Shannon C.’s review of Dark Sentinel (Book of Netherworld) by Melissa Lopez
Paranormal erotic romance released by Samhain Publishing 17 Mar 08

Melissa Lopez has a gifted and fertile imagination. There are no cliches and same-old same-old paranormal plot devices in Dark Sentinel, which earns the book points. Unfortunately, the writing style and the characterizations drove me crazy.

Lash is a damned soul, condemned to spend eternity in Netherworld, which is essentially Hell. Then he’s given an opportunity–he must see to it that Teva, a mortal, is condemned to join the ranks of souls in Netherworld.

Teva isn’t sure what to make of this quiet giant of a man. He seems to be suffering from amnesia, and he takes pleasure in little things, like being able to drink water. She takes him in when she finds him, naked, on her property, and soon she and Lash must fight their sizzling attraction to each other. Her soul is at stake if they give in to temptation.

The characters are very problematic, most particularly Teva. I just didn’t ever get a sense that I knew who she was. She seemed to have been bred from innocent-heroine central casting. She’s entirely too sweet and too trusting, and I didn’t really get what Lash saw in her. Plus, and this is a tiny thing but it still bugged, Teva was the kind of person who says “gosh” and “heck” in everyday speech. This made her come off sounding not like an innocent young thing, but like someone’s middle-aged mother.

Lash I liked a bit more, but he still didn’t entirely work. He’s a tortured soul–aren’t they all in paranormal romances–and some of the stuff he goes through was pretty horrendous. My heart broke for him when he experienced small pleasures like being outdoors and doing comparatively easy hard work like splitting wood. He just seemed like an adorably nice guy, but even he was a bit too good to be true, the sort of guy that, aside from the whole tortured repeatedly thing, would be any woman’s dream man. Hell, the man uncomplainingly watches chick flicks!

I also didn’t really buy the chemistry between the characters. Once more, this has to do with writing style. Lopez uses a lot of words that are designed to make the sex scenes hot, but after a while I kept wondering if all the stuffing Lash does to his cock would hurt. And while I’m not a fan of the “love grotto” and “turgid manhood” school of romance novels, I definitely prefer something other than “he shoved his cock into her sticky hole.”

Regarding the plot, it was interesting. It’s very clear that Ms. Lopez has thought long and hard about this world she’s created, and I liked that the story was fairly dark. I think there are lots of directions she could go with the Netherworld books, and lots of types of creatures it would be interesting to meet. But I will say that the human villain in the book was so screamingly obvious, not to mention horribly cheesy that I had a few eye-rolling moments. The book also took too long to hit its stride for me. There are also a lot of scenes of graphic violence. After all, a condemned soul gets to die repeatedly over and over, which means there’s a lot of opportunity for gratuitous torture.

I am curious enough to keep reading Melissa Lopez’s next book, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it except to those who are really, really die-hard fans of dark paranormals.

Grade: C-

     Summary:

     Their love could give him a second chance at life—or condemn her to an eternity of damnation.

     A Book of Netherworld

     Yanked from his tortured existence in Netherworld and dumped naked in the Louisiana Bayou, Lash could swear he’s died and gone to heaven. Except for the fact that a millennium ago he died a condemned soul, forever barred from Paradise. His new life feels like the next best thing, full of small miracles. Like silence. And ice water. And the company of a beautiful, compassionate woman.

     Teva is a woman with a taste for heavy-metal music, an inherited talent for magic, and a trusting heart. She knows nothing about the mysterious stranger she’s taken in, only that he needs her help. And the fact that he’s gorgeous hasn’t escaped her attention. She can’t see Lash as anything other than a sexy, gentle man who soothes her nightmares away.

     Then Lash learns the real reason for his reprieve from Netherworld—he’s been sent to corrupt Teva’s soul with sinful pleasures. Starved for tenderness and aching with desire, Lash yearns to accept the loving embrace Teva offers. But he can’t give in to passion without tainting her, condemning her to the horrors of Netherworld.

     The ultimate battle between good and evil is brewing, and Lash stands caught in the middle between Teva, who owns his heart—and Satan, who owns his soul.

     Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, and graphic violence. Netherworld is a dark, forbidding place.

     Read an excerpt here.