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Wednesday 5 October 2011

Review: The Darkest Surrender by Gena Showalter



The Darkest Surrender (Lords of the Underworld #8)
by Gena Showalter
Paranormal Romance


I want to steal 5 things from Kaia:

1. Her Sumo wrestler coffee table
2. Strider
3. Her hula lamp
4. Strider
5. Her sofa that has legs on the armrests.

Yes, as you can see I loved both Kaia's decorating style and her man. But then who can resist Strider the Keeper of Defeat? Face of an angel,body of a god and the sense of humour of a devil. I am panting just thinking about it! But Strider does have a weakness, he can't lose a single challange otherwise he suffers debilitating agony, and Kaia is extremely challenging. But he is Kaia's consort and she is determined to have him and does in fact need him if as she ig going to be competeing in the Harpy Games as without his blood and calming influence she may not survive.

I was so looking forward to this book! The build up to Kaia and Striders in the previous book was fantastic and they have great chemistry with the witty banter and wicked comments flowing very naturally between them. However, although I did enjoy their relationship, I felt something was missing I didn't find myself lost to the book as I have been with many of the others. They made a great couple and as indivduals they were fantastic, I loved Kaia's combination of towering confidence and little girl vulnrability and Strider was well, AWESOME (ego check!)

I can't really put my finger on why I didn't enjoy this book as much as the others, the Harpy Games was an interesting idea and yes maybe quite similar to Kresley Cole's Talisman Hie in Immortals After Dark, but that didn't bother me. I also liked that this book introduced you to some more secondary characters which I have a feeling will be coming out to play in the future, such as Lazarus *drools a little*

I did love the parts with Kane & William and Paris, especially the Paris bits he has changed so much since the first book and I am now dying for him to FINALLY get his HEA, damn it Showalter haven't you tortured him enough? LOL! And Kane, we haven't seen much of him in the previous books so I liked having a peek inside his noggin' and what a beautiful noggin' it is, I sense book husband number 781 coming up!

After thinking about this since I finished it, what I didn't like about this book was that it didn't seem like a LOTU book, although the Hunters were in it as were some of the other Lords it just didn't have the LOTU vibe. It seemed like a 0.5 book as there didn't seem to be much focus on Pandora's Box,despite the presence ofa certain artifcat. Plus my snuggle bunny Maddox wasn't in it and that is an automatic star taken right there! However over all I did enjoy it and I am looking forward to the next book immensley.








6 comments:

KittenMittens said...

I got kind of distracted by the constant POV change each chapter. One minute It's Kaia, the next it's Paris, back to either Strider or Kaia and then next it's William etc. So much bouncing & I don't recall if it was this way for the other books as well (although it could be a book about 50/50 William and Strider time and I'd be a happy camper... :) But I see how it was opening the way for future stories so I don't know what I'm thinking now. Which kind of makes my comment pointless. But I already typed all my ramblings so I'm saying it anyway! :D

Unknown said...

Great review! I just finished the audiobook, and of course the guy the reads these books is fantastic, I really liked and enjoyed it, and you are right about a different bive, it reminded me a lot of Krseley Cole's books, maybe because of the Harpies,anyway all I can say is: Como on Paris!!!!

Julie said...

"I want to steal 5 things from Kaia:

1. Her Sumo wrestler coffee table
2. Strider
3. Her hula lamp
4. Strider
5. Her sofa that has legs on the armrests." LMAO!

I agree with your review. I didn't click with this book as much as I hoped because I adore Strider, but I can't figure out why. It wasn't a bad book though. And I also wonder if we'll see Lazarus again. He was quite drool-worthy. ;)

Unknown said...

I finished this last night. LOVED Kaia's decorating style. LOL. I also have to agree with Julie, I hope to see more of Lazarus. He seemed like he had potential to bring a lot to table.

Megan@Riverina Romantics said...

Suz, I hate to tell you that Strider is mine!

I loved this one! I think it's the best yet and Strider is my new fave.

Neyra said...

I gotta admit, though I'm madly in love with Strider myself, I really didn't like Kaia one bit. She's a little too arrogant for my liking, at least Strider was funny when he was recognizing his awesomeness *ego check!* As for the Harpy games, I didn't care for it at all, true that it was missing the LOTU vibe, but I still enjoyed the side bits with Paris and William, and I can't wait for Kane's book... but the ONE LOTU I'm waiting for is my number one man... TORIN♥ *DREAMY SIGH* I just love him, I wish Gena would stop torturing him so much ;( Lol. Great review!