I’ve read most of Gena’s Lords of the Underworld series a few years ago but I never wrote reviews for the books. Since I’m a few books behind now in the series, I decided to reread all the books, write reviews and finally catch up on the newer books. (I stopped with Strider’s book, The Darkest Surrender.)
This story takes place in wintery Budapest. Maddox is an immortal Greek warrior and he’s the keeper of Violence, which means he holds the demon of Violence inside his body. See, thousands of years ago, Maddox and his fellow warriors opened Pandora’s Box and released all sorts of evil. Now each warrior has to keep a demon (the evil from the box) inside his body since the Box went missing. Each warrior took on characteristics of the demon but they got that under control, for the most part.
Anyway, he meets Ashlyn in present day as she climbs the mountain that the Lords’ fortress is on. She’s psychic and she can’t stop the voices that plague her every day. She goes to Buda, to the Lords, to beg for their help. The connection between them is instant though they don’t understand it. None of the men have brought a woman into the fortress, not even Paris who keeps the demon of Promiscuity (love him!), and Maddox’s friends don’t know what to do about Ashlyn. She brings chaos to the men and it’s hilarious. They fall in love quickly but it’s believable. Maddox is so gentle with her, even though he’s obviously a violent man, and even the demon inside him falls in love with her.
We meet most of the other guys, learn bits and pieces of their history, and the next two books in the series are set up in this book. I don’t like the author’s use of passive voice and I think this story, along with the series, would be much stronger if she wrote in active. Since I like this story a lot, I won't take a star off for the passive writing.
This is a great starter to an awesome series.
5 Stars

Disclaimer – I bought this book for my own enjoyment. I am not paid or compensated in any way, shape or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion. ( )

This one is so unnecessarily slow. Everything is repeated again and again and again.
Every two pages there are recaps from 3 pages before.
I feel like this book is meant for people suffering from dementia.
The basic template is bdb but there are even more MINEs going around as well as a lot of unnecessary melodrama.
In essence, just take all the old pnr tropes and multiply them by 3.
Sadly more doesn't equal better.
Oh, and true love trumps everything. Yea, it gets THAT cringy.
I believe the same plot and characters, just written less poorly with a few adjustments to the end could have easily been a high 3 star. Instead, it's a low 2 stars. Pitty. ( )

Ashlyn Darrow siempre había vivido atormentada por voces del pasado. Para terminar con su pesadilla, había acudido a Budapest en busca de ayuda: se rumoreaba que allí vivían unos hombres con poderes sobrenaturales. Sin embargo, no sabía que se vería arrastrada a los brazos de Maddox, el miembro más peligroso del grupo, un guerrero atrapado en su propio infierno.
Ninguno de los dos era capaz de resistirse al deseo instantáneo que calmaba sus tormentos… y encendía una pasión irresistible. Sin embargo, cada caricia, cada roce los aproximaba un paso más a la destrucción, y a una terrible prueba de amor…

Re-reading the series and falling in love all over

It has been so long ago that I have read this story that I can't remember what happens. I do remember all of the characters though.
( )

The heroine's backstory was interesting, and the book did a pretty good job setting up the themes for the series and the other characters. Showalter succeeded at making a demon-possessed immortal burdened with a drive for violence into an empathetic, likable character by the end. =D Both main characters made some questionable decisions, but on the whole, I liked them. And although I don't usually cry from books, and even when I do it's like two tears, this one got me. My little heart was touched. =) ( )