The Darkest Passion

Angels usually bore me, and I really dislike female characters starting off by waking up helpless and recently sexually assaulted. So this one started off with two strikes against it. But I ended up liking the character's cheerful intransigence and open, unembarrassed interest in sex, amusement, and life. I also liked that she was the pursuer and persistent in the face of his reluctance, and she was the more knowledgeable one -- a refreshing spin. The male character (Aeron) didn't display much personality, but then, he was mostly just an object for her lustful objectification, which was fine. So, thumbs up, in the end.

However, I have to talk about the "clouds" thing. The idea of angels living in "clouds" -- high-tech magical residences show more -- is actually sort of funny. But that they have to "buy" clouds and can "afford" to "buy" a bigger one -- that's actually offensively stupid. You imagine a world of paranormal creatures, but then you just overlay some sort of bureaucratic worker hierarchy with capitalism in it for your *angels*? Really? show less

I enjoyed this angel and demon-(possessed immortal) love story. It had some nice tension between the couple. One aspect really irked me though, I'll try to be vague so as to only give small spoilers After the couple gets together a situation arises that seems to require the hero to have sex once with someone else, whom he doesn't even want to have sex with, to avoid extremely disastrous consequences. And everyone acts like that's automatically the death knell to their relationship. The notion is so preposterous that it boggles my mind, and yet they all just take it as a given. Like that a single instance of sex with someone else (under total duress- multiple lives are on the line at minimum, and potentially the downfall of all show more humanity, lol) means that their love doesn't matter at all and that the other woman, who again, he doesn't even want to be with!, has won him! Even among puny humans that shouldn't be enough to be insurmountable to true love, but especially not with immortals, it's like one unpleasant blip in their future of all eternity! It seemed petty and small minded. And takes the idea of monogamy to an extreme past all reason. I'm a little surprised to still give it 4 stars because that part was so preposterous, but besides that, it was good. The final act (besides that one aspect) was solid and drew me in. show less

I remembered liking this book but, now that I’ve read it a second time, I’m not so crazy about it.
Aeron, keeper of Wrath, is finally free from his bloodlust that drove him to try and kill Danika and her family in the previous books. He feels guilty over the choice Paris made which saved him and he’s trying to help his friend grieve and stay healthy. Aeron’s happy with Legion, a demon minion he thinks of as his daughter, but he never expected to find himself eye-to-eye with an angel. Olivia was sent by the heavens to kill Aeron, but she couldn’t do it and chose to ‘fall’ instead of taking his life. Now a human with some angel gifts, she has two weeks to spend with Aeron before another angel is chosen to kill him.
My main show more problem with this story is that Aeron constantly chose Legion, his manipulative adoptive daughter who’s lusting after him, over Olivia who gave up almost everything to save Aeron and to just spend some time with him. Legion can’t stand Olivia, but Olivia is tolerant of Legion. Aeron is described as selfless, loving and giving, and he is to everyone but Olivia. Aeron wants Olivia and seduces her without going all the way more than once. He wants to make Legion happy more than he does Olivia so he purposely hurts Olivia. I don’t understand why Olivia stayed with him so long. She didn’t often act like an angel since she wanted to have ‘fun’ all the time. In some ways she was a strong character but she’s weak when it comes to love and obsession. Aeron finally realizes about ¾ of the way into the book that Olivia is more important to him than anyone else is. He finally chooses her, but it doesn’t work out as he planned.
As always, the scenes with the side characters are my favorite. We meet Scarlet, keeper of Nightmares, and learn she has a connection with Gideon, the keeper of Lies. Super interesting! We finally see William and Gilly interact, but it’s totally clean since she’s so young. Legion makes a deal with Lucifer, and the results aren’t pretty. We meet Baden towards the end, and learn there’s a way to free him from the afterlife.
Again, as always, the author writes in passive voice with lots of fragment sentences. The middle section dragged with repetition and too much sex that never amounted to anything. Still, I’m drawn to the characters so I keep reading the series (I’ve already bought most of the books but I did so when they were on a big sale).
3 Stars

Disclaimer – I bought this book for my own enjoyment. I am not paid or compensated in any way, shape or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion. show less

First I should confess that fallen angels are probably my favorite paranormal/fantasy creatures. They aren't as easy to find as vampires and werewolves, so when they do show up I'm pretty excited. When I found out that the heroine of this, book four of The Lords of the Underworld series, was an angel with all the trimmings (wings and clouds and flowers) I was absolutely ecstatic. So I was a little biased toward liking this book before I even opened it.

