Death is Everyone's Designing

The Darkest Kiss
Author: Gena Showalter

Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: HQN Books
Published Date: June 1, 2008
ISN-13: 978-0373772322
Sales Rank: #4,380 in Books

Sorry, I haven't posted anything new yet. School just started today for me, so I'll be busy with that and homework most of the time. But I'll try and post my opinions as soon as possible. So here's my next post...

Yeah, you guessed it. Another Lords of the Underworld book. The second one to be exact. I enjoyed reading this one, it was just so exciting how the two main characters interacted with each other. It was literally a game of tag throughout the entire book. And who wouldn't want to play tag with such a gorgeous man.

My Opinion of The Darkest Kiss(SPOILER!!!)

The hero, Lucien, is the leader of the Budapest Lords. He was also once leader of all the lords when they lived in the heavens and guarded the king god, Zeus. But after betraying the gods, they were punished by each of them possessing a demon out of the box that anyone was forbidden from opening, Pandora's Box, or dimOuniak. Lucien is partnered with the demon of Death, which he finds quite fitting, since because of him and the others, he caused much death to the human race.

Sometime after Lucien was banished, he had fallen in love with a mortal woman. It's not very clear on whether she loved him back or not, but he still cared for her very much. But soon they are separated because her village, as well as herself, are overtaken with a disease. Lucien is confused at this point. His brain is telling him to put her out of her misery and take her life but his heart is telling him not to go of her. And soon enough, she dies from the disease. Now Lucien most take her soul to the hereafter. Ever since, he refused to allow himself to ever fall in love. And to ensure that, he takes a posioned knife and cuts himself up and then burns the wounds. After much praying and repeating the process of cutting and burning himself, he wounds turn into scars. Now, whenever someone looks upon his face, this flee out of fear or just don't look his way.

Our heroine, Anya, is the Goddess of Anarchy(in other words, chaos). The daughter of Dysnomia, the Goddess of Lawlessness and Tartarus, the God of Confinement. She's a very head-strong kind of woman, who won't take any crap from anyone, especially Lucien. This is because she refuses to allow anyone take advantage of her and take away her freedom. To help her get her freedom back when she was imprisoned in the immortal prison of Tartarus(which her father is a part of ), he gave her the All-key, which gives the user the ability to escape any prison or confinement.

Once Tartarus gave his daughter the key, Tartarus lost all his power and the prison weakened. This allowed the Titan Gods to free themselves and imprison the Greek Gods. The leader of the Titans Gods, Cronus, desperately wants the key from Anya. He believes that either Anya or his enemies(if they can get it from Anya), will use it against him and free the Greek Gods. But Cronus or anyone else are unable to steal it from her without dying a painful death.
When Cronus threatens to send the Lords of the Underworld after her, Anya becomes very interested in them. That's when she meets Lucien and becomes obsessed with him. To the point where that's all she can think of, is Lucien. And soon enough, Lucien is obsessed with her too. They don't end up falling in love at first, they actually play a little game of tag. Lucien is being forced by Cronus to either kill her or get the All-Key from her. So Lucien has to chase Anya all of the place because she refuses to die.

So towards the end of the story, Anya and Lucien head off to search for Cage of Compulsion, which has the power to enslave anyone trapped inside. But when Hunters get in their way, Lucien is severely injured. Anya takes him back to safety and does the only thing she feels that will save him.

Anya is also cursed, she can't have sex with another without being bound to them. She becomes apart of him and he becomes apart of her. And in doing so, gives Lucien some of his power back. After spending the night together, they head back to find the Cage. Once there, they enter a portal that brings them to the Cage. But Hydra, a multiheaded serpent, is guarding the cage and puts up a good fight. Almost to the point that Lucien and Anya both die. But Anya saves them both by giving the All-key in exchange for Lucien's life. Once Anya gave it up, she lost all her memory, even those of Lucien.

When Lucien wakes, Anya doesn't remember him and tries to leave. Lucien becomes extremely hurt. But eventually he's able to make her remember by placing her in the cage and forcing her to remember.

Well, unforunately that probably isn't the best that I can do. But I've run out of time, so I'll try to make my next review should be better. So I hope I didn't bore anyone again, or disappoint at that.

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.

Contest over at BookMac

Over at BookMac, they are havig a contest for the 100th post. YEAH!!!!! And I would gladly love to help anyone win, by letting you know about the contest.

There are 10 books up for grabs, as well as a $10 to Barnes & Noble. But....... If another 100 followers join before the contest is over, they will add another 10 books to the pile and another $10 to Barnes & Noble.

Just follow the simple rules they have set up and then you're entered.

So head on over there and get started, it ends Sept. 18th(20 days from today)

http://book-mac13.blogspot.com/2009/08/100th-posts-contest.html

CONTEST OVER

FIRST POST EVER!!!!

Hi!!
This is my first post, as a matter fact, I've never blogged in my entire life. So, if I mess up at anytime, please feel free to let me know. Of course, in a polite way if you don't mind. Anyways, here goes nothing....

This is my blog: Yes, I Have A Different Book Everytime You See Me, because I do almost always have a different book ever couple of days. I just LOVE to read, especially anything paranormal romance and mystery. So that's what my blog posts are mostly going to be about. If you're interested in anything like that, please join my blog and enjoin.

I'll be posting about books I love, and sometimes books I don't love. But, mostly the ones I do love. Only because I want to share good reads with other people, so maybe they'll want to go out and buy that book and make my favorite authors just a little more richer. Hey, what can I say, the richer they get, the more money they have to make more books ;D

Okay, I think that's a good enough first post. Please leave comments of what you think of my first post and my blog.