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: Ecstasy In Darkness by Gena Showalter

Its interesting how reading a series out of order can show the growth of a writer. The Alien Huntress series was one of the first ones that Showalter put out there, but this book was published this past year. She has been slowly taking her time juggling several series and her growth shows.

The last book I didn't feel the characters. Neither of them seemed that real to me. This book has a huge jump in the interest. Every character has more character too them. The dialogue has a more natural feel and sound more like stuff I would say to my friends. Also the plot is way more interesting, I am much more intrigued by a race of disease ridden aliens trying to wipe us out. Well wipe out everyone, because they have to spread the disease to live. Which really seems like an interesting idea. I desperately want to know more about this but Showalter is making me work for it.

The main male for this book is Victor McKell who was a bad-ass vampire in the last book. After the vampire king found out he didn't kill Bride he got kicked out of the underground world. Seeing as this series goes with the whole alien thing, vampires are really aliens that made it to earth a long time before the other aliens came knocking.  Remember the disease aliens? Well they found out that Bride's blood stops the disease so they want to talk to McKell. So the alien investigation forces send Ava and Noelle to bring him in, and these two pretty much are the coolest girls ever. Ava is the lead in this book.

So Ava and McKell get the hots for each other and in the mean time they are trying to a) figure out more about vampires that live above ground and b) stop the queen of the disease aliens from destroying everything c) deal with the mating bond thing d) figure out what these magical door ways that follow McKell are about. The answers are the following. A) there are lots and they have to drain a human dry to go out in the sunlight. B) McKell's daddy has some neat stuff that kinda makes the mystery  less epic. C) They like it but Ava doesn't want to be a vampire just yet, well maybe. D) McKell's daddy comes from an alternate reality and has magic doorways.

Yeah that last bit comes in at the eleventh hour and just sorta ends the tension. I was horribly worried there for a while about the disease aliens and what was going to happen. I mean I was on the edge of my seat, and then daddy is like "Calm down, I got this!" and there goes the tension. The big bad evil woman is not so scary when the time traveling vampire just sends her away because he doesn't like that its pissing his son off.

On the other hand Ava and Noelle make me crazy happy. They have that trash talk to your best friend thing down. I loved it. Best friend trash talk is the best kind. They make it very realistic, although they take it a little too far at times. They suffer from serious ADD in a couple scenes. It sounds so much like my friends and I when we get in rants. I loves me some silly rants.

This book has convinced me that I need to go back and read the rest of the series.

Quote of the day

"So what'd the girls say when you asked about the carnage?"

"Ava said her hand accidentally slipped and made contact with her guy's nose. I said Repeatedly? And she said, 'Uh, yeah. I'm really clumsy.' And Noelle said her guy was trying to escape, so she took him down like we'd trained her. And oh, we shouldn't worry about the gaping wound in his neck because he probably had that before he entered the bar."


-Gena Showalter, Ecstasy In Darkness