Saturday, December 17, 2011

Review: Heart of Darkness by Gena Showalter, Maggie Shayne, Susan Krinard

Synopsis (Goodreads):
The Darkest Angel by Gena Showalter
A Lords of the Underworld tale
An iron-willed demon assassin, the angel Lysander has never known lust—until he meets Bianka. Spawned from the bloodline of Lucifer, the beautiful but deadly Harpy is determined to lead the pure-hearted Lysander into temptation….

Love Me to Death by Maggie Shayne
Twenty-two years ago four teenage boys were convicted of a young girl's murder. Now, in the form of a beautiful woman, the "victim" is seeking vengeance. And only one man dares to dig into the past to uncover its secrets… and set her free.

Lady of the Nile by Susan Krinard
Lady Tameri believes herself to be the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian princess, and Leo Erskine has set out to prove her wrong…never dreaming that the two of them are about to discover a prophecy that will bind them together forever.
My Thoughts: Anthologies are always hit or miss with me and yet I keep reading them.  In this case, I had to read the Lords of the Underworld story.  HAD TO.  It's like an addiction.  A dirty, shameful "have to read all the stories in a series" addiction.  I'm actually okay with it.  *nods*

So... The Darkest Angel.  Quite frankly, I loved it.  Bianka was fleshed out from the previous book and, lo and behold, she's not as terrible as you might have been led to believe.  Yeah, she's feisty.  Yeah, she's naughty.  Yeah, she's not afraid to get her hands dirty and she threatens to cut people's heads off often.  BUT... she's not a bad harpy.  Lysander ended up redeeming himself in a big way.  This is a good thing since he really put his foot in his mouth several times and I was giving him the stink-eye.  Yes, the stink-eye.  It wasn't pretty.

I liked that we got to see couples from previous books and there were glimpses into the storylines to come.  Plus, a nearly-nude Paris wrestling in oil is nothing to turn your nose up at.

Love Me to Death. I'm wavering on how I feel with this one.  I started it, got halfway through and had to put it down.  I had a heck of a time remembering what had happened previously when I came back to it.  It was just... I don't know.  It didn't grab me the way I wanted it to.

Lady of the Nile. Huh. I don't really have anything to say about this one.  I had about 15 pages left and I swore it wasn't going to end.  I hate feeling that way about a story.

Final Verdict:  Loved the LotU story, could have done without the other 2.  Once again, though, that's not uncommon with me and anthologies.  I simply prefer the stories that are part of a larger storyline.

More books by Gena Showalter
More books by Maggie Shayne
More books by Susan Krinard

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