Sandy M’s review of Seduced by Darkness (Dark Realm, Book 2) by Delilah Devlin
Contemporary erotic paranormal romance released by Avon Red on 26 Feb 08
I’ve been waiting for this book since I reviewed the first book in the series, Into the Darkness. As I said in that review, I really liked Nic and Chessa and was glad they were getting their own book. I liked Chessa’s refusal to give in to Nic, his dominance over her when loving her. Now, don’t get me wrong, Seduced is a very good book, I liked it, but I’m just a tad disappointed.
Throughout the book we know Nic and Chessa have feelings for one another and their relationship is still full of refusal and dominance and great sex. However, I never got anything other than that as the story goes along. I think there’s room to at least a try at tenderness in their loving, not having to wait until it’s forced on them. I just feel a little cheated that I didn’t see something more to show their feelings and emotions for one another other than the same old thing time and again.
Even when the opportunity is there, it isn’t taken. An example is in the beginning of the book after evil has been unleashed during a raging storm, Nic, tired and weary, goes to Chessa for comfort. She realizes this and does nothing to show him a little. Even if it had been a peck on the cheek, a back rub, any little something with feeling outside of sex and then back to the fiery banter, I would have been happy.
The twists in the book, the most prominent of which is Alex, are thrown at you out of nowhere and add a lot to the mystery of the story. Even the history of the now-unleashed demon is given an unexpected hitch that promises a lot of havoc for both Inanna and Nicholas in future books.
That gets me to the end of this one. Even though I finally got what I wanted as far as Nic and Chessa, it didn’t seem to go far enough. I know that had to do with their situation at that point, I just wanted more. But, of course, from the ensuing and ending scene, I know there is so much more to come and maybe I’ll see what I’m looking for between them then. It’s just frustrating not to have it now since this is their book. But the mystery, the action, the betrayal, the all-consuming sex, the unexpectedness is all still coming at you full force.
So although I had a couple of small disappointments, I still love the world Ms. Devlin has created and added to with the appearance of Alex. We definitely have some engrossing times ahead of us with each new book.
Grade: B+
From the back cover:
For eight hundred years Nicolas Montfaucon has dedicated his life to preventing the rebirth of an immortal evil. But now a terrible storm has assaulted unsuspecting New Orleans—and the beast walks the earth once more. “The Devourer” has been awakened, and there is only one in the besieged city who can help Nicolas defeat the foul creature—a mysterious and beautiful enigma who haunts the handsome Revenant’s erotic waking dreams and enflames his passionate obsessions.
Chessa Tomas is not an ordinary policewoman. A vampire, she works only at night, patrolling a seamy and unseen underworld of roiling chaos. Though Nicolas is sensuality incarnate, Chessa wants no part of him or his kind—but she cannot close her eyes to the unholy malevolence that would consume their world. And Nicolas has uncovered the secret lust that rules her—a steaming, uncontrollable desire he intends to unleash, bending Chessa to his will by making her most forbidden fantasies real.
Read an excerpt.
