Review: The Darkest Touch

The Darkest Touch by Gena Showalter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I completely admit that I wasn't particularly looking forward to Torin's story. After many installments where Torin floundered around relationships, this just seemed like a train wreck waiting to happen. How can we get a sizzling romance when the couple can't touch? We watched his story with Cameo fizzle and I expected something similar to happen here.

At the end of the previous book we were left with an even more broken Torin. He touched Mari and ended up infecting her (I'm not sure how Cronus got around that one...). When Mari died (really? we met her just to have her die?), Mari's fellow prisoner ends up freed from the bond between them. Keeley is a curator, or some sort of mix between an earth spirit, a human body, an immortal and energy parasite. She (obviously) blames Torin for her best friend's death and swears vengeance. An ordinary person swearing vengeance on a Lord of the Underworld seems crazy, but Keeley is the Red Queen, the crazy powerful ex-girlfriend of Hades, who has powers greater than anything we've seen so far in this series.

Their battles end up making them respect one another and eventually grows to a sizzling chemistry. Their chemistry is, however, continually dampened by Keeley's sickening. I stupidly believed that we would be gifted with a woman who was immune to Torin. This put a bit of a darker twist on their "mistakes" because the afterglow was completely removed. Along the way, we are also introduced to the Lazarus/Cameo show. We also get some resolution to the realm wanderers (or inhabitants of the rod?). Oh, and the sympathetic twist with Hades.

Overall, the events of this book led to a much happier house filled with a new royal, happy families, returned warriors, and a bit of a path towards redemption (for Galen of all people). While the series might have deviated from a more satisfying smuttiness, it still delivers some zany characters that you can't help but love. I'll continue reading it until the very end.



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