The latest entry in the Castle of Dark Dreams. Like the others it's fun - the landscape peopled with unusual characters with strange problems and a sense of humor. Sparkle Stardust and Ganymede reprise their cosmic troublemaker roles although Sparkle is undergoing an identity crisis - in her attempts to swim out of the shallows of her character she actually goes shopping at WalMart. We have a new bunch of hunky guys [loosely speaking] to replace Eric, Brynn and Conall. There's Bain [demon lord], Edge [cosmic troublemaker specializing in death] and of course our hero, Dacian, a nightfeeder with severe anger management issues. Tuarin [Dacian's brother and misguided villain from Wicked Nights] and Eric [the hero from Wicked Nights and a friend of Dacian's in the past] both show up along with their wives.

The heroine is Cinn - a botanist with a penchant for developing truly weird plants and the source of the sex energy feeding Jessica and Sweetie Pie plants in the previous books - is hired by Sparkle to devlop more plants of interest. At least that's what the contract she signed says... But why is there a mostly naked man with fangs chained to the wall and some weirdo claiming to be a wizard in the hall? And then there are the talking cats...

Sparkle explains: âSo here's the deal. Yes, vampires do exist, along with lots of other nonhumans. Edge and I are cosmic troublemakers. My specialty is creating sexual chaos throughout the universe. Edge is the cosmic troublemaker in charge of death. You can guess what he does. Bain is a demon, and yes, Holgarth is a real wizard.â She held up her hand to stop Cinn from interrupting. âLet me finish.â

Cinn had no intention of interrupting. No way could she talk with her jaw dragging on the floor.

And that's before she finds out there's a very pissed off Celtic goddess after her...

Castle of Dark Dreams
1. Wicked Nights (2005)
2. Wicked Pleasure (2006)
3. Wicked Fantasy (2007)
4. My Wicked Vampire (2009)

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I really enjoy the Castle of Dark Dreams series and while I'm not sorry I read this book, I have to say I found it mediocre at best. I thought the two main characters were flat, not well developed at all, and I honestly couldn't force myself to care about them. The supporting characters, on the other hand, made the whole book. I especially liked Zane and really hope we get to read his story sometime in the not so distant future.

IMHO, not Ms. Bangs' best work.

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I love Nina Bangs' Castle of Dark Dreams series! I'm sure part of that is because I'm from Houston, and the castle is in Galveston. It's funny for Cinn and Sparkle to talk about going to the big-box store on Sea Wall Blvd and know exactly what store they're talking about! Besides that, she does a wonderful job of creating and developing her characters. The women are never too needy, and the men are not over the top cavemen. Her sense of humor is divine, and her characters retain consistent personalities throughout the series. Before Holgarth opens his mouth, you already know where it's going because you know him so well. It's a lot of fun with some steamy bits to boot!

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Cinn can make plants that feed off sexual energy. Wow! Then she meets a fab hunky Vampire named Dacian. The plot is strong and you know from the beginning that there is gonna be a kick-butt battle between cosmic nonhumans and the undead night feeders! Plus a little erotic sex thrown in makes this a horror fantasy readers dream come true.

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I had really high hopes when I picked this book up. Others in this series have had laugh out load humor between the characters and put a smile on your face as you read it. This one, not so much. I wasn't keen with the plants and maybe that made the difference for me. Dacian and Cinn were good though with plenty of interaction with the secondary characters. Still a good read...

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