Review: The Darkest Torment by Gena Showalter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Standalone - Lords of the Underworld #12
Release: May 31, 2016
Length: 512 pages

Driven to his death by the demon of Distrust, Baden spent centuries in purgatory. Now he's back, but at what cost? Bound to the king of the underworld, an even darker force, he's unable to withstand the touch of another…and he's quickly devolving into a heartless assassin with an uncontrollable temper. Things only get worse when a mission goes awry and he finds himself saddled with a bride—just not his own.

Famed dog trainer Katarina Joelle is forced to marry a monster to protect her loved ones. When she's taken hostage by the ruthless, beautiful Baden immediately after the ceremony, she's plunged into a war between two evils—with a protector more dangerous than the monsters he hunts. They are meant to be enemies, but neither can resist the passion burning between them…and all too soon the biggest threat is to her heart.

But as Baden slips deeper into the abyss, she'll have to teach him to love…or lose him forever.

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MY REVIEW

Okay. So I'm warning y'all right now... this may be one of my longest reviews yet! Why? Oh, because this book had so many interesting pieces that I couldn't even competently piece together anything resembling a concise review, so... Here goes!!

Katarina: I liked the girl well enough until around the 74% mark and then she pissed me off. There were many moments throughout the story in which she showed immaturity but this one time took the fcking cake! Now, her introduction to the story was interesting. I loved that scene. She was a dog lover and rescuer (bonus points!) and married a wicked man (Alek) to ensure her pets' safety. Baden's hot ass busted up the wedding and took her as collateral because Alek had the coin Baden needed for Hades.

Confused yet??? hahahahahaha

Baden: former warrior for Zeus, he and his friends opened Pandora's box, unleashed the demons, became hosts to said demons, and were banished. As the host to Distrust, Baden slowly lost his damn mind and allowed himself to be killed in order to escape. Trapped in a spirit realm with Pandora, Hades releases them and binds them to him as slaves. He gave them "Hades bands", which infused them with new demons. Baden's was Destruction and he literally wanted to destroy everything. Kill kill kill was the mantra. Having been stuck as a spirit for centuries, Baden had a strong aversion to touch. Katarina eventually helped him to overcome it and they were finally able to do the "sex".

See, I loved Baden. No I LURVED Baden. He was so fcking badass. He was honorable, protective, considerate, Alpha, adorable, possessive and oh so fcking sexy! And I liked Katarina just fine until the aforementioned 74% mark and then I just wanted to slap her face off. Thankfully, Baden was still very much the focus of this book and calmed me down.

William/Gillian/Puck: There were a couple of side stories mixed in and this triangle was one of them. I didn't read the previous books in this series (unfortunately :( but a problem I will soon rectify), but that didn't prevent me from seeing the intense connection between William and Gillian. She was on her death bed after ingesting an immortal elixir (cuz she was human. Duh!) and William was trying to do everything in his power and beyond to heal her. I wonder if their story will be tackled in the next book.

I did like how everything played out with Baden and Katarina. I'm glad they were able to look to the future together. Honestly, the two of them were extremely hot together and I loved it. But I'd be lying if I said that I was happy with the way this book ended. It was pretty abrupt. More care seemed to go into the bonus material at the end than this story's ending.

Things I liked:
* how incredibly detailed this story was. It was very easy to imagine each scene and character.
* how well-developed each character was. It was obvious that the author didn't skimp on creating these beings, their world, their pasts, their lives, their thoughts and feelings, their actions, their everything.
* how easily I could see this as a fantastic movie!

What I didn't like:
*Katarina's judgmental attitude. I can't stand when I read a book and the h gets with the H, knowing he's a killer (or demon/immortal etc.), in the middle of some sort of war/battle/fight, and then tells him that if he wants her, then he can't kill anyone. WTF??? Or when said h gets upset because the H doesn't view her as strong (in comparison to him). But you're not as strong as him. Are you delusional? He's fcking immortal. Meaning either he can't die or it would be extremely difficult to kill him. He's freaking huge (6'8") and you're not. He has a history of defeating people. You do not. He's killed many. You = no one. He was part of the protective detail for Zeus. You rescued dogs. Where the fck is the comparison??? Okay, rant over. For now.
*the ending.

So, I'm going off to add the rest of this series to my TBR because I'm fascinated by all of these characters, this story, this series, this author.