The Darkest Kiss: Lords of the Underworld, Book 2

I loved this book.Lucien, one of the Lords of the Underworld, Keeper of Death and the leader of this band of Lords is an awesome character. I liked him from the beginning and never stopped. I love that we get a taste for his abilities, but he's so controlled we never fully realize his power, the author managed to surprise me in his **SPOILER ALERT**defeating of the Hydra**END SPOILER (had to see that one coming, just not how!)**.Anya is the "minor" Goddess of Anarchy and when we're first introduced to her, I really did not like her and had no idea how this could possibly be the heroine of the book. The seductive "sultress" (yes I believe I'm making up words..) we're first introduced to luckily gives way to the Anya after page 10ish (on a Kindle, no sense of pages). It starts to become clear that as her name dictates, she's not a by-the-rules type woman. She's a complete klepto and that is her way of satisfying her baser "anarchy" needs. Her name calling was a little odd, like she referred to Lucien as flowers...? I thought maybe the author was about to unveil Lucien loved roses or something and thats why he smelled like flowers? But no, nothing ever came of it. It was just a nickname she had...that was odd. Lucien just rationalized it by thinking she makes up quirky names for those she wants to keep at a distance, I can accept that.All the while the story between Lucien and Anya is happening, in quick summary****ANOTHER SPOILER FOLKS****, Lucien collects souls and often has to drop what he's doing to see to the task (this isn't an annoying story delay, actually I loved that we saw this side of Lucien's life). Anya was gifted, by her Father, who was the keeper of the prison, the "All-Key" which means she can never be locked up/confined by giving her the power to "flash" wherever she wants. Anya also has a curse that could forever and ever bind her to one man. Cronus has just (just being a relative term) defeated Zeus and escaped prison and wants the All-Key to avoid future entrapment. Anya needs to give it willingly or if dead to someone other then her killer can claim it. Giving of the all-key weakens the giver, loses their memory to boot. Cronus, the new King, demands Lucien kill Anya.****SPOILER OVER**** This makes for some pretty fun scenes between Lucien and Anya; as the tension between them builds, so does the romance. And all the little rules of character roles/nuances played out very well and in the end since I'm a sucker for (and expect) a happy ending I was able to assume what would happen. Giving up all for love 'n all that, but I still enjoyed reading it play out.Can't wait to pick up the next by this author!Wow... too early for me. Started the above without finishing the thought! So editing the review... Anyways all the while the story between Lucien and Anya is happening, we get a taste into the lives of the other Lords of the Underworlds. Lucien is threatened by Cronus and the only thing he initially can be threatened with is the destruction of his friends. So throughout the book, we learn more of his friends and are of course tempted to pick up their stories. Please read and enjoy!

4.5 starsI am officially addicted to this series! I have just started the fourth book, The Darkest Whisper, and I just can't stop reading them. If you haven't read book #1 yet, there might be minor spoilers in the following review =)The Darkest Kiss is Lucien's, Keeper of Death, book and it was great to see the leader of The Lords getting his happily ever after.Lucien has been doubly cursed by having to do Death's deed and escort souls to heaven and hell and also being bonded to Maddox, by having to take and bring back his spirit from hell every night. Now, Lucien if free of the second curse and finds himself without knowing how to deal with his now found freedom.Anya is the minor goddess of Anarchy has been on the run from Cronus, the Titans' King, since the Titans overthrew the Greek Gods. However, she has found the time to create some chaos and even help The Lords, even though she has kept herself hidden, until now.I already liked Lucian from the previous book, but I LOVED Anya in this book, she is such an amazing character. Gena has written such a strong, hilarious, vivacious, smart and determined character in Anya that it is impossible not to fall in love with her. She is definitely not perfect, not even close to it, but that only made her more special in my eyes and I can't help but smile and even laugh out loud whenever she shows up.Lucien is scarred, emotionally and physically and the fact that he does not believe that anyone could ever be attracted to him is very endearing and heartbreaking. It was amazing for me to see Anya's attraction and later on, love for him and the power that their passion has on each other, specially despite all the obstacles they had to endure to be together.I Loved this book, even more than the first. The plot is great, fast paced, full of action and thrilling. Despite being a PNR and having the danger of falling into the "all sex - no plot" trap, Gena Showalter has brought on a wonderful saga full of sexy and interesting characters along with great world building. Paranormal Romance can't get better than that.Originally Posted at Welcome to Larissa's Bookish Life {larissaslife DOT com}

4⭐ oh man this was a rollercoaster ride and I was enjoying every last moment of it. I love Anya character. She goes head to head with our Lord Lucien(Death). The banter is awesome! The sacrifice is amazing. The spice is hot! Loved it!

Loved this couple and their relationship dynamic was the best. They're polar opposites but it works so well, and all her cute pet names for him were adorable. I also really liked seeing more if the side characters and I'm excited for their stories.The only thing I can think of that I didn't care for was how often Lucien compared his love for his past love Mariah, to his love for the heroine. It wasn't super annoying and the heroine was never second best, and I'm sure he loved her more than his past love, but I could have done without him mentioning Mariah til almost the very end of the book. Luckily he wasn't still in love with her, it was more of factual when thinking about her than lingering feelings. I'm very picky, so I'm sure this won't bother other people though.Otherwise, great book! And this will be a hard couple to beat.

