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Friday, October 21, 2011

The Darkest Surrender by Gena Showalter

The Darkest Surrender, by Gena Showalter is the eight book in her 'Lords of the Underworld' series. Never would I have imagined that Strider's story would be so entertaining! I had a hard time getting into his character in previous books, but he turns out to be a hidden treasure I never saw coming.

Plot:
Possessed by the demon of Defeat, Strider cannot lose a challenge without suffering unimaginable pain. For him, nothing stands in the way of victory. Until Kaia, an enchanting Harpy, tempts him to the razor's edge of surrender.

Known among her people as The Disappointment, Kaia must bring home the gold in the Harpy Games or die. Strider is a distraction she can't afford because he has an agenda of his own—steal first prize, an ancient godly artifact, before the winner can be named. But as the competition heats up, only one prize will matter—the love neither had thought possible.…

Kaia and all the Harpy gals are a nonstop bunch of smart mouth badass chicks. These girls bust me up relentlessly with their over-the-top antics and in your face attitude. Harpies are known to be some of the fiercest beings in the lore and these gals are no joke. Set to the pace of some pretty wicked Harpy Games you have Kaia and Strider teaming up to obtain the latest artifact the Lords have been searching for. Both want to take home the gold but for two different reasons. The Lords need the artifact to keep their demon armies from being used against them by their enemies while Kaia and her sisters need it to finally clear their name and gain back a respect that was lost years ago.

Strider is all ego, an alpha male protector wrapped up in good-god-that-body-can't-be-real package. He's naughty in attitude but pure in heart with one goal: Win. Not just for himself but the demon that lives inside of him. So loosing is never an option for him. Strider also busts some killer jokes in this story which had me laughing out loud throughout. Strider sets his sights on Kaia and nothing will stop him from loosing her, unless you count her entire race which ONLY wants to kill her. It's a crazy fun mess of action and adventure. The only nit pick I have is that Kaia IS fierce, she can thrown down with massive armies and never break a sweat. But throughout the book she gets manhandled and Strider has to come all white knight to the rescue. I wish she would have been just a tad more on top of things, but in the end the journey comes full circle so all does get taken care of. Still, was hard to read some of the combat situations she goes through.

Gena has some great characters set up in this series, with more plot building on things to come and new guys/gals stepping into the scene. I really don't want to see this series stop, and thankfully she produces new novels at an incredible pace. I could follow this series for years if she keeps producing books of the same caliber. It's THAT entertaining. Plus the hot and heavy sex pages can sure boil some blood. Kaia and Strider have nice chemistry that I did believe, I didn't know how Gena would finally get these two together but she worked it all out. Excellent come back job with Book 8 after a little disappointment with the previous Lord's (Amun) story. Just a little side note here, Gena and Kresley Cole are BFF's so you will see similarities in this series and Cole's Immortals After Dark series. For me, I don't mind at all and I enjoy how the two can tie little things in here and there. But for some it may be a minor bug.
The Darkest Surrender gets this series back on track with some rock steady fun!
Getting 4 and 1/2 "I'm not a Gynecologist. But I'll take a look." Sheep.
KD

4 comments:

  1. this is one of those series I want to read, but haven't gotten a chance too. Like your sheep rating ;) love her covers!

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  2. Wow Ms. Showalter is certainly a prolific writer and her work seems to be well received. I have recently gotten my first book by her Savor Me Slowly and hope to read it soon. I thought it was just one series, but when I pulled it out I realized this is from the Alien Huntress series. I look forward to looking into the Lords of the Underworld. Thanks for sharing you wonderful review today :)

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  3. I like this series better then the Alien one BUT Amber LOVES the Alien one more. lol It's worth a read for sure!

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  4. this is one of those series I want to read, but haven't gotten a chance too.

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