Book Review: Dark Taste of Rapture by Gena Showalter

Those of you that read this blog (of which there is one) will know that a few months ago I reviewed the previous book in this series.  The alien huntress series to be exact. I think I pointed out that the end was a bit of a cop out. And I would like to say that I hold to that statement because it is clear to me that Showalter can write endings where a near all powerful father doesn't appear out of no where to help the main characters.

This book is about Noelle and Hector in the alien force. I was kind of surprised when that pairing was said because during Ava's book it was hinted at that she might sleep with him but it seemed weird. It seemed like he didn't care. I don't really know because that time line might have been tampered with. The issues is I am not sure how much of that invading alien parasite group was wiped from everyone's memories when McKell's daddy zapped them away. Or did he not do the magic mind trick? See I forget these things. Because I feel like they should have at some point talked about the aliens seeing as they were the main bad guys and plot of the last handful of books.

Anyway Hector can make his arms into human torches, which sounds awesome but has some bad stuff attacked to it because he is not super great with the control. I really enjoyed the ending and how it worked his powers and the big issue of the plot into the finale.

On the other hand there was this big deal that Noelle didn't have pain receptors but it like barely came up. Although it was hinted at that it made sexy time hard on her she seemed fine in all the scenes. I guess I wanted a scene where Hector had to work extra hard to make her happy. But that's me.

Of the alien huntress series this one had the best consistency of character actions and plot moment. It had the least aliens which I find odd given the name of the series but I figure every series does not have the same intensity in each book.

I was glad when Hector stopped shaving his head because I find it really hard to get into a bald guy. Because I mean how hot is that cover art? Smoking right? And I didn't really want to spend time trying to figure out how he would look like with no hair. I like my men with luscious hair, you should see my boyfriend's hair.

Overall I enjoyed the book. I have liked some of Showalter's work more but this one was about in the middle. I don't love this series the same way I love Lord of the Underworld.

Book Review: The Darkest Secret by Gena Showalter

Secret is the seventh book in Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series. The series follows a group of immortal warriors who back in the day opened Pandora's box and then were cursed to carry the demons they released. They fight a group of humans who are lead by one of their former members. The series is perhaps one of my more favorite paranormal romance series out there. Most of the characters are a wide aray of interesting and crazy.

Amun is the lead warrior for this story and I would say while I found him interesting he was never really one of the big draws. He is the keeper of Secrets and thus doesn't speak for fear that the secrets he holds in his head will spill out and ruin people's lives. In previous books he communicated through sign language and mostly didn't have much to say. And while a few of the warriors have weaknesses I never really saw a huge issues with Amun not talking, I mean its not that huge of a handicap. But thing again having your mind filled with thousands of secrets of others doesn't sound pleasant.

Playing opposite Amun is Haidee or Hadiee or whatever. She is a semi-immortal who back in the day cut of Amun's best friend's head. Which you would think would have made some complications. But not really, they are both kind of like "what behading?" I will say that the reasons that they would not work out were in fact numerous but were treated like it was no big deal. I can't tell if I was just having trouble connecting with the characters or what but I just couldn't get into the book.

Oh I still read it in one day, but it just wasn't my favorite story out of the series. I was interested in what is going on with Strider, William and Paris. Because those three have issues. Mostly Paris and I find it hard that Showalter has been teasing me with his book for several books now. I checked the website and his book is two away, and it said heroine unknow, which is silly because we all know who it is.

I think there was a real potential with these characters to do something really crazy plot wise, but we ended up with what I consider a safe story. True they did go to hell for their little adventure but the tension wasn't crazy high. I miss the days when Aeron was trying to kill Danika. Anyway the part that bothered me the most was the end. Haidee dies and then the angel is like "she is not coming back" and then she comes back. It is not explained, they are just sorta like "well that's really awesome." I mean yes they were saying that she was born from a goddess blessed womb and had reborn a bunch of times but mister angel had been pretty sure she wasn't coming back.

I still liked the book and found a great deal of it worth while but this just sort of felt rushed. As much as I love the publishing rate that Showalter keeps up maybe she could slow it down to give each book extra time.