Exina's Reviews > The Darkest Pleasure

July 25, 2013

4.5 stars

He was possessed by a demon, and yet he had the heart of an angel. The contradiction delighted her, and she suspected she could happily spend the rest of her life learning his nuances—and there would still be more to learn.

The Darkest Pleasure is the third book of the Lords of the Underworld series, the story of Reyes, Keeper of Pain, and Danika Ford, a human woman with an incomparable ability.

Danika first appears in book one, The Darkest Night, where Cronus commanded Aeron to slay her and all her family: sister, mother, and grandmother. No one knew the reasons of Cronus, but Aeron resisted the order. At the end of The Darkest Kiss Reyes locked Aeron away, who was lost in bloodlust by then, to keep the women safe. The Ford women now are hiding in the US separately from each other.

At the beginning of the story, Danika is attacked and captured by Hunters. Reyes rescues her, but she blames the Lords for being in danger. 

Reyes

“This is starting to feel like a damned circus. Can’t a man do a little sulking and self-mutilation in private?”

Reyes can’t experience pleasure without pain. Furthermore his demon has a bad influence on his partners making them hurt others. Though Pain reacts to Danika in a unique way, Reyes is afraid to ruin her, so he tries to resist the temptation. I love this protective and tender side of him very much.

From the beginning, his heart had recognized this woman as his. Like the demon, she was part of him, a part needed to make him whole. Her courage delighted him. Her teasing way, now that he’d experienced it, tempted him. Her willingness to help him despite everything that had happened touched him.
Right here, right now, she was his. A ticket out of hell and into heaven.

Danika
Danika is haunted by dreams about death, screams, macabre, pain, and blood since her childhood. She tries to get these scenes out of her head by painting them afterward.

She is very determined to protect herself and her family, she wears the angry, hard, tough girl image. Though first she blames the Lords for being in danger, soon she realizes that the Hunters’ fanatic hatred toward the Lords is unjustified.

Every time she spied him, hate should have filled her. Hate and rage and violence. But every time she peered into the dark fathomless pools of knowledge and pain that were his eyes, she experienced…something else. She drowned, pieces of her dying then quickly reforming for him. Him. Not her family, not her own survival. Him.

What I liked the most about her is her heritage by her grandmother. How brilliant is to make (view spoiler)[her one of the much-wanted artifacts, the All-Seeing Eye! (hide spoiler)]

The story
The quest for the artifacts and the war with the Hunters go on. I loved the all the appearances of the other Lords, as well as William’s, who seems to be attached to the team by now.

“Shit. They’re like locusts,” William said. “I mean, seriously. Bugs. There’s probably a hundred of them out there.”
“Scared?” Sabin asked.
“Hell, no. I think I just came.”

The most heartbreaking scene is Paris’ choice. I love him so much.


My favorite quotes.