The Darkest Night, A Review

I must say that never in my life would I have thought butterflies to be sexy, until I read this series. Now I find myself wishing my husband had one of those sexy butterfly tattoos so that I too could ogle it on him. It makes my toes curl. ;)

The Darkest Night is the first book in the Lords of the Underworld series by Gena Showalter. Showalter introduces us to Lords who were once the guardians of the Greek gods, but due to their own arrogance and selfishness are now cursed to live on Earth with demons possessing them. Not just any demons. The mother of all demons, the very demons that were locked away in Pandora's box. That's right, the guardians of the gods had their pride hurt that Pandora was picked to guard the box and not them. They had the genius idea to defeat Pandora and release all of those evil demons loose on the world so that the gods would learn the error of their ways.

You can guess how well that turned out. The guardians were cast out of Olympus and sent to Earth with a demon who best represented them taking up rent space in their bodies. Not knowing how to control them, the Lords wreaked unspeakable havoc on Earth for many many years.

Bringing us to to present day Budapest the Lords are living in a sort of peace and have control over their demons, kind of. Which brings us around to the Darkest Night. This book picks up with Maddox who houses the demon of Violence. Maddox is cursed to die every night by the hands of his "brother", Reyes, who houses the demon Pain. Maddox's soul is then carried off to Hell every evening by his other "brother" Lucien who houses the demon, Death. And there his soul must remain until Death comes back to claim him. Every night it is the same thing. Never leaving the home that they have made in Buda, for fear of not making it back in time before the curse is activated once again.

Sucky huh?

Now enter Ashlyn. Ashlyn has heard many story's about the Lords and believes that they can help her. Ashlyn has a gift/curse of her own. She can hear every conversation ever spoken everywhere. Only when she stumbles onto the Lords property right into Maddox's arms does she know that she was correct. Finally she is free of all the voices that have haunted her her entire life. Not to mention that Maddox is the sexiest man she has ever laid eyes on.

Not wanting to be away from him for even one moment Ashlyn is taken right into the Lords world without a safety net in sight. All she can think about is Maddox, how sexy he is and how he makes her feel normal. She wants to save Maddox from himself. Maddox fears that Ashlyn is Bait sent by the Hunters, a group of fanatic humans who hunt the Lords. The Hunters blame all of the worlds problems on the Lords and have made it their mission to hunt them and capture them to save the world from their evil.

Maddox must learn to deal with his overwhelming attraction to Ashlyn and decide if she really is Bait sent to destroy him, while also deciding if it even matters. Never has he been plagued with more inner demons ( hehehe ) than he is now. Is what he feels love? Can he control Violence enough to be with Ashlyn? Does Ashlyn love him or does she love the blessed silence that he comes with? Why after all of these years of "peace" are the hunters back in full force? Do the Lords want to war again with the Hunters?

The Darkest Night introduces us to all of the other Lords of the Underworld. It sets up the rest of the series flawlessly. There is not a character introduced in Darkest Night that isn't important to the series. This story is fabulously done. The romance is to die for ( pun intended ) ;) The action keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire story. Every page leaves you needing to know what happens next.

A great book and wonderful start to an amazing series! A must read indeed!

Happy reading to all,

Lisa :)