The Darkest Kiss (Lords of the Underworld, #2) in Dangerous Hero Addict Support Group

Dec 03, 2009 Megan rated it liked it

Shelves: beauty-and-the-beast-like, paranormal-romance, demons-angels-immortals

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Book 2 in the Lords of the Underworld series

I liked this book, but didn’t love it. I only had problems with the heroine, Anya, the goddess of Anarchy. She was a very hard character for me to like. She was obnoxious, sarcastic (which I normally love, but here it felt forced), and she was almost a compulsive liar.

This is the story of Lucien (Death, leader of the Lords), who has self inflected scares on his face and most of his body after he lost the first and only love of his life. He doesn’t all Book 2 in the Lords of the Underworld series

I liked this book, but didn’t love it. I only had problems with the heroine, Anya, the goddess of Anarchy. She was a very hard character for me to like. She was obnoxious, sarcastic (which I normally love, but here it felt forced), and she was almost a compulsive liar.

This is the story of Lucien (Death, leader of the Lords), who has self inflected scares on his face and most of his body after he lost the first and only love of his life. He doesn’t allow anyone to get too close to him personally, especially women; his goal is to keep him away either with his looks or his unflattering honesty. Anya is not deterred. She wants Lucien more than anyone, and she’ll do whatever it takes to get him, despite her curse of not being able to allow a man to penetrate her unless she wants to bind herself to that same man for all eternity- whether he wants her later or not.

Anya was cursed because of her mother (Dysnomia, the goddess of Lawlessness) had laid with a mated god (Tartarus), and it was Tartarus’ wife, Themis (the goddess of Justice) who cursed Anya. Anya was also imprisoned for killing the Captain of the Guards because he tried to rape her. She escaped because her father gave her the All-Key, which allows Anya to escape any type of imprisonment. However, the person who has the All-Key binds with it, and they can only freely give it to someone else, it cannot be taken from them. And once it’s given up that person’s memories and powers vanish.

The plot in this story is that Cronus, a Titan, and current king of the gods orders Lucien to kill Anya. So, there is a lot of back and forth with the two of them, which I think it supposed to be witty and entertaining, but falls a little flat. The Lords of the Underworld are in search of some godly artifacts that when all are obtained would allow them to find Pandora’s Box. They are searching for: the All-Seeing Eye, the Cage of Compulsion, the Cloak of Invisibility, and the Paring Rod. Aeron (Wrath) escaped his imprisonment in the basement of his own house in Budapest with the other Lords. His friends locked him up to keep him from killing a family of innocent women that the gods wanted him to kill in the previous book, The Darkest Night. Reyes (Pain) doesn’t want Aeron free, and goes after him because one of the women that Aeron is supposed to kill is Danika, and Reyes has some very strong feelings for her. Paris (Promiscuity) gets into some trouble from some Hunters when he is drained of power. He is tricked by Sienna, a Hunter, and imprisoned by them. However, Paris is so weak from lack of women that he is dying. In order to keep him from dying Sienna is ordered to sleep with Paris. Sienna is plain, but Paris and his demon want her anyways. Afterwards, when Paris is strong, he escapes taking Sienna with him. The Hunters are chasing him and shooting at him, no longer care if they kill him and release his demon. Paris finds himself ready for Sienna again, which has never happed because he has the demon of Promiscuity. Unfortunately, Sienna is hit by a stray bullet and dies. When Paris gets back to Budapest he won’t talk about what happened.

So, Anya and Lucien are hot on the trail of the Cage of Compulsion. Lucien is weakening everyday that he doesn’t fulfill Cronus’ order to kill Anya. Anya finally gave herself to Lucien fully, fulfilling her curse to the only man she loves, which only strengthens him for a short time. They come to the cave of the Hydra and see the Cage. Lucien has to fight in spirit form after one of Anya’s “friends” (William) tries to kill him. However, Lucien and Anya defeat the Hydra and claim the Cage. But, Lucien cannot re-enter his own body and his spirit disappears. Anya cries to Cronus that she is finally willing to negotiate her All-Key. He appears and Cronus agrees to re-bind Lucien and his spirit and heal his body if Anya gives him the key. She does after she flashes herself into the Cage of Compulsion, because she know all her memories will be lost, and she doesn’t want to leave Lucien, who is sleeping next to the Cage on his bed.

