Upcoming Reviews

By Gena Showalter:
The Darkest Pleasure
The Darkest Whisper

By Kresley Cole:
The Warlord Wants Forever
A Hunger Like No Other

By Sherrilyn Kenyon:
Fantasy Lover
Night Pleasures

8/30/2009

First Ever Paranormal Romance I have ever Read


The Darkest Night
By: Gena Showalter


Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: HQN Books
Published Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0373772469
Sales Rank: #1,663 in Books


First I'll explain how I got into these books.

It was before my Junior year of high school(last year), literally three days before school started. I had gone over my older sister's apartment to help her and her finance move in. When everything was done, we took a long break. So I sat down on the couch and noticed a book in my other sister's purse(yes, she has a purse large enough to fit a book and a bunch of junk in). It was The Darkest Night. And I was like 'Cool book cover.' So I looked over the cover, read the synopsis, and placed it back in her purse before anyone noticed.
Later that night, a friend of my sister's came over and she was occupied. So, I sneaked into her room and took the book. I began reading the book, and within a couple of hours, I had about half the book finished. Than the most weirdest thing happened(well... it was weird for me at the time), they began "making love". All I could do was blush bright red and throw the book across the room.
I tried to go to sleep that night but couldn't. I just HAD to know what happened to the characters, whether there was sex involved or not. So I picked up the book again, checked for damage and then proceeded to finishing off the book. I was up until 2 am reading it and was just about finished. I decided to go to bed then, now that was curiosity had calmed some.
In the morning, I explained to my sister that I was reading her book. She freaked out a little, mostly because she thought I was reading the books out of order, when I wasn't. But she let me continue to read the books, since she knew I was handling it the "romance" well. And within a half hour I had finished the book.


My Opinion of The Darkest Night(SPOILERS!!!)
It was a very interesting book to read. The first time I read, I felt a little awkward, only because I had never read any romance books before and didn't know what to expect. But after I read it a second time, I realized how good the book really was.
The hero, Maddox, is probably the most dangerous of the lords. He is cursed with the demon of violence, always wanting to... as the demon puts it... "Kil, Hurt, Maim." But that's not his only curse. After "accidentally" killing Pandora, the Gods cursed him to die every night, the same way she had, six stabs wounds to the chest. And his soul is to be sent to hell where he is to be tortured and burned repetitively. But it doesn't end there, unlike Pandora, where her suffering only lasted until she died, Maddox is die every night for the rest of his life.
Our heroine, Ashlyn Darrow, is different than most humans. She has the ability to stand in one spot and hear any conversation, no matter how much time has passed, that has ever occured in that spot. Unforunately for her, where ever she goes, there's a conversation that happened there, so she's always hearing voices in her head. Finally she couldn't take it any more. Ashlyn worked for the World Institute of Parapsychology, an institute, that supposedly studies and helps anything of the paranormal world. So when the institute sent her to Budapest on a mission to listen to anything on the Lords, or as some people call them demons or even angels. When she hears someone say that they soothed someone's suffering, Ashlyn had to talk to them, to see if they could do the same for her.
As the story goes on, Maddox keeps calling Ashlyn bait. It's woman who are trained by Hunters to "distract" the lords so they can kill them. She has no idea what it is but she doesn't like the sound of it. Eventually she does find out and I believe she freaked out on him.
Almost immediately, the two start feeling the heat between each other. But Maddox doesn't want to hurt Ashlyn and is afraid if he gets to close, that he will. Along with every other lord who dares to look at her like a piece of meat to have. And soon enough, they find themselves in the shower and, then later on, in the bedroom, making love.
The ending, I have to admit, I loved and hated. Ashlyn wished that Maddox wouldn't have to suffer from the death-curse anymore and it comes true, thanks to a little chaos *wink wink* from the Goddess Anya. She tells Ashlyn, the only way to save him, is to sacrifice herself in the death-curse. Ashlyn is slightly afraid at first but does it anyway, because she loves Maddox to much to see him in pain.
So, she goes to get Reyes(cursed with Pain) and Lucien(cursed with death), who helplessly kill Maddox every night, to agree to kill her instead of Maddox. Reyes immediately rebutes by saying he would rather watch his brother die every night then he watch him sulking over the loss of Ashlyn for the rest of his life. Finally, Reyes and Lucien agree and proceed through the steps of getting Maddox ready for the killing. They chain him up, so violence won't cause any damage, but when it comes time to stab him, Reyes walks up to Ashlyn and stabs her. Maddox is instantly overcome with anger and hatred, and tries to unchain himself. Unforunately, the chains used on him are made of the gods and nothing can break them.
So Maddox watches helplessly as Ashlyn is stabbed five more times. At one point, he even yells, "Hold on, beauty. Just hold on. We'll patch you up. We'll give you Tylenol...." At that, I couldn't help but burst out laughing. I mean come on, seriously, how is "tylenol" going to fix six fatal stab wounds. But you do have to give him credit, before this book, he didn't even know what tylenol was.
Finally Anya steps in, of course once Ashyln is dead and Maddox is cradling her in his arms, and gives Maddox an offer. They are to be forever bound to each other. Meaning if Ashlyn dies, Maddox dies or if Maddox dies, Ashlyn dies. And I think that's a pretty sweet deal for a mortal. Which means if Ashlyn doesn't die before Maddox does and if he were to die... say... six hundred years from now, Ashlyn will live those six hundred years without growing old or dying from old age.
And so their story ends, with Maddox chasing Ashlyn into thei room, about to make love.
What a story. And what a long post I have. Jeez, sorry if I put anyone to sleep or got someone so bored, they left without finishing reading it. Anyways, for those who stayed here and awake, thankyou for reading it.
Leave a comment on what you think. And please do pick up your copy of The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter, now available.

2 comments:

  1. Great review! I am now a follower! Come check out my blog we have the same reading interests! This was an awesome book and just wait until you read the rest!!!

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  2. I checked out your blog, it's pretty cool.

    As for the LoTU series, I've read all of them except Fire, Prison, and I'm about to read Whisper.

    ReplyDelete