Review of The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter for the DIK Book Reading Challenge

Gena Showalter
The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld, #1)
HQN | May 1, 2008 | ISBN 9780373772469 | 374 pages

Genre & Keywords: Paranormal, Demons, First of a Series, Violence, Immortality

Rating: êêêê
Heat level: ¹¹

The Back Blurb:
His powers -- Inhuman
His passion -- Beyond immortal . . .

All her life, Ashlyn Darrow has been tormented by voices from the past. To end the nightmare, she has come to Budapest seeking help from men rumored to have supernatural abilities, not knowing she'll be swept into the arms of Maddox, their most dangerous member -- a man trapped in a hell of his own.
Neither can resist the instant hunger than calms their torments . . . and ignites an irresistible passion. But every heated touch and burning kiss will edge them closer to destruction -- and a soul-shattering test of love . . .

Though they carry an eternal curse, the Lords of the Underworld are irresistibly seductive -- and unimaginably powerful . . .

I’ve read this book for the DIK Book Reading Challenge.

When I started blogging and bloghopping a couple of months ago I quickly discovered that a lot of bloggers out there were really big fans of the paranormal genre. The whole romance genre was pretty new to me, and so far all I’d read were contemporaries. I could not imagine what was so hot about this paranormal genre. Hah!
But, the curious little cat that I am, I started asking around for recommendations. And one of the first peeps to help me out was Leontine. She offered to send me some of her paperbacks and emailed me a list with names and book titles. One of the writers she mentioned was Gena Showalter, although the book she told me to start with, The Darkest Whisper, was the fourth(!) in the series, lol! I bought it as an ebook to have a quick start but discovered quickly that there were three other books I should read first, because, yeah, I’m that anal, I have to read in order when I know about it. Well, in the end it took me a while but I finally bought and read the first book of this so called Lord of the Underworld series!
It’s not the first paranormal romance I’ve read, because in the meantime I got some other recommendations too, but it is the first paranormal I’ve read that is part of a series like this - with the whole world building thing going on. While reading it you sense there’s so much more and you can feel it’s big but you can only guess how big.

To cut to the chase: I’m sold! I can totally understand the fandom for this genre now! I never guessed that I would like it so much. But I do. These Lords of the Underworld are freakin’ appealing and I want to know all there is to know about these hot immortal warriors!

This first book is the love story of one of the warriors, who all carry a demon inside of them. Maddox’s demon is Violence. That’s bad enough, because it causes him to have outbursts of uncontrollable rage and well… violence. But on top of that he’s also cursed to die a painful death every night because he’s the one who killed Pandora, keeper of the box with the demons inside. After she got killed the demons escaped and took possession of the immortal warriors’ bodies (there are a lot of them, and we meet them all in this first book).
So Maddox leads a life full of torment and pain. But then he meets his significant other: Ashlyn. She has her own nightmare to live with: she hears voices from the past everywhere she goes and where other people have been. When she meets Maddox the voices stop and a blissful silence takes over. No wonder she wants to be with him from the beginning.
While their love story evolves other elements are added to give more insight in the whole war of the gods and demons. A hunt for Pandora’s (empty) box is started, and I’m sure we’re going to see more of that in the next books. It’s complex, because there’s not only the gods against the demons but apparently there’s also quite some animosity among the gods themselves (the Greek vs the Titans) and among the demon warriors as well.

I devoured it all! There was not much I didn’t like in this story. Although it felt a bit like the first book of a series, with many better things to come, it was in itself a wonderful story. Maddox is a deliciously hot alpha hero and Ashlyn is strong, sweet and just right for him. I totally bought their falling for each other. It was a bit tooth aching sweet in the end, but I’m not complaining.

All was written in a way that made it hard for me to put the book down. Ms Showalter’s writing is very compelling and she certainly knows how to keep her readers at the edge of their seats. That’s partly because of the high rate of action and new developments but also because of the sexual tension between the h/h. I have to say that the smexing wasn’t disappointing at all. It was postponed quite some time, but the pace was just right for this couple. And their chemistry was good.

I’m looking forward to the other books in this rather dark series. The next one for me is The Darkest Kiss, Lucien’s story. He’s the warrior who’s bonded to the demon of Death. We’ve yet met his love interest in the first book: Anya, goddess of anarchy, and she had me laughing already. Gena Showalter’s humor showed itself in a couple of scenes and I can’t wait to see more of that as well.

My conclusion: Very good first book of what seems to be an intriguing series. I’m definitely going to read the other books too. And, I’d like to declare myself a fan of the paranormal genre, it’s official now! Where can I get my PNR membership card, please?