Summary

Showalter slowly made it to my favorite authors list. Since the first book in the Lords of the Underworld (Book 1 was not my favorite) series her writing has improved exponentially and Darkest Passion follows the pattern, bringing us a well written story with nicely constructed characters, as well as adding important facts to the big plot that threads through all books in the series. Aeron, host of the demon Wrath, was hardened by the life he's had to endure and uses distance as a shield, keeping people at arms length so he doesn't have to go through losses again. Inadvertently, while trying to help Legion, his surrogate daughter, he breaks heavenly law and is sentenced to death. Olivia, the angel who's been tasked to destroy Aeron, sees her target as a giving, caring and protective creature and is completely smitten by him, therefore unable to fulfill such task. For that, she falls from heaven and does everything she can to stay by his side for as long as possible before another is sent to take his head. Aeron is not very welcoming but, through her bizarre attempts (most funny passages come from her ideas), she grows on him until he realizes he can't live without her. Gena uses the same basic ingredients of the other novels in the series: a couple unwillingly falling in love, steamy sex scenes, romantic declarations and many obstacles for their happiness. All as we expect from a Lord of the Underworlds book, except this one didn't have the happily ever after feeling by the end of it. I'm aware that, considering the big plot for the Lords, we can't have all problems solved by the end of an installment but this one left too many questions unanswered. Although it's very well written with smart dialogues, it had an excessive number of enemies, which is probably the reason for the forced ending. I know these stories require suspension of disbelief, but even with that Showalter pushed a little too far with this one. First, her angels are a contradiction. They're supposed to be purely good creatures, but what is shown to us through their actions are unforgiving and judgmental beings unable to understand the concept of redemption. I wanted to slap Lysander from page one and the urge only grew. His fit of rage toward Aeron was not angel-like as well as his requests regarding Olivia. Second, the story lacked focus. Too many subplots with little glimpses into them so they became unimportant. They felt more like teasers for other stories used as page fillers. And last, the ending was very weak. The plot complicates as it develops so much so that it's nearly impossible to imagine the happy ending. It works to capture our attention and makes it hard to even pause in the reading. When it's finally time for a conclusion it doesn't measure up. it rushes forward, creates an absurd solution and things are barely explained. The subplots are not combined making them useless and leaving us with too many questions. Now we have a friend trapped somewhere he hates. We don't know what happened to Stefano, if anything happened at all. The hunters keep growing in numbers, the Lords kill dozens of them and other dozens come up, and know they are even more dangerous. The gods, who were already all-powerful creatures, are becoming worse and even harder to face. Everything is just too complicated and it stays that way. Even the artifacts they've been searching for a couple of books are ignored by the end. One of my favorite things about Showalter's way of writing was that all the other books were wrapped up and still left us wanting more without sufferable cliffhangers. This one doesn't have a cliffhanger exactly but it doesn't offer closure either. I'll keep reading the series but I honestly hope the next one goes back to the kind of finales we got used to.