Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night by Kresley Cole

One of the topics of discussion at the SoCal bloggers lunch was about what an ancient vampire/werewolf/fae would see in a modern day woman/man with barely any life experience. What would they talk about? A being who has been alive for several hundred years would have seen and experienced a lot.

Now I'm a curious person and I've learned a lot of different things, experienced a lot of different things in the last 10 years. When I multiply that by 10 or 30 I think about all the stuff I might have seen, done and learned. After so much time would I find a conversation with someone several hundred years younger than me interesting? What might attract me to a person so much younger and with so much less life experience...besides the obvious of course. After the sex, assuming THAT was the main attraction, what would you talk about? When the novelty of the sex wears off is it possible to span an age gap of centuries and have a real and balanced relationship?

Coincidentally, I'd begun this post before reading WICKED DEED ON A WINTER'S NIGHT by Kresley Cole. I didn't know that I was going to be reading a book that actually addresses this very issue. I don't want to give the impression the topic is given a lot of time in the story, but it was refreshing that it was dealt with at all. I've never read a book (that I remember) where the couple actually made jokes about the age difference. Where the author directly points out that perhaps 23 years old is a tad green for someone 1200 years old. Or the reverse that someone 1200 years old, and bitter about what life has dished out, is too old and cynical for a modern day 23 year old.

Obvious obstacles like music, POV and technology are at least acknowledged. While the book doesn't get into the nitty gritty of these things in any great detail it was refreshing to have it recognized and discussed in an entertaining way.

Yes, Bowen the Bitter MacRieve is Lykae and Mariketa the Awaited is a witch. Yes, there are elements of the "you are my mate" thing going on, but it didn't stop me from enjoying a tale about two people with a huge age gap, trust issues, and who are cross species to boot. Aside from the annoying Scottish brogue written into the dialogue I was engrossed and amused by this book. You can read an excerpt here.

If you've liked the previous entries in Ms. Cole's Immortals After Dark series, you'll like this one too. I know I did.

The books in order are:

A Hunger Like No Other
No Rest for the Wicked
Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night