Reviewer: Casee The Darkest Warrior (Lords of the Underworld, #14) by Gena Showalter
Series: Lords of the Underworld #14
Also in this series: The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld #1), The Darkest Kiss (Lords of the Underworld #2), The Darkest Pleasure (Lords of the Underworld #3), The Darkest Whisper (Lords of the Underworld #4), The Darkest Passion (Lords of the Underworld #5), The Darkest Lie (Lords of the Underworld #6), The Darkest Torment (Lords of the Underworld, #12), The Darkest Promise (Lords of the Underworld, #13)
Publisher: HQN
Publication Date: June 26, 2018
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 480
Add It: Goodreads
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Series Rating:
A searing Lords of the Underworld tale by New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter, featuring a beastly prince and the wife he will wage war to keep.
He is ice...
Puck the Undefeated, host of the demon of Indifference, cannot experience emotion without punishment, so he allows himself to feel nothing. Until her. According to ancient prophecy, she is the key to avenging his past, saving his realm, and ruling as king. All he must do? Steal her from the man she loves—and marry her.
She is fire...
Gillian Shaw has suffered many tragedies in her too-short life, but nothing could have prepared the fragile human for her transition into immortality. To survive, she must wed a horned monster who both intrigues and frightens her...and become the warrior queen she was born to be.
Together they burn.
As a rising sense of possession and obsession overtake Puck, so does insatiable lust. The more he learns about his clever, resourceful wife, the more he craves her. And the more time Gillian spends with her protective husband, the more she aches for him. But the prophecy also predicts an unhappily ever after. Can Puck defeat fate itself to keep the woman who brought his deadened heart back to life? Or will they succumb to destiny, losing each other…and everything they’ve been fighting for?
I adored this book. Adored it. Call me clueless (which I usually am), but I had no idea about the furor due to the fact that Gillian and William of the Dark didn’t end up together. Seriously? I’m going to address that, but I have to say one thing first. Get the fuck over it. I’ve read your stuff on GoodReads and you are so childish in your tantrums. It was never made clear that Gillian and William were going to end up together. He calls her Gilly Gumdrop for the love of God. Would you want your lover/mate/husband you call you such a childish name? Not to mention that she never, ever had romantic feels for the guy. Ever. Read back and look. Not once. He was her hero and her savior. That’s it. I wouldn’t have read this book if it was Gillian and William’s book. There is no way. I was seriously looking forward to it because it wasn’t Gillian and William. When I read the excerpt in the back of The Darkest Promise, I was thrilled. So for all you haters out there, pull up your big girl panties and pick up this book from where you threw it across the room. Dust it off and read it. You’ll love it. That’s a fact.
The biggest hurtle in this book, to me, was Gillian’s age. She is just turning eighteen. A traumatized eighteen at that. The girl has been seriously abused at the hands of her stepfather and stepbrothers. When she worked up the courage to tell her mom, she was told that she must have “misunderstood” the situation. Can you imagine? shudder Honestly, how the hell is an eighteen year old girl going to mate a centuries old immortal, be able to have sex and be this goddess that the blurb explains? I was like “say what?”. Must be some magic going on here. Well yes, magic was involved and it was amazing.
I’m going to try to make my summary short and sweet which may not be possible because this book had a lot going on. Since their royal births, Puck and his brother Sin have been working against a prophecy which said that one of them would find their ladylove then kill the other. Since they were children, both vowed that they would never fall in love and they would only be loyal to each other. That changed when Sin betrayed Puck and let him be infected by the demon of Indifference. It’s only after hundreds of years when Puck has a rare moment of clarity that he goes to the Oracles on Amaranthia where he learns how he can defeat Sin. Sin, who murdered their father, became king, then went psycho on the Connacht people. It was the Oracles that told him about Gillian. Mate her, they said. Get William the Dark to Amaranthia, they said. He will dethrone Sin, they said. All he has to do at the end is use these special magical scissors to break his bond with Gillian. That’s fine with him because he doesn’t know this Gillian. Then he meets her and instantly falls for her.
When Puck first lays eyes on Gillian, she’s dying. See, Keely the Red Queen gives Gillian a gift on her eighteen birthday. A potion which gives the gift of immortality. Unfortunately it’s killing her and only mating an immortal can save her. It’s a good thing Puck is there to save the day. And save the day he does. Gillian is instantly drawn to Puck and she doesn’t know why. She’s usually afraid of men and Puck doesn’t even look like he’s entirely a man. When he offers to mate with her for his own reasons, she instantly realizes that she’s not ready to die. She wants to be a champion. She wants to help victims like herself. She wants to help people come out strong but to do that she has to live. So she does.
There are so many great things about this book. This one of of my favorite gems from Puck when he realizes he doesn’t have to “woo” Gillian anymore:
Our relationship isn’t a democracy, but a Puckocracy. I saved your life, lass. From now on, I speak and you listen. I command, and you obey. Understand?
Of course that didn’t go over well with Gillian, but you get the picture.
One of the best parts of this book was the change in Gillian. Her growth was amazing. I loved it and you will too. If you’re still too bent out of shape to give this book a try, you’re not worthy of Gena. She wrote a great book with two amazing characters. As I was reading this book, I started liking William less and less. Then he slowly started pulling his head out of his ass and I started liking him more. I can’t wait until he gets his. It’s going to be awesome. Gillian was never his equal. Think on that.
Puck + Gillian = Forever.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Lords of the Underworld
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