I found later books in this series to be an original take on the genre, so I went back for the earlier ones. This was a disappointment. I found it extremely formulaic and predictable. The descriptions of sex took up about a third of the book, leaving time for very little plot.But what disappointed me most was this:I've met Lucien in other books in the series and found him an intriguing, enigmatic character. Long, white hair + disfiguring scars and an extremely chilly personality. (No, he looks NOTHING like the picture on the cover!)So, whereas the first book was a very obvious "girl is attracted to violent guy because he is hot", the promised to be a lot more interesting. If a guy presents such an unattractive personality (cold-blooded killer, casual torturer etc.) to the world, and doesn't bowl a girl over with his looks, HOW does she get to discover the more appealing attributes that he is hiding?Sounds interesting, eh?Well, it could be. But it isn't. Anya simply has a kink for scars, and finds them sexy (as she tells us in the first chapter).What an opportunity missed.

The Lords of the Underworld are a group of immortal warriors; each punished for opening Pandora's Box by being forced to house a demon inside themselves. The second in the series follows Lucien the keeper of Death who is bound to escort souls to the afterlife. Seeing the worst of humanity and severely scarred from a tragedy in his past has left Lucian tormented and alone. Enter Anya the minor goddess of anarchy who has lived her whole life compared to her mother, the goddess of Lawlessness, who had an unfortunate habit of sleeping with the husbands of other goddesses. When the Goddess of Justice realises that Anya's unknown father is a little closer to home than she expected she laid a curse on Anya in revenge. Since book 1 Anya has taken a fancy to the sombre warrior and is out to create a little chaos- Lucian won't know what's hit him!But Anya's attempt to have a little fun with Lucian backfires when Lucian is ordered to kill her by Cronus, the king of the Titans.....I kinda love this book, it's way better than I expected. I read somewhere that gena showalter describes Anya as a love or hate character and to be honest at the start of the book i was comfortably in the hate category and i thought it would spoil the book for me. And then she sort of grew on me to the point that by the end I thought she was really quite amusing - she actually made the book what it was.She is beautiful, lethal and utterly chaotic and I have to admit she made me laugh at times. Anya and Lucian's story was full of sexual tension and it was totally a will they or wont they/ will he kill her or will she kill him kind of book.It was fast-paced and packed full of stuff happening for other characters too; what happened to Paris, Aeron's escape, more of Reyes and Danika plus the search for the 4 artefacts continues.Don't be put off by the start of the book - i nearly was - it gets a lot better. I think that this book is brilliant (although I think that i personally preferred the first one). Already started the next one...

I absolutely love the Lords of the Underworld books and I am hooked. Gena has managed to write a fantastic book and I was totally glued to the pages. For anyone who has maybe not read any of the Lords of the Underworld series then I would one hundred percent recommend them. Whilst obviously having the romance side to them they also have lots of action, humour and a brilliant concept idea for the back storyline from the author Gena Showalter.The series is set around a group of twelve immortal warriors (and absolutely hunky ones at that!) who once served the Greek Gods. Zeus decided to give possession and protection of the dimOuniak to the immortal warrior Pandora (which is why the alternate name for it is Pandora's Box). The dimOuniak/Pandora's Box held all the evil of the world such as Violence, Death, Pain, Doubt, Wrath, Lies, Secrets, Defeat, Promiscuity, Disease, Misery and Disaster and all of their Demons were kept safely locked in the Box. Twelve of the other immortal warriors were upset that Zeus had entrusted the box to Pandora and not to them and therefore stole the box from her and subsequently released the demons into the world. Zeus was extremely angry over this betrayal and therefore cursed each of the warriors to hold one of the demons within each of them for all time.This is the second book in the series and tells the story of Lucien the keeper of the demon Death. An absolutely brilliant read.

Well this book starts very shortly after the first book finished.Lucien, otherwise known as Death, is the stoic, calm one of the demons and rarely flies into a temper unlike his friends. However, upon meeting Anya the goddess of Anarchy, he finds that his temper flies and even the though of another man touching her can elicit a tantrum.Anya was given a curse as a child by the wife of one of the men her husband had slept with. Anya cannot be penetrated by a man unless she wants to be bound to him for eternity. She has lived her life in fear of being taken or raped by a man and losing her freedom. She is feisty and fun, oh and she has a love of stealing otherwise she ends up setting things on fire.Both find that when they touch each other sparks go off and they cannot stop thinking of the other. An adventure to find relics pushes them together and the sparks fly leading them to see what they would truly give up for the other be it life or freedom.

What a read!! I adored this book and can not wait for the rest I highly recommend this series. Anya is a fiery loveable goddess that knows exactly who she wants and is never deterred from getting her man. Lucien carrier of the demon of death is just going through the motions until anya turns up that is. They have a rough start to begin with but the chemistry and sexual tension between them is undeniable and soon wins out. Their story is a whirlwind of emotions and tension with twist and turns on every page. the storyline for the next books are woven through out which just makes you desperate to read them so make sure you download the next few for back up I know I have .I seriously can't read this series fast enough and I'm already dreading finishing it