Review: Darkness Awakened by Katie Reus

18688106Darkness Awakened
(Darkness, #1)
By: Katie Reus
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: Nov. 3, 2013
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:
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Years ago he ended things between them to protect her…

As leader of one of the fiercest werewolf packs in the south, Finn Stavros is in full battle mode 24/7. He has no choice—he’s one of the few beings strong enough to fight the Akkadian demons, whose mysterious escape from hell threatens the entire world. With the battle turning bloodier by the second, Finn is ready for anything…until his vampire long lost love shows up on his doorstep in desperate need of his help, sending his heart into a tailspin. He agrees to help her, unaware that she carries a shocking secret that will turn his life upside down.

This time, he’s not letting her go…

Vampire Lyra Marius curses the day she met Finn. The ruthless werewolf promised to love her forever, but he rejected her instead—before she could share her life altering news. Pregnant, kicked out of her coven, and cast aside by the love of her life, Lyra struggled to raise their rare shifter-vampire daughter Vega alone among humans. When the 16-year-old is kidnapped and used to fulfill a frightening prophecy, Lyra swallows her pride and turns to Finn for help. But how long can she fight her feelings for him and keep him from guessing the truth about who Vega really is? As they race against the clock to save their daughter, they must defeat the lethal threat imposed by demons infiltrating the human world and a hell gate that could not only reveal their existence to mankind, but destroy the world in the process.

1thoughtsFinn may be the Alpha of his pack now, but his ruthless uncle was Alpha before Finn challenged him. At the time that he was dating Lyra, his uncle was the Alpha and he wouldn’t have understood the taboo relationship between a werewolf and vampire. No, Finn knew his uncle would kill Lyra if he ever found out about them, so Finn made the choice to stop seeing Lyra before their secret affair was discovered. However, what he didn’t know was that the day he broke things off with her was the day that she found out that she was pregnant. Now 16 years later Lyra shows up on his doorstep asking for help finding her daughter and even though he isn’t pleased with the fact that she’s had a kid with another guy, he agrees to help her. In fact, he plans to keep her around and make her his mate.

This is a great paranormal twist on a second chance romance with a huge layer of suspense added in. It’s also sort of a forbidden love as well since vampires and werewolves aren’t really known to intermingle. So the fact that you have an Alpha of a pack sniffing around a royal vampire is extremely rare. I also liked the added bonus of the hybrid daughter. Now usually I’m not a fan of kids in my romance, it just throws everything off but Katie did an amazing job balancing the suspense and romance with the kid involved. A lot of time when I read a suspense romance, the suspense gets shadowed out by all the romance but thankfully Katie kept everything on track. Sure there were a couple of times where things seemed to get hot and heavy but then one or both of the characters would remember the severity of the situation that they were in and would get back to the task at hand. I really liked that the author didn’t forget about the poor daughter who’d been kidnapped.

Speaking of which, I thought it was insanely creative the way that Katie names her characters. Yes they are unique but they have such meaning behind them that I was blown away with the thought that she put into it.

“I like the name you chose for your daughter. Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra. […] So she’s the brightest star in your world.”

Now of course with a lot of romances you can see the HEA coming a mile away and this one is no exception. I wasn’t really shocked by the events that take place but I still really enjoyed the story. So much so that I finished it in one day. I was so into the story that I’ll be honest, I half-assed dinner so that I could keep reading.

One thing that I have to say is that I loved loved LOVED the added bonus of the newcomer who pops in towards the end of the book. I’m really hoping that his book is next. I just loved his character and the fact that he was so protective, in a big brother sort of way, over Vega. I don’t want to ruin the surprise of who or what he is because it’s half the fun but trust me, when you read the book you will know who I’m talking about.

 

1favepartNow don’t think me morbid but I liked that for being a paranormal romance the author still kept the grittiness of the characters. After all, we’re dealing with extremely old vampires and werewolves. So instead of making it totally about romance she added in snippets of violence that I really enjoyed.

“She punched right through the woman’s chest and grabbed her heart.”

kRISTIN

2 Thoughts on “Review: Darkness Awakened by Katie Reus

  1. Emilia on 9 December, 2013 at 9:50 am said:

    I loved Darkness Awakened, and I did the same as you, I totally half assed dinner that night. Lol. I also agree about the newcomer at the end, and hope the same. Lol

  2. OOo sounds good! She’s one I’ve been meaning to read for ages and just haven’t gotten to. I love those second chance romances and am really glad to hear that she handled a kid in the mix well. That’s one that usually doesn’t work for me so excited to hear she rocked it.

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