Review - The Darkest Craving - By: Gena Showalter

Title: The Darkest Craving
Author: Gena Showalter
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Release Date:July 30th, 2013
Series: Lords of the Underworld #10
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Synopsis via Goodreads

Having endured weeks of torture in the bowels of hell, Kane wants nothing to do with his beautiful rescuer, Josephina Aisling. The half-Fae female threatens to awaken the demon of Disaster inside him—a beast he’s determined to kill, no matter the price.

Josephina is hunted by a brutal enemy—her royal family—and Kane is her only source of protection. He’s also the only male to ever set her aflame, and even he succumbs to the heat. But as they navigate the treacherous world of the Fae, they are forced to make a choice: live apart…or die together.

My rating:

I never thought I’d see the day where I rated any Lords of the Underworld book less than five stars. Gena Showalter’s consistency up until The Darkest Craving has been nothing less than admirable. I kept expecting for one warrior’s story to slip up, or for her style to change so much that I couldn’t tolerate it anymore.

Unfortunately, that day has come. Let's have a moment of tear-stained silence for Kane's mediocre unfufilling ohnowhathashappened story, please.

You guys should’ve seen me on the release day. I let everybody know: the next LOTU book is out ohmyGAWD I have to have it NOWWWWWW. I’d been pimping those books out to anyone who would listen, whether they enjoyed paranormal romance or not.

So color me surprised when—and I really, really hate to say it—I was halfway through the book, and I realized…something was off. It was like watered down LOTU. Not as much action. Not as much passion between Kane or Josephina (aka Tink). Not as much humor. Not as much effortless style Showalter usually displayed that kept me coming back installment after installment.

In comparison to the other books, this was probably the most disappointing. And damn if I don’t feel like a traitor for just thinking that, let alone telling the world. But if I’m honest with myself, I have to admit: I just wasn’t feeling this one.

I’m not quite sure what it was. Or where, exactly, I begun to realize something was different. The beginning was nice. I liked Josephina immediately. She was a little quirky, but I enjoyed her interactions with Kane and Strider and Sabin. I thought she’d be a perfect match for a fresh-out-of-literal-hell Kane.

But then when she went back to her Fae family, she changed a little. She was still quirky, but there was helplessness to her, like she’d given up fighting and was just going to accept her lot in life. Which was a pretty shitty lot. She was like a half-Fae, half-human witty Cinderella. Her evil step-mother and Irresponsible (hehe, inside joke if you’ve read it) half-sister, lustful half-brother, and shockingly abusive father all commanded her life. Her initial acceptance of it all was unacceptable to me, the reader, so she lost a few cool points, but nothing I couldn’t get over. I still liked her by the end, so everything was fine.

And then there was Kane.

I didn’t know what to do with him, really. I wanted to like him, to get to know him and empathize with him like I’d done with every other character. But for some reason, he seemed to lack substance. As a Lord of the Underworld, you’d expect him to be beyond life. Strong. Ruthless. Dominant. Sexy. And then he’d have this softness inside him for his woman. Kane did possess those things, except…like I said, it lacked substance. I wasn’t able to totally feel what I should’ve for him. All I felt was this indifference towards him. Like, if he’d died I would’ve been like “Huh, well, that’s going to be an inconvenience in the future” instead of wanting to bawl because he didn’t get his HEA. And I was so shocked with my indifference, and I thought maybe it was me. Maybe I was reading it wrong somehow. Except, now I don’t think so. Kane just left much to be desired.

The main storyline was static to me. I’m sorry, but after a while, the washed out romance between the two combined with nothing much going on became a bore. Seriously, most of the conflict wasn’t even conflict at all. Easily solved. I can’t quite say what the conflict was, but just take my word for it. There was no urgency, nothing pressing that needed to be taken care of ASAP.

The ONLY saving grace was the subplots, which kept me more interested than the main plot. There’s some trouble for Cameo and Viola, and a character from the past (HINT: It’s someone they thought was dead) as well. And then there’s some trouble for Torin. Both subplots set into motion their HEAs so I’m glad that picked up, at least.

One thing that I must say, though: William had more presence than all of the Lords combined in this one. He was like Kane’s handy dandy frickin’ sidekick. So WHY OH WHY didn’t we get any of William the Ever Randy and Gilly? At this point, they’re who I want to know the most about in the series. (Second only to Legion and Galen, who didn’t have a single scene together. In fact, Legion was only mentioned, like, once.) William and Gilly had ONE SCENE together, and in that ONE SCENE they argued for like, a minute.

What. The. Hell.

They need more air time, damn it! I NEED to see them happen. I NEED to see Willy quit being such a hobag and admit that he wants her. And only her. It not only hurts Gilly’s feelings that he sleeps around, but mine too, because I KNOW that it’s only going to make things more difficult for them in the future. And I just want their HEA to happen.

Please. That’s all I want.