Lucien awakens to find Anya in the Cage of Compulsion yelling to be set free. He quickly realizes what she did for him. For four days Lucien doesn’t know what to do to bring Anya’s memories back. Then finally he orders her to remember (since she is in the Cage of Compulsion) and it works! She has her memories, but unfortunately not her powers, which Lucien hopes he’ll be able to get back sometime for her.
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Oct 27, 2008 Yz the Whyz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: gena-showalter

The second book in the Lords of the Underworld Series of Gena Showalter, The Darkest Kiss turned out to be a delightful read for me. This is the story of Anya, Minor Goddess of Anarchy and Lucien, Keeper of Death, characters that were originally introduced in the first book, The Darkest Night. The Lords of the Underworld’s premise is that these mighty warriors freed the evils in Pandora’s box, and for that transgression, housed a demon in each of them.

From the very beginning, I was charmed by An ...more

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Nov 20, 2008 Not Now...Mommy's Reading rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, paranormal-romance, lords-of-the-underworld-series, i-love-him

I absolutely LOVED this book - MUCH, MUCH BETTER than the first one! It kind of reminded me of a paranormal version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith - both characters lust for each other but certain obstacles stand in their way. For one, Lucien has been ordered to slay Anya or his friends will suffer. And Anya...well, she's not too keen on the thought of being killed. Anya was one of my favorite heroines: strong, funny, tough, smart and vulnerable, too. Lucien was super sexy, courageous and tormented. Howe ...more

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Aug 29, 2008 Ally rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2008

This book actually blew me away. I loved the first one and when I read the preview in the back of it for the second one I really wasn't interested. But I picked up a copy a few months after I'd gotten over the first one and it was such a shock how much I really enjoyed this book and how much you can just really love the characters and how you not just laughed with them you laughed at them.

Anya was such a great character and very different from what you would imagine a goddess to actaully be at a ...more

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Jan 20, 2022 Netanella rated it it was ok

Shelves: paranormal-romance, 2022-january-reading-challenges

This book, the second in the well-received Lords of the Underworld series, has been sitting on my TBR shelf for about 13 years. I bought it about a year after it was published in 2008. There it sat, and as the years passed, and my reading tastes changed, the book and the rest of the series languished under a pile of dusty (and increasingly virtual) books.

Picking this up now, as part of an annual read-a-thon and giant TBR clean up, I've noticed that a lot has changed. Maybe it's me, or maybe I'm ...more

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Aug 02, 2010 RogueHireling rated it liked it

Actually quite enjoyable, if you can get past the highschool/teenybopper/cheerleader type writing style. I was actually surprised there wasn't more misuse of the word "like".
Whatever the case I still had a fun time reading it. Its better then the previous one for sure. Still the ultimate in fluff.
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Jan 26, 2009 Jenny Rebecca rated it liked it

Shelves: super-steamy, contemporary, underworld-gods-etc

For some reason this book took me forever to read. I loved the beginning, yet found myself putting it down to read other books about half way through. I'm not sure what the problem was exactly, but I lost interest. Not enough for me to leave it forever, but enough for me to be able to put it down often.

I still love Gena S. However, I'm not sure how much anymore. ...more

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Nov 04, 2008 Wendy rated it liked it

Shelves: paranormal-scifi-romance, were-shifter-demon-faries-other, gena-showalter, pub-2008, borrowed, 2009-reads, part-of-a-series

I guess if they had 1/2 stars it would be 3 1/2. I really liked the story, but it took most of the book to get into it. I mean really get into it as I can't put this down. Also to me it ended kind of abrubtly, first there's all this stuff going on at a fever pitch and then "THE END" Maybe it was just me. I'm also reading Dark Lover of the Black Dagger Brotherhood for a group I'm in. I remember when I read the series back in the summer, they spoil you for anything else. ...more

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