Pleasures of the Night

I literally read this book from cover to cover in 2 days! It's a very steamy page turner for sure! I highly recommend!!!! Now I'm on to book 2 and I can't wait to dive right in!

I love Sylvia Day's writing. I love her voice and I think she's a really talented writer (with great talent at drawing sex scenes to die for). Pleasures of the Night is my very favorite Avon Red title so far (which says a lot given the extraordinarily talented authors in their line). The universe of dreamers, guardians and nightmares Day has created is wonderfully creative and fresh. The interaction between Lyssa and Aidan is, guh, whee! HOT! Lyssa is a marvelously drawn heroine, I loved her. I loved her strength and yay, oh so freaking yay for a heroine who loves sex! She's no shrinking violet and when Aidan needs help, she risks everything to get it to him. Aidan Cross, sigh. What a hero. Okay, my weakness is admittedly, the dark haired warrior type who's all gruff but adores the heroine. Aidan is that and more. He's also a dirty talker. What? When it's done well, I think it's hotter than fire and Day does it well. The backstory about the key, the mystery of what it is, who and what the guardians are and what they might be hiding and the conceptual moving between worlds is done really well here and Day has given readers the beginning of a fresh new paranormal world with the potential to have more stories of some of the very delicious warriors she introduced us to.

According to legend, the Nightmares found a Key into their old world and spread, killing everything. The Elders barely had time to create a fissure within abbreviated space that allowed them to escape into a conduit plane between the human dimension and the one the Guardians had been forced to leave behind. Nearly immortal, the Guardians are dedicated to battling the Nightmares, the Healers and Nurturers are dedicated to healing those damaged. All this is done in the realm of dreams... The Elite Guardians have one primary mission: find the Key and destroy it. Spending their lives fighting Nightmares, each Elite Guardian searches for that one Dreamer that may be the Key that would destroy their world. For many years now Aidan Cross, Captain of the Elite Guard, has doubted the existence of the Key. One night, Aidan is ordered to approach a dreamer that has built a barrier that stops Guardians and Nightmares alike from crossing into her dreams. Being a legend among his people for being the best Guardian that there has ever been, Aidan prepares himself for an assignment like no other he's faced before. Not expecting to be able to complete his assignment successfully, Aidan is surprised when the Dreamer opens the door to him without a fight. Lyssa Gates has been sick and has had sleep disorders as far back as she can remember, including a particularly frightening stretch of time where she was plagued by nightmares as a child. After constant misdiagnoses and medications of one sort or another to help her sleep, she's had enough. Convinced that she's not going to live for all that much longer, she's decided that she's had enough of being treated as a pincushion and has given up on the doctors' ability to help. Lyssa spends most of her time at her veterinary clinic where she helps small animals and has an affinity with her patients that few other vets are blessed with. There was yet another pounding on her door, demanding entrance. Lyssa doesn't know who these people are, but all she wants to do is sleep. Tired, she was always so tired. A deep voice with a luscious accent answers her question of who is at the door this time. Again, the answer she receives is...it is whoever she wants it to be. Idiots. If he can't answer with the truth, he can just go the hell away. Aidan is surprised when the Dreamer behind the door knows that she's in a dream. After she allows him in, she seems to feel that she can trust him even though she doesn't know a thing about him. There's something different about her she makes him feel. For centuries, he's buried his emotions but this one small woman reaches him without trying, makes him want what he's never allowed himself to. Before long he realizes that he needs her, she fills the void in him that he never thought could ever be filled...he needs to get away from her, fast. Pleasures Of The Night is one of those rare books that completely took over my consciousness. I stepped into this alt

