The Darkest Night - Gena Showalter

Note: The Lords of the Underworld series is an adult book series. It contains elements of violence, language, gore, sex, and whathaveyou that YA readers may or may not be comfortable with. Please keep this in mind, should you decide to read this review and/or the books.

Romance novels are my dirty little secret, as you may or may not know. That being said, I recently got the urge to read Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series, a series from which I vaguely remember reading one of the books when I was younger, but can't remember much about. Being as Showalter is a favorite author of mine, when I can get a hold of her books--and a really nice person, for that matter, as I met her at BEA this year--I was pretty hyped to start. This review of the first book in the series, The Darkest Night, begins a series of reviews I will be posting as I do a full series read through.

The Darkest Night is the first book in the Lords of the Underworld, and it introduced the world of the series. In this world, Pandora was not only a real person, but she was a female guard of the gods chosen from a number of other guards to guard a box that contained a multitude of demons. Pandora, however, was not the one to open the box. Rather, her fellow guards became enraged with jealousy that Pandora, a woman, had been selected instead of them to guard the box. They released the demons, intending to show the gods that they had been wrong in choosing Pandora. Instead, however, the gods took these guards who had betrayed the cause and bound them to the demons that escaped, so that each being was mix of immortal guard and demon.

In The Darkest Night, Maddox is the guard who is bound to the demon of Violence. Having been taken over by his demon after they were bound together, Maddox was the one who killed Pandora after the demon release and because of this has been cursed by the gods to be killed in the same manner she was, every night, to spend the night in hell, and to be reborn every morning. Ashlyn is a woman seeking the help of the 'angels' that she's heard the town people talking about. She is gifted, or perhaps cursed, with the ability to hear every conversation that has ever taken place where ever she stands. However, upon meeting Maddox, Ashlyn realizes that the voices are quiet so long as she is around him, and she's willing to do anything in her power to keep the voices quiet.

To put it simply, I liked this book. It wasn't exactly what I'd call 'cute', but it was cool and I simply enjoyed it. That's not to say that I omgloveadored this book, because I didn't. It's not exactly the next big thing, but it's definitely something I consider worth reading, if you like paranormal romance. It's a good first book, and as far as being an introduction to a new series, The Darkest Night did its job: it made me want to read the second book in the series.

I love books with mythology heavily influencing the settings and story, and if you're a mythology nut too, you're probably going to like The Darkest Night. If you like adult paranormal romance, you should at least look at The Darkest Night. And if you liked Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series, or any of Showalter's other books, you've probably already read this book. But if you haven't, it's available at most book stores, and I'd definitely suggest you pick it up.

A Kiss Of Shadows - Laurell K. Hamilton

Note: This review is for a paranormal romance novel for adults, not YA. If you are uncomfortable with graphic sex, violence, and language, this is not a review or book that you'd be interested in.

A Kiss Of Shadows is the first book in the Meredith Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Now this is not a new book. In fact, A Kiss Of Shadows actually came out in 2000, making this book over a decade old. However, thanks to graduation rehearsal, work, and a cleaning fest I've had to undergo in order to host my birthday/graduation party tomorrow, I haven't had time to read one of my BEA books within the last 24 hours. Instead I've decided to review a book from my dirty little secret list of trashy romance novels that I love.

A Kiss Of Shadows is the story of Meredith Gentry. Meredith, or Merry, is a private investigator for a firm that boasts an entirely magical or Fae staff in a world where fairies not only exist, but are accepted and even popular in the current world. Merry has a normal life, with a boyfriend who just happens to have once been able to turn into a seal and a boss who just happens to be a Trow. Well, normal if you ignore the fact that she's the missing fairy princess who vanished three years ago. After a case gone awry, Merry's cover is blown and she is suddenly being hunted down by the queen of the court she ran away from those years ago.

One thing you have to know about Laurell K Hamilton before you decide to read this book is that her series tend to start with really mild to no romance in the first book, then slowly become raunchy, sexual, and kinky-weird at times. The first three books in her other popular series, Anita Blake, were almost completely innocent as far as sexual material, for instance, but that same series a few books down has her with a harem of men and a sex scene every few chapters. So understand that when I say trashy romance, I mean trashy romance. There's an amazing plot, but there's a lot of other stuff too.

The one thing that Laurell K. Haminton excels at the most is her characters, and I've never seen her talent better at work than in the Meredith Gentry series. In A Kiss Of Shadows alone, there's Merry herself, a trow, a Jack-In-Irons, a man known as 'darkness' for the sheer fact that everything about him is pitch black, and dozens of other Fae with unique appearances and powers. There's a man who can bring death with a touch, a girl who can turn anything she touches into an inside out living ball of flesh, and a man who can cause spiders to break from a man's back until it consists of so much meat.

Now, the Meredith Gentry series is not for everyone. It's graphic in a lot of ways, and it's definitely an adult book, not YA or otherwise. If you like paranormal romance, stuff like Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunters or Gena Showalter in general, you'll probably love this series. If you like dark world that don't hide what they are, you might like this book. And if you want to start a new paranormal romance series, and you like the idea of evil Fae, then I'd suggest you pick this book up next time you go to your local bookstore.