Gena Showalter

I never thought I was a fan of retellings, and then I got into fairy tale reimaginings. Those I like. A lot. I especially enjoy anything that imagines the story from the villain’s point of view. The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter fits that bill perfectly.

In The Evil Queen, Ms. Showalter envisions a world in which the fairy tale characters know their stories but don’t know which role they play in those stories. While the characters toss around words like prophecy and fate, they soon realize show more that choice plays a much more important role than any preset prophecy can predict.

All this means is that characters like Everly, convinced she is the Evil Queen, get a chance to fight their supposed destiny and achieve a happily-ever-after. It is this fight that makes Everly such a compelling character. Yes, she has a tendency to enjoy violence and want revenge against those who wrong her loved ones, but it is her fierce loyalty and devotion to those loved ones that sets her apart from everyone else. When everything she does is fighting to save the life of her twin sister, it makes it difficult to fault her decisions.

Plus, Everly is just so darn likable. She agonizes over the possibility that she is the Evil Queen and dreads the possibility. Yet, when faced with choices that mean potentially becoming the villain, she does not hesitate to make those choices if it means saving her sister. Her choices are always altruistic. She fights her growing attraction to Roth because it would distract her from her mission to save her family. Similarly, she fights her powers because she does not want to drain others and potentially kill them. In many cases, it would be so easy to make the selfish choice of love and self-protection, but she doesn’t do so time and again.

While The Evil Queen does have a sequel, I love how this story ends, so much so that I have no desire to read the sequel. It may be open-ended, but it is so in a good way, where you know that Everly will find a way to get her happily-ever-after now that she knows the secrets of the prophecies. You don’t need to read about the pending battles between her and a certain Snow White-type character to know that they are going to be messy and complicated but successful in the long run. The Evil Queen is a satisfying retelling of the Snow White tale in which evil means something a bit different. show less

An absolute psychopath hell bent on revenge and a heroine with a new lease on life get together to be crazed fae mass murderers together? Yeah, I’m here for it. It’s hot and it’s unhinged and it’s batshit, I enjoyed myself, and it’s good for what it is. But lets be real… it ain’t Shakespeare either. I had a good time. Popcorn smut.

Okay I know I'm not going to be in the majority but....well I found I really like the pairing of Gillian and Puck.

I never got the romance of Gillian and William. Too me I always thought he was too much for her. Yes he cared for her, protected her, championed her but I always felt the romantic love was on her side and it was a skewed view because of what she had endured.

With Puck, yes he did leave her in alone in his realm while he came to seek out William's help but he left her with his show more two good friends. Secure in the knowledge they would protect her and she would be alright. Kind of like he trusted her to be able to take care of herself. Something William never did. Hell even when they are reunited and she asks him what life will be like for her after everything is done and she returns home with him. He basically told her nothing would change. He would still go out to battle leaving her safe at home. When he returned instead of sleeping with other women he would sleep with her. She would cook and clean and do all those wifely things for him while he played the bad ass.

Then there is the whole "beauty and the beast" kind of thing going on. Gillian sees beauty in Puck. She talks about his breathtaking eyes, how one smile can light up her world, even how his leg fur keeps her warm at night. The scene where she gets his permission to touch his horns, to me that was some of the best foreplay ever written.

Does Puck act like a jerk...well yea, he's a guy possessed by Indifference and lost to a path of vengeance. He's been rejected, betrayed and had to tamp down any kind of emotion for so long he's a little rusty at it. The fact that he wants to even try to "melt the ice" for Gillian says quite a bit.

Now we get into Gillian. DAMN, the scared little girl came into herself. Winter and Cameron did a great job training her to be a warrior and teaching her it's okay for her to stand up for herself. What I love most is that along the way she realized that her tormentor's should hold all the guilt. As a young girl she did nothing wrong. She did nothing to warrant the abuse she suffered from her stepfather and step"horrors". She became the Dune Raider, a force to be reckoned with, an equal to Puck the Undefeated. She moved passed what she wanted and thought about how to make Puck's dreams come true, how to beat the prophecies and how to find her happy ending. Her biggest revelation was the fact that while she loved William she couldn't even get passed the thought of having sex with him without feeling ill. Yet without having more than a kiss from Puck she yearned for him.....500 years she had thinking of him and wondering what it would be like to fully be his wife. And it didn't make her ill. That right there should let everyone know that she wasn't William's true mate.

As usual there are a lot of great one liners because Gena's characters always have that edge of sarcasm and wit. Keelycael and a host of others play integral parts in the story line but they don't take away from Gillian and Puck.

Like I said, I know it's an unpopular point of view but I like these two together. William is now free to find the one who can decode his book. Why do I get the feeling this "nerd" is going to be a beautiful woman? Oh I really want to see the Panty Melter get knocked on his gorgeous ass by the woman who is his true mate. show less

Ashlyn Darrow can here voices, voices of conversations that have passed in any given location. When she hears of angels on a hill in Budapest, Ashlyn sets out to find these men to see if they can help her get rid of the voices that have been plaguing her since she was a little girl. What she wasn't expecting, was to find herself in the mist of warriors with demon's trapped inside of them, or that she could feel something for this warrior/demon with amethyst eyes.

There are times when you show more wish you could read slower... this was that time for me. I forced myself to read this book as slow as possible, but instead, I zoomed through it like a match was lit under my ass. I absolutely loved all the characters in this book, as many as there are, Ms. Showalter definitely made each one unique in his/her own way. In the beginning of The Darkest Night, you're introduced to Maddox, keeper of Violence. Maddox is one of those dark & brooding alpha males, who doesn't love that? The constant battle between warrior & demon, where Maddox is trying to tamp down the demons urge to kill anything and anyone that got in his way and then the sudden change, when his demon started to agree with him, was definitely interesting and kept me wanting more... and surprisingly more of Violence. Kid me not, I like Violence... well, when he started to somewhat get along with Maddox that is. Ashlyn is strong but delicate, which I think made for a great heroine and a very good match for Maddox. She was scared (being a puny lil human, of course she would be) but determined and strong-willed, which I think really added to her character.

What I liked about this book is that it's different. Completely different from other PNR books I've read. Demons trapped in a warriors body... who woulda thought, right? Seeing the Lords take on these demons within themselves is something else entirely and pretty much makes this series freaking awesome, IMO. Honestly, I wouldn't want to know the Lords or read about them without the demons taking up residence in their bodies, the demons play a very major role here & add that much more flare to the books. What I didn't like... Gosh, nothing? Zip, nada, zilch! I absolutely loved this book.

I would definitely recommend this book! Read it NOW! You're missing out. I know I was ^_^ If you love you some PNR or some sezzy warriors with demons that tend to lash out every now and again, then I suggest you jump on this bandwagon & get to reading! Pronto! show less