Review – ‘The Darkest Secret’ by Gena Showalter

Blurb 

Keeper of the demon of Secrets, Amun can manipulate the darkest thoughts of anyone nearby. But when the immortal warrior is chained and isolated to protect those he loves, death is his only hope of release—until he meets Haidee, a fellow prisoner whose beauty and hidden vulnerability draw him into a reckless test of his loyalty….

Haidee is a demon-assassin, raised to despise Amun's kind. Yet how can she hate the man whose touch sets her aflame? But to save him, she must give herself body and soul…and face the wrath of a powerful adversary sworn to destroy her.

Review 

Very disappointed. This is the second time I’ve read AND reviewed this book. So, basically, this is just an update of my thoughts from the time I read this story a few years ago. It’s strange because my first review is mostly positive and this one’s not.

Amun, the keeper of Secrets, returned from Hell after he, Aeron and William ventured there in the last book to save Legion. Several demon minions bonded themselves with Secrets, a demon High Lord, and now Amun is literally losing his mind and sanity. The only one who can save him is Haidee, a Hunter with special abilities that Strider has kidnapped and brought back to the fortress. She’s also the same person who helped kill their friend Baden thousands of years ago.

Even though the reader learns why Haidee joined the Hunters and did all the bad things she did, I still don’t like her. I understood why she hated the Lords and I felt sorry for her trauma and all the horrible things that happened to her, but I think Amun pushed aside his friends far too easily and picked her when she didn’t deserve it. He needed her, but he shouldn’t have wanted her.

They fell in love too fast in the middle of dangerous situations. It didn’t make sense to me. There were also too many sex scenes. The author seems to write at least four sex scenes in each book and the first two are usually never full scenes (I mean no intercourse, but everything else).

To be honest, I started to skim from about a quarter into the book. I usually just skim sex scenes, but I skimmed almost every page of this book which is a first for me. I just couldn’t get into it. The scenes I did like were with Strider, Paris, William and Kaia. Strider and Kaia’s relationship is set up, William is falling more for Gilly and he hates it, and Paris is really mourning Sienna big time.

Also, there’s one continuity issue I noticed. William isn’t able to be flashed anywhere, meaning he can’t be transported from one location to another in a blink of an eye, but Lucien does this to him and William survived the flashing. He should’ve been dead. Did I misread something (and I did not skim this part) or maybe something in the previous books? 

I stopped skimming near the end the book because I enjoyed Haidee’s demon possession, the battle with Hate and Haidee’s sacrifice. But that’s not enough for me to give this story a good rating. I sooooo love this series and I wish I could rate it higher, but this book just wasn't for me. 

The link to my original review can be found here: http://amberdaultonauthor.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-darkest-secret-by-gena-showalter.html

2 Stars

Disclaimer – I bought this book for my own enjoyment. I am not paid or compensated in any way, shape or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion.