Title: Darkness Rising

Author: Keri Arthur

Series: Dark Angels #2

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Rating: 2/5 stars

The Overview: Risa will go to any lengths to avenge her mother’s murder—even if it means making a pact with the most evil vampire she’s ever met. Lethal and powerful, Madeline Hunter is leader of the vampire council, and will put her resources behind finding the killer—for a price. The venerable vampire requires the assistance of Risa’s psychic powers. Quid pro quo. Someone—or something—is targeting the elders of the local council, cursing the immortal vampires to rapidly age, sink into madness, and die. Risa must track down the vengeful being responsible. But Risa’s father, a rogue Aedh priest, also enlists her in a dangerous mission. And not even the great Madeline Hunter may be able to protect her from the shadowy forces that desire nothing less than Risa’s destruction. -Goodreads

The Review:

It has only been a week and I’ve already forgotten what I read.

I’m still reconciling how my tastes have changed since I first read Darkness Unbounded five years ago, and how that one lost almost 3 stars on the reread. This was my first venture into Darkness Rising, and my grand plans for bulldozing through the series this month have been derailed… I didn’t love it.

The book didn’t have a lot of substance. It didn’t deepen the characters. It didn’t broaden the plot. The sex scenes were hard to read. And probably the most disappointing: the main conflict was simple but at the same time confusing. I kept thinking I’d missed something. Like, why are we suddenly in the sewers? What’s the whole point of this exercise? WHY do the characters have to do anything about this in the first place? It all seemed so contrived. The overall conflict lacked enough substance to sustain the story. It was was very similar to a middle grade novel when it came to flat villains, surface-level conflicts, and lack of character depth.

Now, granted, I’m evaluating this alongside urban fantasy works that I’ve loved. This is in fact a paranormal romance, which have an entirely different plot focus, story purpose, and target audience. Even though I avoid the genre these days, I picked this one up because I liked Riley Jensen, and loved the author’s City of Light urban fantasy series. But… here’s the thing. For a paranormal romance with the love story and sex scenes as the main overall arc, it wasn’t even satisfying compared to others I’ve read in the genre. I can see where the author is headed with things, but to evaluate just what has been presented so far, it left me wanting.

Recommendations: urban fantasy readers, don’t even give this one a second glance. Not only is it a continuation spinoff of the Riley Jensen series with spoilers, but it’s also written more for the paranormal romance crowd. Paranormal romance readers: this one missed on all accounts for me.

I’d recommend these other similar books instead:

by Niki Hawkes