Title: Darkness Devours
Series: Dark Angels #3
Author: Keri Arthur
Publisher: Signet
Format: Mass market, 400 pages
Published: June 26, 2012
ISBN #: 9780451237118 / 0451237110
Genre: Urban Fantasy
My Copy: borrowed
Half-werewolf, half-Aedh Risa Jones can enter the realm between life and death, and she can see the Reapers who collect the souls of the dead. Now, she is using her gifts—and the investigative know-how of a man who broke her heart—to find a cabal searching for the power to control time, reality, and fate. And this is besides her work for the Vampire Council, half of whom want her dead.
But for now the Council needs her alive. Someone is killing blood-whore addicted vampires, and Risa must find the guilty party. If she succeeds, she may finally convince the council to lift the execution order on her life. But before she succeeds, she must first survive…
I have never been disappointed by one of Arthur’s books but I guess that there’s a first time for everything. Darkness Devours was by no means horrible but unfortunately, it didn’t live-up to what I’ve come to expect from Keri. This novel has action coming out of the wazoo but that’s about the only thing that this story has going for it. This book doesn’t contribute to the overall plot line of the Dark Angels series, the side characters that I’ve come to know and love are absent more often than not and frankly, I just didn’t see the point of this installment. The Azriel sexy-time makes it a worthwhile read but other than that, Darkness Devours was a letdown.
The main plot of this book is fast paced and interesting, in a stand along kind of way, but as the third installment of this series it didn’t make a whole lot of sense. In the two previous novels Risa’s main focus was on finding the keys to the doors of Hell and preventing them from falling into the wrong hands. In Darkness Devours there’s next to no mention of said keys. What gives? All of a sudden the vampire council wants Risa dead (I’m still not really sure why) and she’s been tasked with finding the demon that’s been killing vamps. Why? Again, I have no idea. Miss Jones isn’t a Guardian so why has she been assigned to this investigation? This is my main complaint with this novel; it just didn’t fit with the rest of the books in this series. I kept waiting for the story to come full circle but it never did.
We get a lot more face time with Azriel in this installment which had me jumping with joy. I’ve loved his character since the very beginning and was happy to see some development with regards to him and Risa. I enjoyed watching him struggle to maintain his reaper persona while battling his attraction for Risa only to finally succumb to his body’s baser desires. Once. That’s all that Arthur gives us unfortunately but it just goes to show you that Azriel isn’t made of stone and opens the door to future possibilities. I’m wildly curious about what sex with a reaper would be like after he makes a statement to the effect that Risa couldn’t handle him in his true form. Fingers cross for an off-the-charts romp session in a future installment!
I’ve come to really enjoy Risa’s two BFF’s, Tao and Illiana, and was sad to see them both play only minor roles in this story. By no means am I a Team Lucian supporter but I was a little surprised to see him cast to the sidelines as well, especially after it seemed like Arthur was building him up to be an eventual big bad in this series. I was also a little annoyed that Risa got kidnapped. Again. And that she was held captive underground where Azriel is unable to sense her. This seems to happen far too frequently for my liking. I think that Arthur needs to come up with some new material!
I’m in no way ready to quit this series. I’ve read nearly a dozen books by Keri Arthur and this is the first one that I haven’t been head over heels in love with. I won’t let one bad apple spoil the bunch. It’s a good novel, just not a good installment in relation to this series. Darkness Devours is intense, deliciously sensual and will have you counting down the days until November 6th when Darkness Hunts hits the shelves.
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Owner, designer and main blogger behind Rabid Reads. Avid book reader, snowboard bunny, video gamer and Supernatural fan. I love all things paranormal, werewolves especially. Oh, and I’m Canadian, eh!
Nice review. Bummer that it wasn’t so good. I haven’t read this yet and now it might not make it to the top of the TBR mountain. I’ll still read it, but I won’t be rushing to it I don’t think.
Still great review! I love Keri’s books too!
This was my least favorite of the series. I was pretty disappointed. The only reason I was happy with it was because we got some Azriel action.
Keri is an amazing author so like you I expect a lot when I read her. Not always fair but that is how it is. Anyways great review.