new characters? Lol, no. Did I care that it’s labeled as a different series as IAD? Also, no.

Ravenous is all at once completely different than Immortals After Dark, and yet exactly the same. Same feel, same Valkyries, Lykae, witches, vampires, berserkers, and demons- just new characters you’ve never met before. It also takes place in a new setting – essentially a parallel world- and has many, many different POVs. So many that I wasn’t sure I could keep track of everything that was happening at first. Yes, once I got into it I realized that this book was a pretty easy read.

This new world is called Skein, and they also have an Accession every 500 years, and it seems readers have been dropped right at the beginning of the next one. Skein is a violent land, and it appears to be having problems with food and magic supplies. There are many, many new faces that represent each of the factions and Kresley Cole seems to be pairing them off even while she’s shifting POVs so often.

Here’s the main lineup of POVs:

Lia- A vampire princess who escapes to Berkserker lands, after her father proses a truly heinous plan for her to replenish the vampire population.

Arctos- A berserker who hasn’t reached immortality yet, he just needs one more kill, and is married off to Lia. He really hates vampires, because they killed his parents.

Thane- King of the Lykae, who has lived a thousand years and has fallen into gluttony and pleasure-only to realize his mate is one of his greatest enemies.

Ditch- Who suddenly appears one day as head of the witches, but she’s also a demon with demon traits and she’s been tasked with seeing the witches through the accession. She prefers to take over all of Skein.

Inkletter- An incubus who does work for certain people and gets information through seduction.

Nadje- Once seduced by Inkletter, yet she turned the tables to help her vampire princess escape. Now she continues to work in Bloodreach castle yet does all kinds of side jobs to make coin, which she hoards.

There is also Lowell and Mina- the second in commands to Thane and Ditch, who I was rooting for practically the whole book and then—- not going to spoil it, but I’m super irritated.

Oh, I forgot the Valkyrie sisters, Ven and Eyrun, who just generally cause madness and mayhem, but their POVs do introduce another would be seer to the whole accession equation.

All in all, this book is much more plot-based rather than romance focused, so if you are looking for some quick HEAs you might want to wait until all the books are out to read. There are no HEAs here, and one hell of a cliffhanger. Each of the characters have important roles to play for their factions in the accession, and I do see happier times ahead for SOME of the would-be couples. But for now, you’ll have to enjoy this dive into an all-new world, with familiar writing and storytelling.

I’m quite invest now with these new characters and their struggles with each other at the beginning of the accession and will most definitely be picking up the next book in the series.

Grade- B