Possess Me at Midnight
4 Stars

Good world building, some intense and emotional moments, and a satisfying ending.

Ice is an incredible hero - honest, honorable and dignified. He is the personification of goodness which is all the more significant given the fact that he is one of the deprived and as such discriminated against as well as being considered mentally unstable.

Sabelle is a difficult heroine. She is caught between her growing feelings for Ice, on the one hand, and her duty toward her brother and magickind, on the other. Her actions are annoying at times, particularly her inability to trust Ice's obvious love for her. Thankfully, she comes to her senses before I wrote her off completely and is eventually worthy of Ice's devotion. Their romance is emotional and enjoyable.

The secondary characters are the most problematic aspect of the book. Bram is an elitist and manipulative jerk. His personal prejudice against Ice comes to a fore and had me questioning whether I would ever want to read a book with him as a hero - luckily he has a few installments to redeem himself. Lucan also comes across as selfish for much of the book but ultimately makes the right choice so I will forgive him for now.

The plot is action packed from start to finish with some interesting twists and turns, and the villain is as evil as ever.

It should be interesting to see how things develop in the next book.
( )

The hero is considered mad after he loses his beloved sister as goes on a killing spree to take out 100 of those involved. Already he comes from a lower class of wizard and is therefore deemed unworthy of heroine who is of a higher class. From the get go, the hero is devoted to her, protect and possessive. The heroine is unnerved but aroused at the fact that he is always watching her. She feels honor bound to mate with a male of her brother choosing because he saved her life as a child. Her brother is in a coma for the major of the book and when he awakens, the sickness has made him power hungry and ruthless. I hated the brother until the very end because of what he was willing to do to save his world. The heroine, however made me the most angry. He indecisiveness and weak willed nature allowed for no independence or choice in her mate. She neither accepted the hero's claim no turned him down. Instead she stings him along for the whole book. She loves him and knows that she's breaking his heart but refuses to grow a back bone. To doubt his love for you after what you've been through and what amazing binding sex you've had is really stupid. That being said, I absolutely loved this book. A great book keeps you engaged and makes you feel invested in the story and the characters and this book kept me on the edge of my seat. ( )

This third installment of the Doomsday Brethren series was just as satisfying as the previous two. The author left me intrigued by tons of things and asking so many questions, yet I had a sense of completion after I closed the cover. I really enjoyed these two character and them together was a sizzling combination. I hated how much of a jerk Bram becomes in this book and how Mathias seems to be as freaking un-killable as the Terminator. The plot is good and the major battle scenes were pretty cool and super exciting. I can't wait until the next book, its going to be great. ( )

Possess Me at Midnight (The Doomsday Brethren, Book 3) by Shayla Black
Paranormal Romance- October 29th, 2009
5 stars

This book was all I expected and MORE. Shayla Black really delivers the goods in her 3rd installment of the Doomsday Brethren. Although this series is very complex Shayla Black's clear writing catches your attention and keeps it! As soon as I began reading, I easily felt a part of the story. However, since there are an impressive list of characters and more being added in this latest book, new readers might want to read one of the prior books to help orient themselves first.

In this story the smoldering and forbidden passion between Sabelle and Ice is finally realized! And the interaction between the 2 is a sheer adrenaline rush !

Shayla Black does a magnificent job of creating a sympathetic hero with a dark past. Ice is a Deprived male and as such viewed as expendable even as he helps the Doomsday cause. Ice was especially vilified when he went on a killing rampage after his sister was murdered. I really admired Ice. As I came to understand him and sympathize the strong and fierce warrior he has become. Ice is honorable and misunderstood and driven to claim Sabelle even as he tries to protect her from his `tainted' origins. Torn between the overwhelming mating urge that knows she is the only one for him and trying to keep her safe Ice is the perfect tortured hero. Sigh!

Sabelle tries to fight against the deep attraction for Ice because any real connection to him is futile since she is promised to a Privileged male. It was great to read as Sabelle `grew up' and started to think about what she wanted besides her brother's wishes for political gain. She had to take the leap to trust and open herself to Ice. The only frustrating section for me is that Sabelle took so long to `surrender' to Ice. Really, why resist?!

We also find Bram overcome by a debilitating and lethal disease and Shayla Black reveals a dark side to Bram that was disturbing. Lucan is trying to recover from his severed bond with Anka but she keeps reappearing and tempting him. I was also tantalized by glimpses of Shock, the supposed enemy. He plays some key roles that made me wonder which side he really was on. And questions about the real powers of the Doomsday Diary and the murder/terrorizing of Council members are investigated. It is just too much tension. I can't wait until the next book! A whole year?! Please make it sooner!

Full of magic, intrigue and sexual tension this was an exhilarating read from start to finish!

Reviewed by Steph from the Bookaholics Romance Book Club ( )