Long ago, a tiny crack had been made by the Elders between the Twilight and our world. There is no way to close the crack and keep the Nightmares out. They could only supply damage control. Nightmares are real beings. The dreams created by the human mind had given Nightmares a new power source to thrive upon. Fear, fury, misery are easily aroused through dreams and fed the Nightmares well. Should the Nightmares enter our world, they will feed on all human dreamers until the race becomes extinct. The Nightmares have done so to other worlds. The Dream Guardians enter a Dreamer's dream, becomes whoever he or she wishes the Guardian to be, and fulfills every erotic desire. By doing so, the Guardians keep the Nightmares at bay and the Dreamers safe. And whenever given the chance, the Guardian kills all the Nightmare entities he is able. Legend has it that somewhere in our world is a special Dreamer, the Key. For centuries the Guardians have hunted the Key. The Key has the power to open the Gateway and allow the Nightmares free entry. Therefore, once found, the Key is to be eliminated. The Key will be able to bar both Nightmares and Guardians with her door. Once the Guardian gets inside though, the Key will actually be able to see into the Twilight. Thus, Guardians look for four abilities. The Key can see the Guardian's true feature, will know the Guardian's real name, can take control of the dreams, and any nearby Nightmares will become confused and disoriented. Captain Aidan Cross has been a Guardian for centuries. He now doubts that the Key is anything other than a myth. Yet devoted to the cause, he continues his erotic duties with female Dreamers. Some Dreamers shut away parts of themselves so securely, not even the Guardians could enter. Usually this is due to past abuse or something. Being one of the best Guardians, the Elders send Aidan to the dream door of Dr. Lyssa Bates in hope that Aidan can persuade her to open her dream door to him, where others before Aidan failed. Dr. Lyssa Bates has one of the biggest veterinary practices in San Diego. She also has one of the biggest cases of insomnia. Despite a battery of tests, nothing physically wrong shows up and no prescription medicine works. Lyssa has never been able to remember her dreams, but now she can't reach a deep sleep and it's making her sick. But then Aidan comes along. Aidan is the only one Lyssa will allow into her dreams. No Guardian before or after him has succeeded. But the only thing Aidan sees when he is admitted entrance is blackness. Lyssa does not even know how to turn on the lights in her dream, much less see any fantasies. There is nothing wrong with the veterinarian, no past trauma, no mental illness. She just sits in the dark, wishing she could see. Being exclusively assigned to Lyssa, Aidan begins helping her to reach deep sleep, A.K.A. turn on her lights. Once done, Aidan becomes attracted to Lyssa, though this is forbidden. Worse, Lyssa has all the signs of bein

Dream Guardians exist on another plane of existence, only crossing over to mingle with humans on the dream plane, to protect mortals from the Nightmares, who feed on fear. But their mission is twofold: protect mortals from Nightmares, while simultaneously searching for the Key, a mortal who was foretold would open the bridge between realms, bringing destruction with them. Aidan is one of the most powerful Dream Guardians. He has never failed in a mission, part of which involves playing dream lover to mortal females in order to save them from the Nightmares. He has been with thousands of women, none of whom have seen him for himself or touched his heart. Lyssa Bates is different, in many ways. Not only does she have an unexplainable ability to block the Dream Guardians, one night in her arms leaves Aidan shaken, craving her more. But more and more he begins to fear she is the Key his people have been searching for. He knows to the very depths of his soul she can't possibly be evil, and protecting her from the other Dream Guardians swiftly becomes his primary goal... Sylvia Day very rapidly became one of my newest favorite authors. When her newest book, Pleasures of the Night was offered to us for review, I did not even stop to read a blurb, I snatched it up without hesitation! Once again, this author did not let me down - far from it! This book satisfied so many of my literary loves: paranormal, romance, erotic... The writing is stellar, as readers have come to expect from a Sylvia Day novel, and the characters are wonderful. I was immediately drawn to both Aidan and Lyssa, and my interest in both only grew as the story progressed. Not surprising, since this is book one of her new Dream Guardians series, the author stirs plenty of interest in the supporting characters as well, laying the groundwork for several sequels in just this first novel. She even manages to capture the readers' interest in a very minor but memorable character who provides us with a healthy dose of comic relief during the one scene she appears in. Keep your eye out for Mrs. Laughlin - I am hoping she graces us with her presence and more hilarity throughout the series! Day wraps up Pleasures of the Night with a great ending for the romance between Aidan and Lyssa, but with the certain feeling that this is an auspicious beginning to what will be a wonderful series and some intriguing ongoing mysteries that will weave the books in this series together. The first book hasn't yet released to the public and already I'm itching to get my hands on the second!