March 3,
2012
The
Darkest Seduction
Lords of
the Underworld #9
by Gena
Showalter
Genre: Paranormal
Romance
Publisher:
HQN Books
Release
Date: February 28th 2012
Author Summary
Possessed by the demon
of Promiscuity, immortal warrior Paris is irresistibly seductive-but his potent
allure comes at a terrible price. Every night he must bed someone new, or weaken
and die. And the woman he craves above all others is the one woman he'd thought
was forever beyond his reach…until now.
Newly possessed by the
demon of Wrath, Sienna Blackstone is racked by a ruthless need to punish those
around her. Yet in Paris's arms, the vulnerable beauty finds soul-searing
passion and incredible peace. Until a blood feud between ancient enemies heats
up.
My Thoughts
I really
wanted to love this latest novel in the Lords of the Underworld series like I do
all the others. LOTU is one of my all-time
favorite series and will continue to be, however, this chapter in the series just
didn’t do it for me. At times, I found
Paris & Sienna’s relationship was forced to the point that it wasn’t
believable. I wasn’t feeling the emotion
I was hoping for and just wasn’t compelled by them as a couple.
However
saying that, there was still much in the novel to enjoy and a lot going on. I found the side stories fabulous and the
lead-in to storylines to come exciting and will absolutely leave you wanting
more.
Will this
ruin the series for me? Absolutely
not! I am a fan and will continue to
be. I’ll be the first in line to pick up
the next one when it comes out. Could
you skip this one and pick up with the next?
I wouldn’t. There’s too much
going on in the side stories that impact the direction of the series that you
shouldn’t miss.
So here’s
what I thought…
Anyone
who is familiar with this series knows Paris and how he has been a very
troubled soul as of late. Even though
the Lord of Sex and Keeper of Promiscuity gets to have lots and lots and lots
of action, it’s not fulfilling for him.
He wants what all his brothers have – a loving life-long relationship
with someone he adores. Unfortunately his
demon will not allow him to have sex with the same woman twice and can’t go
without because he’d die, so the possibility of a relationship like theirs is
far out of his grasp.
Then
Sienna came along - a Hunter and enemy of the Lords. She drugged and trapped him in a weakened
state, then had sex with him to revive him when he was dying, all so the
Hunters could torture him some more. Paris
should hate her. However, when she
aroused him again after they sex, the possibility of a real relationship drove
him to do whatever he could to find her.
Paris is
a nice guy. We all want him to have his
HEA. We didn’t get to know much about
Sienna before and she turns out to be pretty cool and I like her. Unfortunately, I found their relationship to
be kind of boring and unconvincing. I
would have expected their sexual exploits to be mind-blowing given his…
experience. It was hot don’t get me
wrong but no more so than the other novels in the series. It bothered me that the first time Paris and
Sienna kissed he was awful at it. She
told him he was worse than the boy Carl Knickerbocker that kissed her in the 3rd
grade. A sex Lord who’s been around for thousands of years having sex every day
can’t kiss well? Come on. Really?
Moving
on…the side stories were great and integral to the future of the series.
So, you
all remember Galen, the Keeper of Hope & Jealousy, leader of the Hunters,
Gwen’s father, all around bad-ass, well turns out he has been obsessively
chasing Legion since she had sex with him and tried to kill him a few novels
ago. He figures out a way to get to her
and he’s different from what we thought.
We see a tiny spark of compassion in him. An itty-bitty one but one all the same. And that’s all I can say about that. Only I’m pretty excited to see where Gena is
going to take the storyline.
Yay! Ashlyn finally had her babes! The naming of
the little tykes was pretty funny…Some of William’s ideas…Smith & Wesson,
Pistol and Shank, Blood and Gore, Shits & Giggles, Fists & Kneecaps,
Hammer & Nails…didn’t really work for the proud parents. So they settled on
Urban and Ever. All rightly then!
Kane is
stuck in Hell from when he and William were sent there in the last book. We did get a bit of a lead in on him and the
horsewoman of the Apocalypse. Should be
interesting.
We get a
little more about William but that man is still an enigma. We need his book soon Gena!!
And
Striker? What’s up with that? May not be a big deal but wow!
We got to
meet a few new/newish characters:
~ Viola – Minor goddess of the
Afterlife, Keeper of Narcissism kept me amused throughout the entire book. Full of love for herself and vanity, she was
a mix between Anya and a female version of William. I’m curious to see who Gena will pair her up
with. I pity the poor thing already!
~ Zacharel - a warrior angel tasked
with getting Sienna away from Paris, as she is the key to ending a war. We’ve seen Zacharel before but not like in
this novel. He is an interesting
character and enough was given to intrigue us to read about him in Showalter’s
new spinoff series Angels of the Dark coming out June 26th.
~ Three new Lords were briefly
introduced: Cameron – Keeper of Obsession, Pukinn - Keeper of Indifference and
Winter - Keeper of Selfishness.
So you
can see, there was A LOT going on in this novel. Some things were resolved and there are great
lead-ins to new stories and new threats.
Bottom Line
Despite
the fact that this wasn’t my favorite novel, Lords of the Underworld is still
one of my favorite PNR series and Gena Showalter one of my favorite
authors. Always will be. It felt like it was a struggle for her to
write Paris’ story and that manifested itself in the writing. I’ll still be excited when the next one comes
out and will be the first in line to read it.
I’m also looking forward to this spinoff series with Zacharel in June.
Happy Reading!!
3 Bad Boys – Good!!!
BUY NOW…
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