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Book Cover Ash’s review of Darkness Descending by Devyn Quinn
Paranormal romance published by Signet Eclipse 02 Aug 11

I had a really hard time trying to figure out what to grade this book. It seems to be another one of those that gets labeled as paranormal romance when I don’t think it really should be. For a romance, it sucks, but for an urban fantasy, it’s pretty damn good. And, just to let you know, there will be spoilers. I just can’t help it with this one.

When I picked Darkness Descending up, I expected another formulaic paranormal romance (which I am totally okay with), but it is not that at all. The baddies in this book are a mix of fallen angels, vampire, and demon all kind of rolled up into one. Not the most original idea, but it’s done in its own way and it works for the story.

Jesse, our heroine, has been infected, but she has survived without becoming one of them. She is vulnerable and alone. She has absolutely nothing but the clothes on her back, and she is my favorite type of heroine. I can’t stand the perfect, do nothing wrong, all powerful women that often rule in romanceland. Jesse is someone you can root for and maybe even relate to.

Maddox is our hero, kind of. At the start I do like him. He drinks, he smokes, he has a day job in construction, and he lives in the basement of a rundown hotel. He is, basically, what you would expect of a man who has been mostly alone and fighting these vampires for 200 years. Nothing shiny about him, which becomes extremely obvious later in the book. My problem with him comes when Maddox tries to push Jesse into biting him, in order to feed his vampire addiction. Doing so might cause Jesse to turn completely, but in the heat of the moment he doesn’t care. Jesse resists and after climbing out of bed with her, he goes and finds a vampire to give him what he needs. For a romance, I just cannot accept that. It is something that will make me not read a book. I don’t want to see the hero, or heroine, with anyone else. However, for an urban fantasy, I can deal with it, and this book feels much more like an UF to me. So I am going to go with that. Maybe it’s me being too picky over genres, but I like what I like.

Even without that, the romance is lacking. Half the book Maddox seems indifferent to Jesse, and any time he thinks about his feelings towards her it feels like it’s written just to throw in the romance. Considering the book ends in a cliff hanger, and it feels as if the next book continues with Jesse and Maddox’s story, I am okay with that. This book doesn’t have a HEA, or even a HFN, so I expect their story to keep going.

As a whole, even with my issues with the romance, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. It’s gritty, which I love. The setting is New Orleans not long after Hurricane Katrina and I felt like I was there in these places. The characters are flawed, the good side isn’t always good, and I want more.

Ashs iconGrade: B

Summary:

The first seal has been broken, signaling the end of days. Fallen angels in the form of vampires are infecting humans one by one, creating an army fit for Armageddon. Of the few who survive the infection, one stands alone above all others…For one year, Jesse Burke has been suppressing the beast within, driven by vengeance to destroy the vampiric fallen angels terrorizing New Orleans. But a war of biblical proportions is too much for one girl to handle, and she must turn to slayer Maddox deValois for training, though it threatens her fiercely-guarded independence. At the same time, the sinister demon Queen Amonate is doing everything in her power to lure Jesse into embracing the darkness inside her soul—a power play that will trap her in a deadly web of deception between the forces of good and evil…

Before this war is over, everyone will learn that hell hath no fury like a woman possessed…

Read an excerpt.