16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid if not Spectacular Paranormal Romance, November 6, 2009
This review is from: Darkness Unleashed (Guardians of Eternity, Book 5) (Paperback)
Alexander Ivy started her Guardians of Eternity series five books ago, and so far, after a slow and stumbling start in When Darkness Comes, book 1 of the series, the Guardians provide a few good hours of entertainment and enjoyment with each book.
Darkness Unleashed gives Jagr, the vicious and borderline personality-disordered recluse vampire introduced in Darkness Revealed (book 4), and Regan, the recently free, life-long victimized captive of the imp Culligan - and one of the four genetically altered were siblings (sister to Darcy, the Anasso's mate, who we meet in Darkness Everlasting, book 3) - their turn to find an HEA, if possible.
I admit, the premise of the Guardians of Eternity series as a whole isn't the most original and there's not much that sets it apart from the legion of other series in the paranormal romance sub-genre. That being said, Ivy DOES pen sympathetic, amusing, fun, frustrating, and challenging characters...and vile villains, too, actually...that you feel for - either to root for or to despise - through the book. And NOT every paranormal romance manages that with me. Darkness Unleashed in particular had a LOT of really good interplay between Regan and Jagr. They were yummy and fun together.
Also, the series seems to lack (or I've missed it) an overall arc or goal that holds each of the books together (like Ward's BDB series, just to name one). This series is more akin to a less intense version of the Immortals After Dark series (Kresley Cole), in that it seems rely on character connection and relationships to link the books, instead of a well defined overall arc. That's an observation, not a complaint, actually, as I enjoy when I can catch up on the characters I've fallen for in previous books, like Levett the diminuitive gargoyle (though, admittedly, his characterization seemed a bit off from previous books), Darcy and Styx, etc. In fact, it's one of the draws of the series for me, so I wish we'd seen a wee bit more of it in Darkness Unleashed. Or, in one case, less.
There was a fair bit of Salvatore, the King of the Weres in this one...and he's always struck me as sort of a self-serving and abusive dictator so that wasn't really a plus (nor, unfortunately, was the preview of the NEXT book in the series which APPEARS to be Salvatore's book - I sincerely hope I'm mistaken).
All in all, Darkness Unleashed was fun. Hell, the whole series is fun. It's a light read, sometimes loving and most of the times witty, with sarcastic and strong characters that I enjoyed spending time with. And really...that's what I look for. I recommend the series to anyone who enjoys light paranormal romance series without any truly dark story lines or gruesome detail (though there is violence, most of it isn't gruesomely described), but I'd start at the beginning. There's just too much character crossing to merit considering any book in the series a stand-alone.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Physically Free, Yet Imprisoned By Their Pasts - Love Is The Key, November 4, 2009
This review is from: Darkness Unleashed (Guardians of Eternity, Book 5) (Paperback)
Regan, one of Darcy's other quadruplet sisters is freed from 30 years of imprisonment and torture, and is on the hunt to wreck vengeance on her captor. Regan comes to the story with a whole lot of anger and baggage, apart from the psychological scars from her imprisonment and abuse, the rejection by the were-king Salvatore - because the non-shifting bioengineered pureblood Regan is sterile and of no use as a breeder - opens up the scars of what she's assumed was her abandonment by the family who left her to suffer her horrible fate.
The aloof controlled vampire Jagr's past too includes captivity and endless years of torture, so he is the one sent to retrieve Regan and bring her back to her sister. Regan wants and needs no one, much less the icily beautiful Jagr, but still she is drawn to the vampire who understands her need to pursue her vengeance and is willing to help her. But Regan's days of freedom may be numbered, because even as she hunts her former jailor, Regan is being hunted by a group of rogue were Curs who want Regan for the secrets of blood to enhance their own power.
I have to say that I enjoyed reading Darkness Unleashed. I am exceedingly hero centric and Jagr, once Regan melts the ice around his heart, ends up being a really good leading man - passionate, protective and willing to sacrifice and endure centuries of heart breaking loneliness in order to give the commitment-phobe Regan the freedom she has been denied. The chemistry between the pair is good and the relationship between them isn't rushed and ends up making Darkness Unleashed satisfying from a romance standpoint. For the series overall, the story is not really that memorable and just puts a check mark for one more sister down and two more to go. In fact, though Reagan and Jagr intend to continue on to search for another imprisoned sister, they both end up dropping the hunt - so they can pursue their own elusive happily ever after.
Still I enjoyed this book, I really like Ivy's strong noble vampire warrior leading men. So with that in mind it will be interesting to see what happens with the next book Beyond the Darkness (Guardians of Eternity, Book 6), where the leading man is not a vamp but the arrogant were-King Salvatore - actually I am really hoping that he has to grovel for his HEA.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best in the series, November 24, 2009
This review is from: Darkness Unleashed (Guardians of Eternity, Book 5) (Paperback)
I really liked the other books in the Guardians of Eternity series, but this one just didn't measure up to the ones before it. The story itself wasn't bad, however there were two primary things that distracted from it. One was the dialogue. Many times it seemed like the author was trying to be funny but it frequently seemed silly and fake. The other was that I didn't connect with the two main characters. They were both constantly focused on saying they were going to attack this or kill that you rarely saw a side of them that made you interested in them. They ended up feeling one dimensional. In the other books, the characters were more interesting and engaging. All that said, the book isn't horrible. It's just OK. Not as good as the earlier ones in the series.
If you are on the hunt for more books like this, check out my list of paranormal romance favorites...
http://www.amazon.com/Paranormal-action-romance-must-reads/lm/R214ESW3HL12HM/ref=tag_lag_rb_munk_lmfull
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