Review: The Darkest Passion (Lords of the Underworld #5) by Gena Showalter

The Darkest Passion (Lords of the Underworld #5) by Gena Showalter
Format: ebook
Source: purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: February 14, 2012

Lords of the Underworld
0.5. The Darkest Fire
1. The Darkest Night
2. The Darkest Kiss
3. The Darkest Pleasure
3.5. The Darkest Prison
4. The Darkest Whisper
4.5. The Darkest Angel
5. The Darkest Passion - Paperback | Kindle
6. The Darkest Lie
7. The Darkest Secret
8. The Darkest Surrender
9. The Darkest Seduction
10. The Darkest Craving
11. The Darkest Touch
12. The Darkest Torment
13. The Darkest Promise
14. The Darkest Warrior
14.5. The Darkest Captive
14.6. The Darkest Assassin
15. The Darkest King
15.5. The Darkest Destiny

Related Series:
(find all the reviews for the series under the first review)
Angels of the Dark
1. Wicked Nights

Rise of the Warlords
1. The Warlord

Gena Showalter
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

For weeks, the immortal warrior Aeron has sensed an invisible female presence. An angel-demon-assassin has been sent to kill him. Or has she? Olivia claims she fell from the heavens, giving up immortality because she couldn't bear to harm him. But trusting - and falling for - Olivia will endanger them all. So how has this mortal with the huge blue eyes already unleashed Aeron's darkest passion?

Now, with an enemy hot on his trail and his faithful demon companion determined to remove Olivia from his life, Aeron is trapped between duty and consuming desire. Worse still, a new executioner has been sent to do the job Olivia wouldn't...

My Thoughts:  I will freely admit, right here and now, that I adore tattooed men. I have a soft spot for all the Lords just because they sport freaking butterflies as it is. Aeron, with his multitudes of tats and his sexy wings and the way he always wants to help his brothers, is like full-on crack to me. *swoon*

That said, Aeron was one of the harder Lords for me to get a handle on prior to this book. He put himself in danger in book 3 when he refused to kill Danika and her family and because of that Paris had to make a terrible sacrifice. Now, Paris is one of my favorites so when he lost the chance with the woman of his dreams to curb Aeron's bloodlust, I might have directing a few pointed glares in poor Aeron's direction. But.... but, Aeron feels so much guilt over what Paris gave up that it's hard to stay angry at him. He makes it his duty to make sure that Paris is feeding his demon to try to atone. Within the first few pages of this book I was fully on Team Aeron-is-pretty-darn-cool.

Enter Olivia. She fell because she saw that spark of humanity in him. She saw what a good person he was and knew it would be a crime to destroy Aeron. Plus, she really wanted to get her hands down his pants. I mean... SHE REALLY DID. You have got to respect a girl who goes after what she wants the way Olivia did. She clawed her way up from Hell to be with him. That makes her kind of awesome in my book.

One of the biggest draws in this series is that the other Lords get plenty of face-time. I like being able to see that Anya is still tormenting William and that Gideon is recovering from his horrific wounds. The overall arc is getting bigger and more complex and I have no idea how the Lords are going to eke out a win at this point. Also... those bad guys are bad.

*rubs hands together and looks toward Gideon's book*