Customer Reviews

When Darkness Comes (Guardians of Eternity, Book 1)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Abby Barlow has never wanted a day to end more. What starts out as a bad day quickly turns into a horrendous one. First, she breaks a priceless Ming vase and gets caught trying to hide the evidence by her employer's annoying houseguest and probable lover, Dante. Then, she finds herself the victim of an explosion and finally, after hallucinating and passing out, Abby wakes up in a run down roach infested motel room with her now deceased employer's boy toy. The fun, however, is only just beginning. It seems Dante is a vampire and his new assignment is now Abby.

With the death of Selena, Abby's employer, Dante could taste freedom. After the explosion involving Selena, an innocent move from Abby once more ties Dante to a mortal woman called The Chalice. Abby is now under Dante's protection and guardianship whether she likes it or not. Freedom for Dante is just a fleeting memory now because he once more vows his protection of The Chalice with his life.

Dante and Abby find themselves fighting the forces of evil at every turn as well as battling their fierce attraction for one another. Their playful flirting has turned into desire which becomes an all consuming passionate love. Will these two unlikely lovers find forever, or will the dark evil that stalks them bring about their demise?

In When Darkness Comes, Alexandra Ivy has woven a completely compelling twist to vampire lore. Her characterization of Dante had me riveted to the pages because of his complete commitment to Abby's safety. What starts out as a job for Dante quickly becomes more and while he yearned for freedom from his guardianship of The Chalice, Dante finds himself wanting Abby forever. I loved reading every moment of his succumbing to Abby's down to Earth and often naïve personality. She was attracted to Dante but scared to reach for him because of how she grew up. When she finally decided that Dante was the man for her, life was good.

When Darkness Comes is the first book of a new series called `Guardians of Eternity' and I find myself perusing the coming soon pages for insight and information on the next installment. Alexandra Ivy can't write the next book quick enough and if it is anything close to being as wonderful as When Darkness Comes then it will be completely magnificent.

Talia
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Following an incident in her employer's house, Abby Barlow has become the Chalice. She and Dante (the Chalice's vampire protector) set out to discover how this has happened and if there is any way for this process to be reversed.

I've been reading a lot of first books in a series, recently, and this (Book 1 of the Guardians of Eternity) is a definite improvement on most of them.

The book starts with a bang, and the plot doesn't let up 'til about page 180. Unfortunately because it starts at this breakneck speed it does have some uneven pacing, with the middle of the book lagging a little before picking up again.

The characters are well written and there is an undeniable chemistry between Dante and Abby. Dante has a dry sense of humour, with which he is only too happy, to provoke Abby. And the banter between the pair really brings them to life. Though I could have done without being constantly reminded how terrible Abby's early life was.

The secondary characters are well fleshed out, in particular Viper who on first meeting Abby practically oozes sex across the page. I wish we could have spent more time with him and also Troy and The Shalott. (But it isn't their book, fingers crossed we will be seeing more of them in the future). The bad guys are not two-dimensional and their motivations are well explained.

It's not perfect, as well as the above-mentioned pacing problem, there is a reliance on some coincidences to keep the plot moving and I noticed one slip in continuity.

However, it held my interest and I'm looking forward to picking up the second book in the series Embrace the Darkness which will feature Viper and The Shalott.

When I purchased this book there was no reviews yet and was uncertain if to buy it after reading the back cover. I decided to give it a try based on the author Lynn Viehls comments. I bought it and finished it in the next day! I thought the book was great and look forward to reading her next book, "Embrace The Darkness" to read Viper's story. I base a lot of my purchases on the online reviews I read but I try to look at them all to get an a broad picture. Reviews can help but sometimes it is worth it to just go for it and give something a try regardless what the reviews say. You just might find a "keeper" that way.

This is one of the few books that I just could not slog through, no matter how much I wanted to. I purchased Book 1 and 2 at the same time, and did not finish this book, much less continue the series.

I don't even know how many chapters I got through. I felt like I read 75 pages and all that happened was the heroine? and her vampire protector running around in the dark and having sex a few times. The main female character/heroine becomes the savior of the world in the first 5 pages, and suddenly the vampire protector falls in love with her and pledges his undying loyalty?

I don't even know what to compare this book to...the writing style and story composition are just incredibly immature, and the author has almost no ability to develop her characters.

If you are looking for a paranormal romance there are thousands of other options that would be better than this.

Plot Summary: Abby Barlow works for a rich princess-type who keeps a handsome boy-toy in residence. Everything is fine until her boss is barbecued, and Abby wakes up in a seedy hotel room with said boy-toy, whose name is Dante. Abby has unwittingly become the Chalice, a holding place for an ancient goddess power thing called the Phoenix (it's not real clear exactly what it is). Dante is actually a vampire who is bound to protect the Chalice with his life, and he persuades Abby to help him find the witches who created the original curse. Meanwhile the bad guys want the Chalice so they can free some demon spirit called the Prince, which will unleash their powers on Earth.

This book was okay. I wasn't bored at any point, but I also wasn't riveted to my chair. The focus of the story remained squarely on the romance, which was fine, but the paranormal world was sadly shallow. It lacked those tasty creative details that fire my imagination, so my emotional involvement with the story stayed strictly on the surface. I was entertained, but I never really cared about the characters.

The author had a few favorite phrases that kept popping up too often. Abby had a "gamine face," Dante had a "silver gaze," and Abby kept "slapping her hands on her hips." I had to look `gamine' up in the dictionary, and it means either a street urchin or a playfully mischievous girl. I'm hoping Abby didn't resemble a gutter-girl, but I did like Dante's insistence that Abby's inner beauty was stunning. The vampire was drooling over the purity of her soul rather than some obvious body-part, and it was a nice change from the usual body-worship portrayed in most romances.

Abby was the typical fish-out-of-water heroine, unwilling to accept her destiny, flailing around, and fighting with Dante. I think her speech was supposed to be cute, but her expressions needed some work. Ick, please don't say "yowza" in a post-coital moment of bliss. It totally wrecks the mood for me. Will I read book two? Ahhh, sure, if I spy it at the library, but this wasn't good enough to get me to buy into this series.

I picked this book up to keep my self busy, waiting for the many other authors I love to read to release there new books.
Sherrilyn Kenyon;JR Ward;Laurel K Hamilton and Jim Butcher to name a short few.
But to my relief I found myself wonderfully wrapped up in a story and characters that I cant believe I ever did without.
What a delightful surprise.
I'm almost finished with this book.
I can tell if a book is good or not by how many times a day my mind wonders back to the characters and settings.
I would already be finished with this book if I didnt have to work today.
Her writting is superb,freshing, wonderful, fast paced.
Her descriptions of her characters as well as her settings are just the right amount; never over or under done.
So this way you, the reader get a feel for everything both her main characters are going through.
And I have to say I'm looking forward to develing deeper into Vipers mind.
I hope with the next book to this wonderfully enticing series.
Thanks again Ms. Ivy, for taking this reader on a beautifully written ride.
Even when the monsters are yummy to look at and yet endearing even when they are so full of themselves

This feels so sad. I HATE writing bad reviews but this book was terrible! It was heavily cliched in both its writing style and plot and I was BORED -- which is the kiss of death. I cringed while reading this. I was even open-minded enough to think maybe I just wasn't in the mood but you know, these books are the "fun" books. You should ALWAYS be in the mood for them; they are the ones you neglect reading other "weightier" literary tomes for. Not so in this case. Go to the bookstore, read the first 10 pages. You'll see what I mean. It's an utter waste of time, let alone money. Thank god I was able to rent it from my library instead of purchasing it!

One of the benifits to Romance material is there is actually Romance! Not here!The best this book can offer is mindless rutting every few pages then throw in the word "love" and we have a romance novel! I couldn't even finish this book which is a FIRST!!
First Chapter is great..meaning we have a saucy delicious vampire and a cute but clumsy heroine throw some verbal bantering and we got a hit! The problem begins on page 19 or Chapter 2. I just have to pause right here and ask..IS IT TO MUCH FOR YOU TO WRITE A FEMALE CHARACTER THAT ISN'T ALL T & A!? Can she have an IQ over 72? This book assaults every sense including "COMMON" that I have!
While Dante is a delicious treat there is NOTHING special about our heroine other than she is at the right place at the wrong time. She whines,clingy,she asks why constantly, smart mouth, and needy. She has No redeaming qualities and the only skill she has is on her back. I'm not sure if I'm more insulted for the guys or females. A vampire with the experience of 3 centeries is captivated by a maid with no skills.She has no personal,or character skills that are mentioned.She has done nothing but Ball Gaze at him! On the other hand Dante does list her likes and dis likes. Pushing at the fray of my nerves is when vampires are attracted to her "purity" which is laughable! This Ride,Abby, hasn't seen purity in many a boyfriend!
The final line came at the first page of chaper 17. If you say "YOUZA" after having the best sex of your life with a Vampire that has been a live for 341 years then your an idiot!!!First page chaper 17. I'M Done with this book.

This story starts off so fast, there is no background to the main female character. I don't know her, I feel no emotional attachment to her and I don't care about her. After 80 pages of reading, I still don't care and don't know her. I can't even remember her name while I am typing this and I read it just today. I put the book down. There is more of a background involved with Dante, but it is still lacking depth. Also, the relationship back story between the two main characters is nearly nonexistent. It again makes me ask, why do I care? How did this tension and romance come about? They are very flat characters and their love has no real spark. I'm just not feeling any sincerity or connection with them. I got through 80 pages just to see if it got better but it did not. I put the book down and moved on.

I was very unhappy with this book, didn't even finish it. The story was not well written, didn't like the characters, didn't care about Abby, and Dante is a wussy vampire. No good naughty bits, and not much action/fighting. At least in the first half, I gave up after that. Whoever reveiwed it above, and compared it to the Black Dagger Brotherhood books, appears to have read different books than I did! This was not even close....