Customer Reviews

Heart of Darkness: The Darkest Angel\Love Me to Death\Lady of the Nile

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved Gena Showalter's The Darkest Angel. Lysander and Bianka fight so hard against their mutual attraction that their inevitable climax is mind-blowing. Harpies and angels are two creatures I never knew I would enjoy so thoroughly. I really have to start reading the Lords of the Underworld series.

Love Me to Death by Maggie Shayne was also very good and an extremely powerful story. Part murder mystery, part love story that overcomes impossible obstacles, and completely enthralling.

Susan Krinard's Lady of the Nile didn't really work for me. From what I could understand, a man occasionally possessed by a man possessed by an Egyptian god (yeah, that's not a typo) must have sex with a woman occasionally possessed by an Egyptian goddess to defeat evil. I think that was the main gist, but I can't be sure. It was confusing and by far my least favorite of the three stories that make up this collection.

The first two stories are so amazing, they more than make up for the shortcomings of the third and I would definitely recommend this book to others.

The Darkest Angel by Gena Showalter:

Lysander, is a very serious, down to business demon slaying angel. He has never experienced desire or lust and that's just fine with him. Things like that are messy, and distracting according to the warrior angel. Until the day he discovered Bianka, his true temptation.

Bianka is a spunky little Harpy who is unknowingly driving Lysander crazy. Naughty by nature she's lusty, likes to get drunk, and has a mischievous personality.

Lysander decides he cannot allow this gorgeous little Harpy to continue to tempt him. The solution? Kill her. Ok, so that's a little harsh, so he decides that abducting her and teaching her to be a good girl is far more reasonable. Too bad Bianka doesn't see it that way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novella from beginning to end. Who knew angles could be such passionate sexy lovers? I loved the constant power play between Lysander and Bianka never knowing who would be "on top" next. Gena Showalter's blends a witty sense of humor with steamy sensuality like only she can.

If you've never read the Lords Of The Underworld series, don't worry, this novella works well as a stand alone read. It's a perfect chance to sample a bit of the Lords Of The Underworld appeal. For you die hard LOTU fans, our Lord of Promiscuity, Paris makes a nice little cameo in this one. Nothing too risqué, but I will say there's oil and loin cloths involved. *grin*

Love Me to Death by Maggie Shayne:

Twenty-two years ago, in a small town in Maine, 5 teenage boys shared a drunken evening commiserating over the sad state of their love lives. David, was especially distraught because Sierra, the girl he had finally worked up enough nerve to ask out had recently gone missing. Being a small town there were no shortage of rumors of where she was, but no one really knew for sure.

A mix of alcohol, and teenage heartbreak leads the boys to inevitable trouble and they decide to burn down an old abandoned house outside of town. What they didn't know was someone was in the house. They are eventually caught, and tried and convicted for murder.

Sixteen years later, Sara, an art teacher from New Hampshire, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl who was killed in the house fire, begins to have nightmares of being trapped in a burning house. The nightmares haunt her and she begins to depict images from her dreams in her paintings. Her concerned roommate who happens to be from a small town in Maine recognizes the house in Sara's paintings as the house where a young girl died after being trapped in a fire. Thinking this is more than coincidence Sara travels to Maine to investigate and hopefully put an end to her nightmares.

Meanwhile, the original friends who were convicted of murder are all back in the small town in Maine to see their friend who has been in a terrible accident. The friend warns them that the ghost of the girl they killed is back and wants revenge. Thinking this can't be possible they dismiss it until they start seeing Sierra around town. All are consumed with fear and guilt as they start to come undone.

David and Sara eventually meet and realize that they have been sharing the same dreams. They also realize there may be more that binds them than just circumstances of what brought Sara to Maine in the first place.

While the romantic connection between Sara and David seemed a bit rushed and not totally convincing, I did enjoy their story a great deal. I was left wishing that this was a full length novel so that they author would have had more time to develop these characters, and others more fully.

Love Me To Death is a fantastic romantic suspense with a great paranormal twist that kept me guessing right up until the end. Maggie Shayne is a "new to me" author and I will be looking for more from her in the very near future.

Lady of the Nile by Susan Krinard:

Lady Tameri, a widowed Duchess in 1890 England, has memories and flashbacks to ancient Egypt and believes she is the reincarnation of an Egyptian princess.

Leo Erskine finds himself drawn to Lady Tameri, fascinated by her claim of reincarnation. However he is skeptical of her claim and intends to prove her wrong.

When Leo witnesses Lady Tameri during one of her flashbacks he begins to wonder if there may be some truth to her claim. When he eventually experiences a flashback himself and realizes that both he and Lady Tameri experienced it at the same time, he is shaken and thinks her claim deserves investigating.

Through a sequence of events the two discover they are connected in ancient history and must fulfill a prophecy, so that the realm of mortals would be safe for all time.

I struggled a bit with this story in that I found the dream sequences and flash backs confusing and the story a bit difficult to follow. I had to reread passages and page back at times to keep up with whose dream or flash back I was reading. The subject matter was quite interesting for me but the story just did not flow and that kept me from enjoying this novella as much as I'd hoped I would.

The first story is Gena Showalter's and I'm pretty biased here bc I pretty much love anything of Gena's but it was hott! Lysander is an angel and Bianka is a harpy. Apart from the ending(which I thought was a little dull) it was funny, sexy, and most def. a page turner. ***Spoiler*** if you've ever fantasized about two men oil wrestling over you, this is your story!!!

As for what I said about the ending (and this goes for all the stories in this book) they're novellas so the writers have such a short amount of words to write in. Of course some things might get left out or brought to light only for a second. Don't expect an entire 100,000 word book in the space of only 20,000 words.

The second, Love Me to Death, by Maggie Shayne wasn't bad either. It's sort of a mystery,thriller, paranormal all rolled in to one. It touches base on reincarnation and unfinished business? I guess is the right way to say that without giving too much away. IMO, the sex could have been hotter, more emphasized on perhaps? Also the heroine is 22 and the hero is 38. While I don't see anything wrong with a 16 year age difference, I might have made the heroine just a tid bit older so she could relate better to her man. All in all it gets a thumbs up! If you like thriller and suspense, then this is your book!

Lady of the Nile by Susan Krinard is a diff. sort of book. It's a historical (sort of) but also a paranormal because the hero and heroine are both (at times) possessed by Egyptian gods who need a sacrifice so they can finally be together. They are pulled apart by an evil god who has possessed someone in their ranks as well. Ok, here's my opinion. The writing was fantastic! however the story was tedious in some places. When there was passion, it was hot! but IMO there wasn't as much passion as there could have been. The whole situation where the hero is knocked unconcious and then goes on a however long train ride across Europe to get to Egypt to reclaim his woman, I would have prefered a shorter version. But with that said, in reality he wouldn't have known where to look so of course it would have been a tiresome journey looking for clues..etc..So I'm torn. I've never been much of a historical kind of reader so it just wasn't my usual cup o'tea but if you do like historicals, and you do like Egyptian mythology then this is your book!

Happy reading!

I know I'm a bad bad Book Lover but I only read Gena's story in this anthology, so this review is only for The Darkest Angel.

I'm a total Gena Showalter addict so I was really thrilled to find this book on netgalley in January. Why did it take me sooo long to read then you ask yourself? Bad case of being unable to remember netgalley even exists. You know, it's not like a my real life bookshelf that taunts me every day with my huge Mount TBR but that is beside the fact and has nothing to do with the book. LOL

As all Gena Showalter books The Darkest Angel is an hilarious wild ride with an appropriate (bad choice of word I know *wink*) amount of steam. I always love how Gena creates these witty and funny conversations between her characters and their actions, in this case Bianka's, often leave me speechless but laughing really hard.

Lysander is a demon-killing angel with a new goal: he HAS to make Bianka into a decent person. Problem is: she's a harpy and that's coming with a few limitations she just can't break. For once she can only eat what she earned or stole. And you can imagine which way she chooses. She's driving him crazy. But why only this harpy and not all the other creatures that go bump in the night? She seems to be his only temptation. He wants to touch her and you can't imagine what that means to an angel. I loved the way he struggled with his desires. And his thoughts are hilarious. How long can a man wonder how it would feel to touch the skin of a woman without doing so? I wanted to scream: "Do it! Be a man and just start the touching!" But he really took his time. He loves to be an angel and the last thing on his mind is falling and he is afraid that will happen if he gives in to her temptation.

Bianka is hard to explain. She is strong, witty, funny and a girl you don't want to mess with. And if you do be aware that she really knows how to pay you back. She made me cry from laughter with her stubbornness and big mouth. She's a force of nature and brings total chaos into Lysander's life. At first she just wants to get her will and have fun while doing it (she really knows how do make it Fun) but after a bit of time with Lysander she sees what he really is- a really hot piece of cake.

The relationship between this two is stormy from the start and I loved the way it developed. The back and forth was entertaining and when they finally got to the point it was unbelievable hot. These two are really made for each other. I love when our couple of interest knows exactly how to push the buttons of each other.

I loved reading this story and this story alone is reason enough to buy this book. Gena again created a story that made me laugh and brought perhaps a small tear to my eyes. Highly recommended to sweeten up a lonely Sunday afternoon. This book will totally make your day.

