So recently, I became so engrossed in a series that I literally could not stop to write a review. Now, I'm kicking myself because I don't know if I'd be able to write a good review for each book, starting at book one. So I decided to look at the series as a whole. This is a paranormal romance series, so there is a fair amount of sex. It's not ridiculous like some romance novels. It's very much like the structure of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward. Each story revolves around what life-long romance each Lord finds, but has a very intricate and detailed background full of sub-plots that fit in with the rest of the story. If you read this series, don't forget the little mini-installments! The prequel, The Darkest Fire, book #3.5 The Darkest Prison, and book #4.5 The Darkest Angel. Worth the time!
First off, people on www.goodreads.com have been pushing me for months to pick up Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld. I put it off for a while, because I figured if I've read one or two (or thirty) paranormal romance series, there isn't much that can impress me. So I put it off, and put it off, and one day I found a real steal in the Kindle Books section of Amazon. Why pay $5-$7 a book, when you can buy the Gena Showalter Lords of the Underworld Bundle for $9.99? So I figured, meh, for ten bucks I can get the prequel and the first three full installments. Why not. So I went ahead and spent the $9.99, and the Bundle sat on my Kindle for a few more months.
So now you're wondering why I even bothered if I spent that long putting it off. Well, at work, I was bored and had listened to most of my audiobooks, but still hadn't listened to the prequel of the Lords of the Underworld series, The Darkest Fire. I remember on Amazon, people saying, "don't judge the series by the prequel! Keep pushing through to the first full book!" I tried listening to the prequel a few times, and finally got into it. Then I remember, alas, I have the Bundle on my Kindle!
A quick background on my new-and-beloved Lords: Thousands of years ago, the Lords were heavenly guards of the Greek Gods. They made a bad decision, and decided to open Pandora's Box (you learn how the box came to be in the prequel to the series.) When the Box was opened, the High Lords, basically the top demons of Hell, who had been trapped there for an eternity, were released into the world. The Greek God, Zeus, was furious, so he condemned the soldiers who opened Pandora's Box to each house one of the demons inside themselves. Some of our main characters have very very violent demons. Maddox houses Violence, Lucien houses Death, Reyes houses Pain, Sabin houses Doubt, Paris houses Promiscuity...etc. They each have their own specific curse. On the other side of the story, we have Hunters; humans who believe the Lords are the specific reason for all evil in the world, so they are hellbent on destroying the Lords and re-capturing the demons to save mankind. (This is where the argument of human free will comes in.) The Lords have accepted their fate. They don't want to hurt anyone, but want to keep humans safe by housing the demons. Then they find out that the Hunters are led by one of their own...Galen, keeper of the demon Hope.
I re-read The Darkest Fire, then from there didn't put my Kindle down for the remainder of the Bundle. I flew through The Darkest Night. I really love Maddox's and Ashlyn's story. I really love tortured Maddox who was paying for a crime committed thousands of years ago. Each night, Pain and Death had to come and kill Maddox and escort him to Hell, where he is reborn and wakes up in the morning alive. Each night, he dies and each morning, he is reborn. Ashlyn is a "special" human who can hear conversations of anyone who has ever stood where she is standing, and has no idea how involved in Maddox's world she really is. I rated this book five stars. I just loved it.
The Darkest Kiss tells Lucien's and Anya's story. Something amusing, is that after I read this book, I looked on my real-life bookshelf...and oh snap! I have this book in hardback. Anyways, Anya's character is hilarious. As the (minor) goddess of Anarchy, she spends most of her time pissing off the Gods, stealing and showing way too much skin, all while harboring her own secret curse. She develops cute names for all the big and bad warriors, such as Doubtey and Painey. I rated this book four stars.
We meet Danika in the first book, but her story isn't told until The Darkest Pleasure, where she meets her match in Reyes, who harbors the demon Pain. Reyes is tormented at every moment. The only way to cope with his demon is to constantly cut himself. He even goes as far as to throwing himself off the fortress tower. To Reyes, pain is the same as pleasure. Until he meets Danika, who proves to be more important to the Lords and their quest to defeat the Hunters than she ever knew. I rated this book five stars, mainly because I was so excited to read it! I loved the spark Reyes felt for Danika from the first book, and was not disappointed!
The Darkest Whisper tells Sabin's story. Sabin rescues Gwen at a Hunter research compound, and soon learns that she has immortal powers of her own. She is an all powerful harpy, also cursed by the Gods, and proves to be one of the strongest fighters among all of the Lords. I rated this book four stars. I really liked it, but Sabin is not one of my favorite characters. Still a great book.
The Darkest Passion turned out to be one of my FAVORITE of the Lords of the Underworld books. I was never a huge fan of Aeron, keeper of Wrath, until this book. Aeron is very distant throughout the entire series. But when he discovers that the being who has been following him is the angel Olivia, he soon has to choose between living for today and choosing love or keeping himself from getting hurt and living forever. Olivia gives up everything for him, choosing to fall from the Heavens rather than following orders to kill Aeron. Olivia has some competition, however; Aeron's demon pet, Legion. If I could rate a book six stars, this book would get it. I read this book as often as I could for two days...didn't put it down. I loved it.
I loved all of the books, but felt the most connected with Maddox's, Reyes, and Aeron's stories. Luckily, there are more to come! Gideon, keeper of Lies' book should be out by the end of June. One story I'm particularly looking forward to is Paris'. I won't give away too many details about Paris, because his story develops throughout the entire series up to this point. Another character that I just loooove is Galen. Yes, the villain, the big bad, the guy who is leading the Hunters under the false pretense that he is an angel. I. Love. Galen. Especially in the last book. While part of me is hoping that he'll get what's coming to him, another part is hoping that Showalter will write something from his point of view.
I highly recommend this series. I couldn't put the books down long enough to write a review! For me, reading the Lords of the Underworld was like experiencing the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward for the first time. It's a magical series that will sweep you off your feet.
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In other news, I finally started reading Lover Mine by J.R. Ward; the most recent installment in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, which I've mentioned a few times.
