The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter

The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter

First in the Lords of the Underworld series

5 stars


Ashlyn Darrow’s never had a family. Her life has centers around the institute she lives in. That means work, eat, sleep, and more work. Ashlyn can hear whispers, whether the conversation took place a week or a hundred years ago, she can hear it as clearly a conversation. Ashlyn travels to Budapest in hopes of getting rid of the whispers. There are rumors that beings in the mountains are angels or something unworldly and she thinks they can help her. But the rumored beings could be her foe, but she’s certain of one thing- she can’t resist the malevolent Maddox. Maddox’s life has always been violent. There’s a reason for the constant violence, though. Ever since he opened Pandora’s Box with his fellow warriors and released the baddest of the bad demons onto mankind, the Gods punished him and his friends with each of the demons inhabiting their bodies. Aside from the constant struggle to maintain his sanity and keep his demon, Violence, in check, he has to worry about when the Hunters will show up and try to annihilate he and his brothers. Then Ashlyn stumbles into their territory and all of the men think she’s Bait (women the Hunters send to distract the Lords so they can kill them) and Maddox is charged with getting rid of her. Easier said than done, because the minute he meets Ashlyn his world is turned upside down. I had checked this book out from the library and I decided to read to humungous books that didn’t make as happy as this one did and that made me wish I would’ve picked this book up sooner. I enjoyed the take on Pandora’s Box and I’m a fan of Greek mythology and proud to say that this book wasn’t a waste of time.

The main female character is Ashlyn Darrow. Ashlyn has lived an isolated life and to be blunt I think Maddox is her first friend. I feel bad for her, but sometimes she was a Debbie Downer and I prefer more upbeat characters, but I’ll cut her slack ‘cause I would probably be the same way if I was in her shoes. Ashlyn was strong and I commend her for what actions she took in this book.

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 7
Maddox is main male character, even though we had POVS from different Lords, he was the main one. Maddox was violent and possessive, but I think that’s OK for him because well he’s fricken Violence. I think he’s entitled to his crazy tendencies because he can’t help it, but he wasn’t a wife-beater and he didn’t do anything to harm Ashlyn (granted there was the whole wine incident, but that seriously was an accident), so he’s not a character that I hated. I also love to read about a good tortured hero… let’s face it no one wants a boring male lead that’s worst time in his life is losing his girlfriend… that’s boring.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 7

The Villain- The Hunters are an organization of people who want to rid the world of the Lords. The last time they just killed one released a demon onto the world and no one knows where that demon went. IMO that makes these people stupid and what happened at the end of the book proved that I was right and I think the Hunters are the ones causing more harm than good.


Villain Scale- 4
Character Scale- 7.5


I’m not going to lie and say that Maddox or Ashlyn didn’t make me wanna slap them (I’m starting to think most books will make me feel this way at least once), especially Ashlyn. There were times when she was downright stupid, but I got used to it after a while. The Lords of Underworld have caught my attention and I'll be looking forward to more of these men.


Cover Thoughts: I think the cover is beautiful. The color/ lighting gives off this effect that makes Maddox look illuminated and I love his tattoo.