I am a huge Kresley Cole fan. I find her writing tight, her characters hilarious, and I love the way she twists common paranormal situations, putting her own spin on it.
I discovered her through her Immortals After Dark series. After I finished that series, I looked to see what else she had written. No more paranormals, but she did have two historical series.
While I’m not the biggest historical fan, I do enjoy a good historical romance—especially historical highlander romance—so I picked up her other books. While I did not enjoy them quite as much as her paranormals, I still found them to be good reads and thought them well worth my reading time.
So here I am now, firmly established as a Kresley Cole fangirl, and KC has thrown me another curveball: She is spinning her IAD world into another series.
Good news, right? Well, in this case, she’s writing in YA, a genre I do not read at all.
I’ve heard the rumors that she has not one but two spin-offs of her IAD world. One series is a paranormal romance series focusing on the Dacian vampires (and I am so there), but the other series will be YA, focusing on the young’uns of the Lore and featuring Thad, that strapping half-vampire/half-phantom we first met in Dreams of a Dark Warrior.
I adored Thad in that book, especially his interactions with Lothaire. But a whole series based on Lore teens? Hmmm…
Right now details are scarce, so speculation is rampant about where she might be going with this series. I know some people are bursting at the seams with excitement over the thought of a YA Lore book. Me, I’m kind of caught in the middle of things; I love Kresley Cole’s writing, but several of the things I love about her writing are firmly in the “Adult” side of things—the sexual tension and yearning foremost in that category. And her humor, which I absolutely adore, is very often of an adult nature as well.
But I also know Kresley Cole writes authentic characters with strong voices. While I haven’t read a ton of YA, one of the things that kept me from really reading the genre is every protagonist (usually female) sounded exactly like every other protagonist. When I had a hard time remembering which character was in which book, I stopped seeking out YA books.
I also know that Cole writes larger-than-life situations and emotions without the plot going into the ridiculous, which is a very fine line, but one at which Cole excels. One of my other problems with YA is because we are dealing with teens, every detail—real or imagined—seems to be THE. END. OF. THE. WORLD. But Cole has already demonstrated that she excels in this type of high-emotion, high-stakes writing, so I know I won’t be rolling my eyes every five minutes over another outburst.
And then, there is Thad. Thad was great, he was awesome, and he seemed a natural part of the world, not shoved in there as series bait. While I was reading Dark Warrior, I actually did think it was too bad he was so young that he wouldn’t be getting his own book. Now, I’m getting my chance to spend more time with him, and if I could enjoy one teenager Kresley Cole wrote, it just makes sense I’m going to like the lot of them.
In the end, I don’t think I have a choice. I love the IAD world, and the thought of missing out on stories set there makes me have sad face. I will trust Kresley Cole and follow her down another path in this world she has created. She hasn’t let me down yet.
Danielle Monsch is a Romantic Geek Girl Writing in a Fantasy World. Besides torturing her poor, poor editor about her latest story, Dani likes to read manga and watch anime, debate the merits of DC vs. Marvel, and geek out over the latest and greatest romance novel offerings. Catch up with Dani on Twitter @DaniMonsch
