- Title: The Darkest Kiss
- Author: Gena Showalter
- Series: Lords of the Underworld #2
- Genre: Adult, Paranormal Romance
- Category: Demon, Gods & Goddesses
- Website: http://members.genashowalter.com/
- Purchase: Amazon
Note: This is the second book in the Lords of the Underworld Series. If you would like to read my review of book one, click the following link: The Darkest Night
Summary: The hero in this book is Lucien, the leader of the demon warriors. Lucien is possessed by the demon of death, and it is his responsibility to escort souls to either heaven or hell after a person’s death. In addition to being one of the most feared in the group, Lucien is also considered the most hideous because his face is covered with scars from self-inflicted mutilation.
While most people look away from Lucien, there is one woman who is obsessed with his appearance and attitude. Anya, the Goddess Anarchy, finds Lucien irresistible. We first met Anya in book #1 (The Darkest Night) when she helps Ashlyn and Maddox find a way to be together.
Anya’s nature generally draws her to stir up trouble wherever she goes, and if she isn’t careful, she can start a deadly war with just a few words. She has learned to control her effect on people by being a kleptomaniac instead. Why curb her nature? Anya/Anarchy is in hiding because the king of the Gods has been searching for her for thousands of years in order to gain control of her All-Key, which is a tool that makes it impossible for the holder to ever be held in captivity. Since he can’t kill her himself, he commands Lucien/Death to kill her instead.
Death begins to fall for Anarchy, and therefore cannot bring himself to kill her. Anarchy is unable to give up the All-Key willingly because she will lose her powers and memory if she lets it go. The king isn’t getting anything he wants, so he begins to manipulate the two by threatening the other’s life. The couple decides to search for something else that might be of equal value to the King so that he will allow them both to live.
Review: I am still enjoying this series, primarily because the story concept is something I like a lot. The main characters are a group of immortal warriors who have each been possessed by a different demon after making a greedy decision to release the demons from Pandora’s Box. The warriors have been forced to live on Earth with mortals since their fall from grace. I like the paranormal elements of Greek Gods and Demons, so this is what is going to keep me reading in spite of the B-movie feeling I get from the writing and dialog.
The low point in this book for me was the way that Anya speaks. She talks like a completely obnoxious teenage spoiled brat. There is nothing at all attractive about her whiny nasty attitude. I know women who talk and act like this, and it always makes me ashamed to see it. It was really tough to read it because I was feeling almost embarrassed for her character. Thankfully, she comes out of it a little bit toward the end of the book. This woman is really powerful and intelligent. I wish that the author would have written her dialog to match her strength.
Another weakness was that way too much of the book was focused on sex. The characters thought about it, obsessed about it, talked about it, fought about it, and then thought and obsessed about it some more. I’m all for a steamy hot romance - but for crying out loud, if all the sex talk gets boring to read, then it was way overdone. Seriously, sometimes a little less is more. I would have liked to read more about why these characters were falling in love rather than only reading about their lust.
In spite of only giving this book an “OK” rating, I do intend to read the next one in the series. One of the subplots in this book was a budding relationship between Paris (the demon of promiscuity) and a human woman. His story was left as a cliffhanger, and I can’t wait to read more about this couple.
I recommend this series to people who like a more erotic paranormal romance. Keep in mind that the dialog does tend to be overly dramatic in a soap-opera or B-movie sort of way. It bothered me more in this book that in the first (mostly because of how obnoxious Anya was), but I still plan to continue reading the series.