I could not get into THE DARKEST ANGEL by Gena Showalter, it was just boring. I loved LOVE ME TO DEATH by Maggie Shayne. I have read nearly all of her books and she has never disappointed. LADY OF THE NILE by Susan Krinard was an OK book but not by any means up to her standards. I managed to finally finish it but did not care for the ending at all. I would have bought this book for Maggie Shayne's work alone.

Like the other reviewers, I got this book for the Showalter story, "Darkest Angel". It wasn't bad, but hardly worth the price of the book. It takes up the story of the Lords of the Underworld with a secondary character, the harpy sister of the wife of one of the lords. It doesn't further that storyline at all, but is another romance. This time it is between a harpy and an angel, Lysander. While Lysander talks about the fear of being corrupted by a possibly evil being (the harpy), he doesn't seem to be particularly saintly or even a very bright bulb. He has no problem with unsanctified sexual activity, kidnapping, or even crime, as long as it's committed against bad people, so one wonders what is particularly angelic about him. The biggest barrier to their relationship is his embarrassment at being attracted to a harpy - but there didn't seem to be much difference in values between them. Much ado about nothing.
"Love Me To Death" has a good plot - four boys accidentally killing a girl in a house fire, only to have her turn up again 22 years later. The boys were interesting characters, and if there was more space for development, I could have gotten very involved with them. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough space. So in addition to shortchanging some good characters, the girl in the story made no sense at all. Everything is so rushed, there's no development, so she comes across as a rather dull wack job instead of a young girl capable of attracting a 38 year old man.
"Lady of the Nile" was just awful. Trying to figure out what was going on with these ancient Egyptians was hard enough. When it finally was clear, the story seemed ridiculous and the dialogue embarrassing rather than moving. The basic idea is that Egyptian gods are battling for power over thousands of years by using reincarnation to keep fighting to the death, only to be reborn again. The people in the story are the reincarnation of characters who have been dead for thousands of years who were the reincarnation of the gods, and all three versions of their consciousness show up at various times. The modern day people seem to accept the situation with admirable acceptance ( "you are really the goddess Isis, NOT the duchess?" Oh I see . . . .).
If you want a book to kill time while in a waiting room or something, you might want to take this one out of the library or borrow it from someone. Don't bother to buy it though.

I loved the Darkest Angel story. I am an avid fan of Gena Showalter, especially her Lord of the Underworld series. I wish she would've written this as it's own full length book-but it worked regardless. Alone I would give the story a 4-5 rating.

Love Me to Death was a good story, well written and kept you interested. I would rate this story at 3 stars.
However, as I got to reading the third story (Lady of the Nile) I couldn't really wait to be done with the book, I came very close to not even finishing the story. It was confusing, and not very well written. I'm sure you don't have to ask what rating I would give this one! (sorry)

My personal opinion is authors like Gena Showalter need to be kept with writers of the same level (at the very least) and somewhere, someone needs to be honest and speak up when the story doesn't make much sense. Preferably, before the story is published. Save the poor writer (and readers) some bad reviews!

To be honest, I've read only The Darkest Angel by Gena Showalter, since she is one of the authors I follow. AND I must say it was a somewhat light, but passionate read.
I never expect a lot reading short stories, but this one singed the pages.
It was hot, funny and managed to pull me in.
The only problem I've had was with Lysander's childish reasoning (oh, and the whole stealing from the wicked is acceptable thing). But I guess considering his inexperience, it is understandable.
I don't know about other stories, but if you like passionate and hot, GS The Darkest Angel is just the thing for you.

This Book is well worth the read. You have three of the top paranormal authors in one book. Gena Showalter's The Darkest Angel, is not directly a Lord of the Underworld series book, but still connected and like always very well written. Maggie Shayne's Love me to death and Susan Krinard Lady of the Nile, are two stories you can't put down beginning to end. This book is definitely a keeper.

I had to read this one because I love Showalter's Lord of the Underworld series. I especially enjoyed the last book dealing with Bianka's harpy sister so this sounded great. Showalter's short story lived up to my expectations. The story was funny, sexy and thoroughly enjoyable. I loved Bianka and although Lysander made me want to hit him now and then (bad I know considering he is an angel) I enjoyed the interplay between he and Bianka.

I've never read a Shayne or Krinard book before so not sure if it was the writing style or type of story but I didn't enjoy them as much. Love Me to Death was ok but it was predictable and I found the relationship between the two main characters strange. I'm not a fan of characters who immediately fall into bed together based on chemistry but knowing nothing about each other.

I almost did not finish Lady of the Nile and it never did pick up for me. The story wasn't of much interest to me and I didn't care for either of the main characters.