"The Darkest Craving" by Gena Showalter

  

Title: The Darkest Craving

Author: Gena Showalter

Series: Lords of the Underworld, #10

My rating: 2.5 of 5

(Book read from April 14th to April 24th, 2014.)

Summary:

 

 

New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter is back with a breathtaking Lords of the Underworld tale about a warrior trapped by darkness and the woman determined to save him...
 
Having endured weeks of torture in the bowels of hell, Kane wants nothing to do with his beautiful rescuer, Josephina Aisling. The half-Fae female threatens to awaken the demon of Disaster inside him—a beast he’s determined to kill, no matter the price.
 
Josephina is hunted by a brutal enemy — her royal family — and Kane is her only source of protection. He’s also the only male to ever set her aflame, and even he succumbs to the heat. But as they navigate the treacherous world of the Fae, they are forced to make a choice: live apart…or die together.  

  

My Thoughts on the Book:

The Darkest Craving is the 10th installment of the Lords of the Underworld series. This time, the Lord in question is Kane - the keeper of Disaster. There will definitely be some spoilers below. 

The Darkest Craving was overall an ok read, but nothing special. I can't quite point out what it was, but something was definitely missing. I actually preferred the few & between PoVs of some of the others Lords, like Torin, Cameo, Viola, and of course, I loved that we saw quite a lot of William (YAY), as well as his "kids". I'm actually finally interested in reading a story about Cameo, and I loved the set up for Torin's book, which will be next. Actually, after reading the description about it, I'm dying to read it! I think it will be awesome!

As for Kane's story, I just couldn't quite warm up to the characters, both Kane & Josephina. Kane used to be one of the funny ones, but after everything he endured in hell, I can understand how he changed. Ok, he's bad-ass & sexy, but he's also really possessive & bent on revenge, and even though that worked for Josephina perfectly, it didn't for me. And to be honest, I didn't feel the love between them both. Sure, there was attraction & chemistry, but it didn't quite work for me, even though they seemed to be meant for each other, it comes down to the fact that I didn't really care anymore. Also, soon Kane became boring with his nicknames for Josephina.

As for Josephina, she's half-human, half-fae. And her father is actually the fae king. And she's a blood slave for her half-sister, meaning everything her sister does wrong, Josephina is punished and suffers the consequences. And since her sister is the keeper of Irresponsibility, you can only imagine what that entails. Anyway, Josephina is actually quite strong, and to endure everything she has, you have to be, though when she meets Kane, she's ready to give up, she just wants to die. But, of course, Kane doesn't let her. Josephina also has some cool abilities, though probably not cool for her. She can borrow an ability & strength from for a short time, but she can actually borrow the demons as well (this is the not cool part). Actually, she can borrow any supernatural ability (probably from everyone). So, you probably shouldn't mess with her, because you won't know what you're in for.

But, despite all of that, this novel still had its entertaining & funny moments (William was the most responsible), and as I said, I loved the set up for the next books. There was lots of action & killing of course, and once again Gena Showalter decided to expand the world, which it was interesting at first, though in the end, not interesting enough. Also, it was definitely on the predictable side, only a couple of things that happened in the end surprised me (Leopold's secret & who the woman on the picture was), but the ending itself was predictable. 

Still, I'm looking forward to continuing the series. We're nearing the end, and finally Torin's story in The Darkest Touch will be next. Also, I loved seeing Malcolm from the Angels of the Dark series, as well as the rest of the Lords of the Underworld cast. And seriously, Gena, you must write William's novel soon, I don't think I can wait anymore, though I know I'll have to. But now (after reading Beauty Awakened), I'm actually wondering if William's story will be part of the Lords of the Underworld series or the Angels of the Dark series? Anyway, I can't wait either way.

 

 

 

Challenges:

 

2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge