The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter

The Darkest Night (Lords of the Underworld Series, 1) by Gena Showalter

I ordered this book from the library because it showed up in my Amazon.com recommended list. I'm not positive what book I read or bought or reviewed that made them think I would like this book but they did okay and I'm not sorry I read it. It just wasn't on par with what I normally like to read.

This is a paranormal romance focusing on the immortal warriors of the gods who felt slighted when the gods chose Pandora to guard the box of evil instead of one of the other warriors. Thinking to prove Pandora an incompetent woman the warriors opened the box and let the demons loose on the world. The gods punished the warriors by making each of them bear one of the demons set loose from the box. I thought that it was an interesting (and feminist) prospective to the old Pandora's box story.

The first novel follows Maddox who bears the demon Violence. Maddox carries a second curse in addition to Violence. Since he slaughtered Pandora in his first demon rage the gods cursed him to die every night at midnight in the same way that he killed her.

The other main character is a woman named Ashlyn who has heard voices for all of her life. She can hear all of the conversations that have taken place where she is from all through time. This makes her a valuable asset to the people who employ her skills seeking out the paranormal who would normally prefer to remain hidden. It is on a trip to Budapest that Ashlyn learns about the angels/demons on the hill with extraordinary powers. She intends to visit them in the hopes that one of them is able to quiet the voices that she hears constantly.

The warriors that house the demons have been living (so to speak) in Budapest for quite a long time and have become benefactors of a sort to the people. The castle on the hill houses not only Violence (Maddox) but also Death (Lucien), Wrath (Aeron), Pain (Reyes), Disease (Torin) and Promiscuity (Paris). When Ashlyn comes up on the house on the hill only Torin and Maddox are home and Torin will not touch another living creature for fear of the plague that he could spread. So Maddox goes to frighten her off while fighting off his own violent rage since the hour is so close to his death time. He sees she is being followed by four men (hunters) and slaughters them before pouncing on Ashlyn thinking that someone has sent Bait to lure him out of the safety of the castle to kill him. Ashlyn proves to be different from what he expected; she is not scared of him and even seems to cling to him. For whatever reason when Ashlyn is near Maddox the voices go away and she is so grateful that they abated that she won't leave his presence. Of course since he harbors the spirit of Violence this provides some rocky tangle-points but eventually both Maddox and the demon want her and form a truce of sorts to protect her.

While reading this book I was very much okay with the plot line -- it was an interesting plot after all. But in retrospect I just can't see how plausible it is for anyone to remain with Violence or with Violence wanting to protect someone. I also felt an enormous amount of pity for Torin (Disease) because I can't think of a way the author could give him a happily ever after. I also found it amusing that the voices of the past stopped because they were, what scared? of the demon of Violence. As far as I can tell from this first book there are 12 demons within warriors total and only three books. I'm a little sad that not all of them are going to be getting a human romance to counterbalance the inner demon. It was also not addressed how the warriors were going to live once their human counterparts got old and died. It was sort of a depressing realization.

I did order the next book and I'm hoping that at least answers some of those questions...