IMMORTALS: THE DARKENING

Author: Robin T. Popp ISBN: 0505527022 6/2007 PARANORMAL Publisher: DORCHESTER

Created at the dawn of time to protect humanity, the ancient warriors have been nearly forgotten, though magic lives on—in vampires, werewolves, the Celtic Sidhe, and other beings. But now one of their own has turned rogue, and the world is again in desperate need of the IMMORTALS. A werewolf and bounty hunter, Lexi was badass to the bone. She had no problem protecting herself in the seedy underground vampire clubs of New York City. Until the Immortal she had tried to summon actually appeared. It wasn't the intricate tattoos around his well-defined muscles that intimidated her; it was the raw power she saw shimmering in his golden brown eyes, power mingled with lust. Though she longed to give in to the passion and pleasure he promised, they first had a curse to break, a brother to find, and a whole legion of vampires to prevent from joining ...THE DARKENING.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I had a similar reaction to this second book in the Immortals series as I did to the first. It didn't particularly attract me as a romance, but it was a great read as an urban fantasy tale. In general, it started slow with wooden dialogue and less than heroic behavior (from the romance novel perspective), but that was just a warm up for a great last two thirds of the book. Even romance came effectively into play as the book progressed.

IMMORTALS: THE DARKENING is set in New York. A werewolf/solitary witch named Lexi joins with a coven to try and summon an Immortal to help fight increasing death magic, but it doesn't work. They do see Immortals while casting the spell, but can't get them to come. A few days later, though, an Immortal, Darius, materializes while she's at work. He's got a lot of problems because of his bumbling, over-protective mother, the goddess Sekmet, and isn't exactly immortal at that time as well as having sexual problems. Lexi has trouble of her own, with a best friend who won't stay out of trouble. They work together to try to rescue Lexi's friend and Darius's imprisoned immortal brother.

The series story arc of battling the big bad demon and the tortured rogue immortal continues to be well developed here, with new twists.

IMMORTALS: THE DARKENING left me eager to get onto Joy Nash's IMMORTALS: THE AWAKENING, which will be released July 31st!

Heather Hiestand