Dardanos, CO Books In Order

Publication Order of Dardanos, Colorado Books

Dardanos, CO is a series of paranormal romance novels written by Calle J. Brookes. The series explores the decades-old war between a vampire race and one particular family of mortals.

+The Story

In the Dardanos, CO series, Calle J. Brookes creates a world in which the supernatural exists. Before humans ruled the world, vampire-like creatures called Dardaptoans walked the earth.

And they were not the only ones. You had werewolves, demons and all manner of extraordinary entities. Then the era of man came and the supernatural was forced to recede into myth and legend.

The Dardanos, CO series revolves around the Dardaptoans. At the start of the series, it is suggested that the vampires initially lived relatively peaceful lives in the mountains of Colorado.

Boasting great strength and really long lives, they staked their claim on that part of the world and found a way to co-exist with their human neighbors. Trouble began when a human by the name of Leo Tannis found out about them and then began hunting them for his own purposes.

The Dardanos, CO series explores the consequences of Leo Tannis’ actions several decades down the line. Over the years, the Taniss brand has grown primarily through the cutting edge pharmaceutical company Leo created and grew.

However, for all his success in the business arena, the vampires have not forgotten Leo Taniss or the crimes he committed against their kind. And having lost so much to that one man, the Dardaptoans make it their goal to exact revenge by sacrificing every person with the last name Taniss to their goddess.

Despite that macabre description, the Dardanos, CO series is actually heavy on the romance more than it is on the death, murder, and action. And each book more or less follows the same path.

Calle always kicks things off by introducing a member of the Dardaptoans to readers, typically a powerful vampire who then sets his sights on a member of the Tannis clan. The target in question is almost always a woman. And the vampire in question gets as close to killing her as one could possibly get, certain that their goddess wishes him to avenge the lives of his fallen brothers.

But in that moment, the vampire realizes a profound truth. The woman before him might be a Taniss but she is also his destined mate, the one woman in all of creation he was meant to be with.

But because he threatened her and put her life in jeopardy, it falls on the shoulders of the vampire, the hero of the series, to convince his victim that he is actually the love of her life. This is after he has turned her into a vampire.

The Dardanos, CO books have been commended for their superb writing and perfect pacing, not to mention the appropriately developed characters. Calle J. Brookes, the author, has also been criticized for making the books a little too short.

On one hand, Calle achieves an objective most authors can only dream of. She leaves readers wanting more. On the other hand, because her books are so short, Calle doesn’t get to give her Dardanos, CO characters the development they deserve.

And even when she does succeed in developing them, Calle makes almost no effort to explore the lives of these characters, especially in the area of romance. The Hero and Heroine get together a little too quickly, almost like Calle knew how to spark the concept of love and romance in them but she wasn’t quite sure how to transition into the actual romance.

When Calle does finally get her hero and heroine together, she doesn’t give audiences enough time to enjoy their coupling before bringing her book to an abrupt and unexpected end.

In taking this approach, Calle succeeds in keeping her readers wanting more. But she also tends to annoy them.

The Dardanos, CO books initially focus solely on the Dardaptoan/Taniss conflict and the romances that result. Over time, creatures like incubi and werewolves are brought into the mix.

In each case, the Taniss name plays a central role in the plot. While the Dardaptoan goddess is spoken of frequently throughout the series, it isn’t until later books that the concept of gods and goddesses is explored in greater detail.

+The Author

Calle J. Brookes is best known for the PAVD books and the Dardanos series. The author has been writing since she was nine. Though, it wasn’t until she was eighteen that Calle got her first professional writing gig.

Calle landed a part-time position as a journalist. It was there that she nurtured her love for the written word, eventually moving into the publishing business and finally becoming a full-time writer.

Calle was hooked on romance when she was eleven. She stumbled upon a couple of Harlequin books at the time and they got her imagination going. She hasn’t looked back since.

The author’s Dardanos, CO books are as much romance as they are paranormal. Calle doesn’t do much research for her books, mostly because her life is pretty busy and she doesn’t have the time.

The author doesn’t like planning her stories out either. She prefers letting the characters lead her, an approach that has served her well over the years.

Calle loves crime dramas. She hates mushy, melodramatic movies and television.

The author has a husband, a daughter and a couple of dogs. She self-publishes her books because she’s a control freak.

+Live or Die

Josey Taniss might be hearing impaired but that did not stop her from dominating medical school. She knew she had more than earned the opportunity to lead the Research and Development department of her family’s Pharmaceutical company.

Then Josey learned the truth of her grandfather’s actions and it changed everything.

Cormac Jareth couldn’t stop Leo Taniss from slaughtering so many of his people. So now he’s out for revenge. Cormac intended to kill Leo’s granddaughter in recompense for his crimes.

Then Cormac met Josey and realized that she was the destined mate he had been looking for.

+The Blood King

When Emily Taniss learned of the crimes her grandfather had committed against the Dardaptoan people, she knew that she would suffer the consequences along with her cousins if she didn’t clear the air.

Emily thought she had years to straighten things out. Then Rydere Dardanos, King of the Dartaptos people, descended into Emily’s life, determined to kill her for the sins of Leo Taniss.

When Rydere meets the young woman, a single drop of her blood in his mouth reveals the truth: Emily isn’t to be his sacrifice. She is the mate he has been looking for, a queen in the making.