The premise is that Olivia was an angel, originally a joybringer. But out of nowhere she's promoted to warrior and commanded to kill Aeron. Aeron is possessed by the demon of Wrath and has spent many lifetimes punishing wrongdoers. But more importantly, he broke divine law by releasing the show more demon minion Legion from hell. Olivia, having watched Aeron for a long time and decided that he doesn't deserve death, chooses to fall instead of killing him. She fully expects to become part of his life and experience fun and happiness. But Legions jealousy, the will of gods, and Aeron's own reluctance to give into his softer feelings stand in the way of their blooming relationship.

What I loved: At Olivia is pretty useless and pitiful, so I had some doubts about her. But if you get passed the first 70 pages or so, she becomes much more likeable. She never loses her goodness or kindness, yet she does gain a tremendous amount of backbone and toughness. Aeron was pretty frustrating at times, and I didn't feel he developed as thoroughly as Olivia, but I still liked him. The romance was warm and more or less believable. Lets face it, it's hard to build chemistry between two people with such opposing world-views. Showalter does it pretty well.

As for the plot, both romance related and not, it's complex enough to be interested and only slightly rambling. By that I mean, there are some unnecessary sequences but no really boring ones.

What I did not love: Legion. Ok, she's not the only flaw, and maybe she's not even a flaw for most readers, but she drove me crazy. Every scene that she appeared in was awkward and frustrating. I think the reason I didn't quite like Aeron as much as I might have was that he kept standing up for her, burying his head in the sand, and wanting to help her even in the end. I liked her previously, when I though she was a child or a pet, but the entire plot point with her in this book made me want to give up on it on several occations. I mention this because, if you don't like the two women fighting over a man type of plot this may seriously irritate you as well.

The other flaws are pretty minor. More time could have been invested in the romance, making it just a tad mor believable. I still think the cast of characters is too big but, actually, Showalter did a better job of controling that problem in this book by splitting them up. And the Hunters continue to be lousy villains. I'm sorry, but sometimes I think the Lords remain alive only because their enemies are so imcompetent.

Overall, if you like the series you'll like this book. It keeps a lot of the best elements from the previous books, and adds some new stuff as well. show less

The Darkest Passion
3 Stars

Synopsis
Olivia is a warrior angel charged with assassinating Aeron, the keeper of Wrath, but refuses to carry out her mission and is exiled from Heaven. Fascinated by the fallen angel who claims to have forfeited immortality to experience life and love with him, Aeron finds himself torn between fulfilling his desire for Olivia and appeasing his faithful demon companion, Legion, who will do anything to dispose of the angel...

Note: This series MUST be read in order otherwise it is virtually impossible to follow the storyline and references to secondary characters.

Review
While I am thoroughly enjoying this series, The Darkest Passion does not live up to expectations. The first 1/4 of the book is slow and show more disjointed. Nevertheless, the pace eventually picks up and the last 1/4 is exciting. I also dislike the introduction of Christian lore into a series that has previously focused on elements from Greek myth. Each mythology is compelling in its own right but they do not mesh well.

After reading The Darkest Kiss and The Darkest Pleasure, Aeron's book was at the top of my list but, unfortunately, his romance with Olivia falls flat on its face. They have absolutely no chemistry and their relationship feels forced.

Olivia is the worst type of heroine - passive, needy and insipid. Her status as a fallen angel is the most interesting thing about her but this fails to reach its potential either in her thoughts or actions as demonstrated by her constant need to remind both Aeron and the reader that she is actually fallen. She is constantly throwing herself at Aeron and fawning over him even when he rejects her - "confident and aggressive" NOT!

Aeron lacks emotional depth and goes from hunky alpha to wimpy omega. Despite the build up of his demon in previous installments, it is completely under-utilized here and all we get from him is the repeated "mine, mine, mine".

Legion is obnoxious and manipulative. I have no idea what Aeron sees in her and I just want her to die already. The twists involving her character her pact with Lucifer, the possibility that Aeron will have sex with her and her encounter with Galen are seriously creepy.

