Thursday, September 22, 2011

[Archive] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of Darkness Unbound


Keri Arthur  author of the New York Times bestselling Riley Jenson, Guardian series, has now written more than 25 books. She's received several nominations in the Best Contemporary Paranormal category of the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards, and recently won RT's Career Achievement Award for urban fantasy. She lives in Melbourne with her daughter and two crazy dogs.

Darkness Unbound, Book #1 of the Dark Angel series
Author:  Keri Arthur
SynopsisRisa Jones is as extraordinary as her heritage. Born from a lab-enhanced clone mother and an Aedh father, she can not only talk to the souls of the dying and the dead, but she can see the reapers and walk the gray fields that divide this world from the next. 
They are skill she rarely uses, however, preferring to concentrate on the business she shares with her two best friends. But when her mother asks her to help the parents of a little girl locked in a coma, she reluctantly agrees. What she discovers scares the hell out of her. Because the little girl’s soul no longer resides in her body, and it wasn’t death and the reapers that took her. 
Someone had ripped her soul from her flesh. 
As it turns out, a creature consuming the souls of the innocent–and not so innocent–is the least of her problems. 
Because someone wants to rip open the gates that divided hell from earth, and Risa is a key component in their plans. 
And the only person standing between her and disaster is a reaper who isn’t exactly on her side.

Our Review [by LITERAL ADDICTION’s Pack Alpha – Michelle L Olson]
Keri Arthur has been one of my favorite authors for quite some time and the Riley Jenson series has been one of my favorites.  With 9 books in that series that held me captive, you can imagine how excited I was to hear that Keri was writing a spin-off series featuring the incredible daughter of Dia Jones.  What I didn’t expect when starting Darkness Unbound was that it would quickly jump to the forefront of ‘my favorite books ever’ list. 

I was asked the other day what I look for in a good Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance book.  My answer, “intrigue”.  Well, Darkness Unbound gave me that times 100, and so, SO much more!

This series is going to be incredible, if the first installment is anything to go by.  It literally had it all… Heart pumping action, massive amounts of intrigue, toe curling romance, a captivating plot, and the ending had you wishing that the next book was sitting inches away so you could start it immediately. 

The characters were amazing as well.  Strong, capable, female leads, uber sexy alpha males, and enough magick to keep even the pickiest of readers happy; there were shifters, witches, angels (the Aedh), reapers, demons, vampires, clairvoyants and more. 
LITERAL ADDICTION Paranormal Book Club gives Darkness Unbound 5 Skulls, and sincerely wishes there were more to give! 

We HIGHLY recommend it for, well… EVERYONE!  Keri Arthur fans will adore it, but more than that, it had everything you want in a perfectly written Urban Fantasy, and just enough hot and steamy sex and romance to keep Paranormal Romance lovers happy as well. 
While it definitely isn’t necessary to read the Riley Jenson, Guardian series first in order to understand and appreciate the Dark Angels series, in my personal opinion it would help.  The supporting characters and historical references (from a book standpoint) will mean SO much more to you as a reader if you’ve lived their lives with them first, and grew up with Risa, so to speak, before jumping into her incredible life at age 28, where Darkness Unbound picks up. 
BIG kudos for Keri and the Dark Angels series!  November cannot get here fast enough to get Darkness Rising into my hot little hands…
Darkness Unbound:

 

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