Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Review: The Darkest Night

The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld,  #1)The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter



This is the first of Gena Showalter's books that I have read. I love the Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward, and thought I would give this one a try.



Let's go back to Greek mythology to give a little background, shall we? Pandora's Box is the box which contained all the evils of the world. In opening the box, one is supposed to unleash those evils. Enter The Lords of the Underwold.



The Lords were once mighty immortal Greek warriors. Having gotten upset that the Gods chose a woman to protect the evils from the world, they chose to kill Pandora so they could have the box... not a wise thing. Once Pandora died, all the evils were unleashed. Each of the warriors who had a part in the slaying are now cursed to each live with one of the evils inside them. Violence, Pain, Death, Disease, Disaster, Misery, Doubt, Promiscuity, Defeat, Lies, Secrets and Wrath.


This first book in the series is mainly focused on Maddox, who is the Keeper of Violence. The curse that belongs to Maddox is that every night at midnight, he is killed, lead the Hell and then awakens the next morning only to be repeated for all eternity. Maddox is the most dangerous of all the warriors.


Enter stage left: Ashlyn Darrow. Ashlyn is a human girl who has spent her entire life inside an institute. The reason: she is able to hear voices of the past. Any conversation that has happened in the room she enters, she hears. Her parents didn't know how to handle her screams of agony from the voices so they sent her away. Ashlyn wants to rid herself of the voices, she has heard of the "men with super powers" so she travels to Budapest where the men live to see if they can help her. Little does she know, she has been sent as bait.


The book was very interesting to say the least. It was a page turner definitely. Parts of it dragged a little at times, but I think it was only because I wanted to know what was about to happen. As with any series, it was filled with a little background on all of the evils and it was confusing trying to remember who was the keeper of which evil. I mean, we do have 12. As the book moved forward that became a little easier. The one thing that I didn't really wrap my mind around was the instant attraction thing. I would have liked to have seen more of a build up in the relationship, but that's just me.


The book had some pretty steamy parts in it, but not as steamy as others. But if you like sexy men, this book has plenty of those. It wasn't as dark as I thought it was going to be, but that may change in future books. I plan on continuing with the series and figuring out which Lord is my favorite.




7 comments:

Felicia the Geeky Blogger said...

Awesome! Something to look forward to next month :)

Jenners said...

Wait ... are you supposed to fall in love with these "Evil Inhabiting" Lords?

And it does sound like a neat premise for a book.

Melissa (i swim for oceans) said...

I really need to read some adult work by Gena Showalter...I hear it's much better than her YA book, Intertwined, which I was completely befuddled by.

Brilliant review :)

A Journey in Reading said...

Felicia: I can't wait until you start reading them. I will definitely keep up with your reviews.

Jenners: Yep, I'm sure that one of them will quickly become my favorite. It happened in the BDB series by JR Ward... Zsadist!!

Melissa: Do try them!! This one will definitely keep your attention...And thanks!!!

samantha.1020 said...

I read this last year and liked it although I did expect it to be a bit darker myself as well. I'm hoping to enjoy the 2nd book in this series even more now that the author got some of the plotline and worldbuilding out of the way. Great review!

Cait @ Love Letters said...

I actually really liked this book, but I didn't continue with book two for some reason. Who knows?! Glad you liked it, and sexy men are always a must!

Ing said...

Love this series! You have some great reading ahead if you decide to continue with it. It gets better and better!

Great review.