Book Price Comparisons
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 Loved it! I couldn't put the book down. Anxiously waiting for the next book in the series!  Interesting World, But Not Executed Correctly (Spoiler Alert) This book started out with a wonderful promise of curses and mythology rolled up into an interesting premise: jealous warriors who thought they should have guarded Pandora's box steal it from her and are the actual ones who free evil into the world. As punishment, Zeus captures six especially horrible creatures and puts one into each the warriors' bodies. And then we meet the "heroine," Ashlyn, who's trying to find these legendary men to help her end her own personal torment. She's instantly attracted to Maddox, who is possessed by Violence. Every few seconds he's overcome with the urge to hurt, kill, destroy. But somehow Ashlyn speaks to that violent side of him and he falls in love. It goes downhill from there at a rapid pace. Like other reviewers, I had a hard time accepting that these two fall in love so quickly (I think it's about four or five days). I can understand the attraction, but not the love. There are also some serious echoes of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood in this book: Six warriors. One is supposed to be blindingly beautiful, one's supposed to be scarred. Hm... But my biggest problem was the "heroine." Ashlyn is constantly described as "pure, innocent, sweet," and her actions make her cute as a button. That's not realistic or appealing. But the biggest thing that irritated me was the way she "saved" Maddox. Good grief! Why is it always the sweet, innocent woman that has to do the sacrifice? Why does the woman always have to die? That's considered romantic? Heroic? Not in my book. It's a sad shame that some people like that stuff and think it's logical. This may be a paranormal romance but that's just maddening. I don't know how her other heroines will turn out, but I hope they're not like Ashlyn. Do what you will with this book, but it's not for me.  Almost there... I will admit I was not always a fan of Gena Showalter. Some of her previous books had left me thinking "Nymphs? Seriously?" But slowly I have become a fan of hers, and I enjoyed "The Darkest Night" very much, enough that I will probably go out and buy the next book as soon as it's out. That being said, this book had its problems, which is why I won't give it 5 stars. The concept drew me in right away. I mean, who can resist hot warriors cursed to carry around one of the world's evils inside of them? The love story between Maddox and Ashlyn was a little bland, (i kept wondering why/when they had suddenly fallen so deeply in love) but I think when an author is introducing readers to a new and complicated world, some of the plot often suffers. I think this problem will not be present in any of the future books in the series, which is why I'm willing to continue on Showalter's ride. MuSt ReAd I must admit, the only paranormal romance I had read in a long time was J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series(which is wonderful), so I was skeptical before even opening Showalter's first installment of The Lords of the Underworld Series. But to my delight it was a fantastic read, full of suspense, romance, original characters and to my surprise humor. Very dark from the beginning I was expecting a angst-fest full of self-loathing (and there is that), but there was also a interesting combination of humor along with the self-loathing. And of course beautifully sensual sex scenes are abundant (but not overpowering). I give The Darkest Night a full four stars. | |||||||||||||