Title: The Darkest Passion
Author: Gena Showalter
Series: Lords of the Underworld, #5
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: HQN (Imprint of Harlequin)
Date Published: May 25th, 2010
Edition: Paperback
Rating:
For weeks, the immortal warrior Aeron has sensed an invisible female presence. An angel–demon-assassin–has been sent to kill him. Or has she? Olivia claims she fell from the heavens, giving up immortality because she couldn’t bear to harm him. But trusting–and falling for–Olivia will endanger them all. So how has this “mortal” with the huge blue eyes already unleashed Aeron’s darkest passion?
Now, with an enemy hot on his trail and his faithful demon companion determined to remove Olivia from his life, Aeron is trapped between duty and consuming desire. Worse still, a new executioner has been sent to do the job Olivia wouldn’t….
My Review:
Phew! What a ride this one was! These books just keep getting better and better. To think, the first book I remember thinking, “wow, there’s not enough action and conflict in it”. This book, however, was the complete opposite of that, an absolute roller-coaster ride!
This book is about Aeron, Keeper of Wrath, and Olivia, an angel. Olivia has been watching Aeron for some time because she’s been charged to kill him because he released Legion from hell, albeit, not really realizing what he was doing at the time. However, Olivia can’t find it in herself to do the deed. So, she’s given an ultimatum — kill Aeron, or fall to earth. Her choice brings her to Aeron and she immediately tries to win him over. However, he’s not an easy candidate. He resists continually, and Olivia becomes discouraged. Add in the other factors working against them — Legion, the Hunters, Galen, and more — and you’ve got a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
First off, I loved Olivia. She’s awesome. For some reason, she just really struck all the right cords with me. She’s confident, yet not conceited. She’s kind, yet strong. She’s loving and isn’t afraid of said love. She’s just awesome and I really liked everything about her. Aeron I liked, but he’s not my favorite warrior so far. He’s by far the most resistant of all the ones we’ve read about though, that’s for sure!
This book is also a huge contrast to the first books, in that it has SO MUCH going on in terms of threats. I won’t get into them all to prevent spoilers, but seriously! Wow. Just one thing after another were piled onto the list of things that were out to doom not only Olivia/Aeron, but all the warriors. The action and conflict in this book was crazy, and it made the book so enjoyable because you just HAVE to know how they will manage to get through everything that’s thrown at them!
One thing I hated though, was Legion. In the past books I found her alright. I mean it was kind of cute that she would be this evil little demon who was essentially the parrot to Aeron’s pirate. But, in this book, she changes and we get her POV, but not only that, some other things happen that made me literally cringe my teeth whenever she’d make an appearance. She made up for it a bit at the end and I’m curious where that will end up going
with Galen
, but I still am not a fan of her at all. I don’t understand what Aeron likes about her.
Another thing that kind of bugged me was the end. Although I was happy with how things turned out, it was a bit deus ex machina
in that Aeron was able to return from the dead and they just let Olivia be his personal joy-bringer angel after everything
. However, I still think it was pulled off pretty well and it’s added some more interesting factors to their mission on finding Pandora’s Box. In addition to those factors, we find out some other major things in this one
Cronus and Rhea housing demons, Sienna, the Cloak, the Unspoken Ones, Gideon/Scarlett, and the list continues
, so it’s a major turning point and an extremely entertaining installment.
Overall, this is probably my favorite book in the series so far. Reyes is still my favorite warrior. But, despite the deus ex machina at the end, this book was so action packed I can’t help but love it. It seems like there’s a lot more foreshadowing and plotting out of the books and that has made a huge difference. In addition, I just love the enemy they have. Not that I love them, but some series’ “enemy” is a little meh and kind of just seems to be thrown in there — especially with paranormal romance series’. But with this series, the enemy is a key factor in the entire story of the series as a whole, and I actually find myself wondering how things will play out — as opposed to just being interested in the romance. I’m really looking forward to Gideon’s book next. I already love him from the few POV moments he’s had, and I cannot wait to see what happens!
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