That said, the book is worth reading for the secondary cast and the progression of their individual stories - Gideon and Scarlet's past history, William and Gilly's budding relationship (hope she is the one to finally put him in his place) and the hints at Paris and Sienna's reunion are all very appealing as are the cameo appearances by Pandora and Baden (wonder what's going on there).

The twists and turns in the series story arc are also a highlight - the hunters are getting stronger and more devious, the Unspoken Ones have put a wrench in the works and some strange alliances are emerging.

Looks like there are interesting developments to come and hopefully Gideon and Scarlet's romance will be an improvement. show less

Ah Aeron, he seemed so without emotion (except wrath of course), so inhuman but boy were we wrong. Olivia lit his emotions up like a Christmas tree! I loved Aeron's story but I always find it difficult when Showalter doesn't give us a 100% happy ending. There are sacrifices made and I know these things can't always be perfect but dammit I want them to be!

As for the other characters, well at the moment I really don't like Scarlet (Nightmares) and I'm guessing she will be Gideon's. I love Gideon in this one by the way. His interaction with Olivia was entertaining!

Although I don't particularly like the path Selena is now set on I'm glad that she hopefully will be returned to Paris. It will be interesting to see how she copes with being show more the very thing she hates. No doubt she will be used as a pawn by Cronus to bargain with the Lords, especially Paris.

William and Gilly, aw their feelings and interactions were so sweet. I hope they become an item in the future when Gilly's a little older. Perhaps she'll be the one to make William settle down.

Galen and Legion -wow, I did not see that coming! He seemed genuinely intrigued with her right up until she tried to kill him. I wonder how he survived her poison and whether he really is intent on revenge or whether he just wants to possess her. Great stuff! show less

I have to admit I had my reservations about this series before I started. I have my favorites in the adult paranormal romance world and this series had not hit my radar yet. It’s a whole different story now. I am sucked into this world and cannot even think about reading something else until I have devoured every single book available in the series. Lucky for me there are quite a few out right now so I have been very busy the past couple days. Yep, I have gone though books 1-5 in about 7 days. I did have a week off though so I had quite a bit of free time, but still that is fast even for me. I can’t help it though, once you dive into the series and become involved in the Lords lives it becomes pointless to resist their charm. These show more books have also made me realize that I love reading a series where the point of view switches back and forth between the couple being focused on and the couple changes in every book. The couples might change, but the underlying plot is always there in the background, which gives Gena more time to play with the way the story develops.

So, why haven’t I written a review of the other books? Didn’t really want to stop reading honestly. If I don’t write a review of one book before I start another it does not work for me. I am not sure why, but the reviews are just not as genuine if I don’t put my thoughts to paper right away. I did not want to make it through all the books and not have a review written though. I have enjoyed them immensely and wanted to share. So this is me, stopping coming up for air and writing a review for this amazing series!

I chose this book to stop at because it really is my favorite so far. I think once Paris gets his story told though, all bets are off. That guy has been through far too much and I really want to see him get his happy ending. I will be waiting for a while on that one though. So onto Olivia and Aeron, angel and demon, literally. I have enjoyed this story the most since we not only get a great connection with Aeron and Olivia but we also get to venture into the minds of many of the other Lords. I love that Gena gives us little teases about other Lords stories and getting all the perspectives really just makes the whole storyline flow better. It also just makes you want all their stories available now, but I am going to try and be patient.

The tension between the Lords and the hunters is also kicking into high gear and at this point who knows where the chips are going to fall. Or who to even trust for that matter, there are so many people out to trick the Lords I don’t know how they let anyone in. Well, I guess the rarely do, but when someone does manage to disarm them and get pass all their defenses it does pay off! The hunters have managed to get quite a few major players on their side, plus there are some revelations coming about that I did not even see coming. Totally blindsided and I would not have it any other way. Gena manages to work these revelations in seamlessly and once you really think about it all you wonder why you did not see it before.

I have loved every, single, freaking, second of this series. It only gets better with every book. Gena has literally kept me reading into the wee hours of the night with this series and I am now officially a HUGE fan! I could not stop reading if I wanted to. Speaking of that, I am off to read the next one right now. If you have not read this series and you are a fan of adult paranormal romance then this is definitely for you. show less