Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Lords of the Underworld 1 & 2

YOU GUYS. I want you to know that I am so freaking disgusted with myself that I didn't know about this series before now, and that I only have books one and two. Basically, these two books consumed three days of  my life. No laundry, the baby wasn't bathed, I haven't showered and I am ashamed to tell you I wore the same outfit two days in a row.

I have become a disgusting, unclean person and it is fully Gena Showalter's fault.

The Darkest Night
All her life, Ashlyn Darrow has been tormented by voices from the past. To end the nightmare, she has come to Budapest seeking help from men rumored to have supernatural abilities, not knowing she'll be swept into the arms of Maddox, their most dangerous member -- a man trapped in a hell of his own.

Neither can resist the instant hunger than calms their torments... and ignites an irresistible passion. But every heated touch and burning kiss will edge them closer to destruction -- and a soul-shattering test of love...
Though they carry an eternal curse, the Lords of the Underworld are irresistibly seductive -- and unimaginably powerful...

I have to tell you that I am a huge fan of paranormal romance anyways so as soon as I was able to review this, I absolutely jumped.

AND THANK GOD.

The sex scenes in this book will blow you away. I'm just saying that even if you aren't a fan of paranormal romance, it might be worth trying out just because Gena knows what the hell she is doing. Hot damn.

Anyways.

So this book is where we meet Maddox, who harbors the demon Violence in him as part of a curse involving Pandora's Box. We get the back story of that and we meet a lot of the other Lords of the Underworld in this book, who I assume will all get their own stories within this series. Anyways. So Maddox also dies every night and is escorted to Hell, and comes back in the morning in rough shape and the cycle repeats every night. Ashlyn has her own issues because she can hear voices and she is certain one of the mysterious "angels" on the hill can help her, and that's how she inadvertently meets Maddox. Curiously, her voices disappear around him and he is discovering, reluctantly, that she calms the demon inside of him. Which makes it seem like each one of these Lords will have to essentially find their "match" and that will somehow break them of their curse. I won't give any more away but it was a damn good book and I was immediately hooked on this entire series by chapter five.

The Darkest Kiss 


Though she has lived for centuries, Anya, goddess of Anarchy, has never known pleasure. Until Lucien, the incarnation of death--a warrior eternally doomed to take souls to the hereafter. He draws her like no other. And Anya will risk anything to have him.

But when the merciless Lord of the Underworld is ordered by the gods to claim Anya herself, their uncontrollable attraction becomes an anguished pursuit. Now they must defeat the unconquerable forces that control them, before their thirst for one another demands a sacrifice of love beyond imagining...


In this book we follow Lucien, who has the demon of Death inside of him. We originally meet him in book one as he is the Lord of the Underworld responsible for carrying souls to Hell, and he takes Maddox every night. We also get just a teaser about him in book one, we learn he's scarred to the point of disfigurement but we don't know how and it's essentially a mystery. Until book two, of course.

The only thing about this book I didn't love was Anya. Anya is the goddess of Anarchy who basically is rebelling against her father and the Titans (who overthrew the Gods in book one) and helped the Lords of the Underworld in book one, and freeing Maddox of his curse, but also helping Lucien and Reyes because they were connected with Maddox's curse.

Anyways. I feel like Anya was set up kind of like a slutty brat right from the start of this book and while she does redeem herself once you know her story and how she is basically Lucien's match.... she is so hard to like. But even with that I have to say.... I liked this book better than book one which is saying a lot because I absolutely loved book one. Honestly, it's probably Lucien that does it for me because he's so lonely and he's absolutely certain nobody could possibly find him attractive, yet alone love him, based on how he looks. Anya sees beyond that and it takes so much to convince him of that but the journey to that point is SO great. Also great are the sex scenes between them - absolutely on point.

I am so annoyed I have to wait until Matt gets paid on the 21st before I can order the rest of these. I am absolutely hooked and I want anything and everything by Gena Showalter.

For some reason I can't make the embed code work here, but there is a HUGE giveaway happening right now that ends on April 22 for a complete signed copy of the whole series. You can go HERE to enter. (Or not because I want to win.) In the meantime, visit Gena on Facebook, Twitter, and on her webpage!


1 comment:

Heather J @ TLC Book Tours said...

I love how much you were sucked into these two books! I hope you'll enjoy the rest of the series just as much.

Thanks for being a part of the tour!