After a few books of "oh that was pretty good" I read Wicked Nights and LOVED it from the get-go! The story had me the first few pages and kept me in it. I really enjoyed the characters and REALLY liked how their relationship wasn't rushed...you know...they are "magnetically drawn to each other" and have sex the first chapter of the book...NOT THIS!
It was a unique storyline but believable in an angel/demon/magic cloud kind of way :)
I have had Showalter's Lords of the Underworld books sitting on my shelf but haven't started them...well I'm going RIGHT NOW to start it...I enjoyed this that much.
KEEPER!

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Review originally posted at Ramblings From This Chick

Don't hate me, but I didn't love this book. I really want to love it but for some reason I just couldn't really connect with it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this story a lot and I liked the world and characters Gena introduced us to, I just felt like something was missing.

Zacharel is a cold, calculating warrior angel who has spent the last several hundred years emotionally dead inside. He has no feelings towards anyone else and does not care who he hurts in his attempt to banish the world of demons. Because of his ruthlessness and his disregard for human life he has been given one more chance to prove himself worthy of being an angel. He must take a army of misfit angels that are all on the cusp of being thrown out of the heavens for their rebellious and bad behavior and train them which isn't an easy job. Any mistakes and it's Zacharel's wings that are on the line.

Annabelle Miller has spent the last four years locked up for a crime she didn't commit. When she was eighteen she witnessed her parents murder at the hands of a demon and no one will believe her. She now resides in a facility for the criminally insane. She knows she isn't crazy and she had nothing to do with the death of her parents, but ever since that horrific day Annabelle has been able to see demons that no one else can and because of this she has spent the last four years defending herself against demon attacks. She has no idea why the demons attacked and killed her parents or even why they come for her now. When a chance meeting with Zacharel she finds she may finally get her answers.

Zacharel can't help but be intrigued by Annabelle. She has awakened something in him that he hasn't felt before. She is feisty and strong and will fight to the death if she must and he can't help the strong attraction he feels towards her. He quickly decides he wants to help keep her safe until they are able to figure out just what exactly is going on.

I really liked Annabelle and I thought that she is unbelievably strong. She has been through hell and back and she doesn't let it defeat her. She continues to fight tooth and nail and doesn't take no one's crap. I liked that she stands up to Zacharel and doesn't cower in the corner waiting for someone else to save the day.

As for Zacharel, it took me awhile to warm up to him. He was never my favorite and I always found him a bit cold and uncaring. But once I got a feel for him and started to understand the reason why he's the way he is he started to grow on me. He's got a lot of burdens to bear and the way he copes is by shutting himself off from everyone. I enjoyed watching him learn to care and to feel emotions.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Annabelle and Zacharel. Neither walks on eggshells around the other and they are both pretty blunt and to the point with everything. They didn't dance around one another or play any games. I actually really enjoy the beginning of their relationship because there was a bit of back and forth arguing going on that is very reminiscent of her LOTU books.

This was a good opening to what looks to be another great series for Gena. While I might not have liked this books as some of Gena's previous works, I did enjoy it and still found it hard to put down. Gena just has a way with creating a world full of interesting characters that you just want to know more about. She introduced a few characters that I can't wait to see more of. I am definitely looking forward to the next installment in the Angels of Dark series. I give this book a high 3.

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Much better than I expected after reading The Darkest Seduction. Zacharel was almost perfect. I think he fell in love and became mushy a little too quickly but some of his one liners were great and he's the kind of romance hero I love to read about. Gruff and reserved on the outside, but deeply loving, sweet, and committed to his love on the inside. Annabelle was one of Showalter's better heroines and refreshing after so many immature harpies and goddesses. I actually really like her, which can't be said of her last two heroines.

Despite loving the main characters and most of their exploits with one another, the book ultimately failed for me story wise and as a beginning to a new series. It was a good idea to write a side story about Zacharel since he quickly became one of her more interesting and enigmatic characters from the Lords of the Underworld series. But the army of angels he leads are too reminiscent of the lords of the underworld. They aren't physically hosting demons but they are metaphorically and their personalities might as well be interchangeable with the lords. I just don't want to read any more about them. I don't even want to read about the lords anymore!

It was interesting to read Showalter's version of the Law of Attraction although, as a spiritual person who if pressed to describe my religion would pick Wiccan, I'm a little disturbed that the author believes using the Ouiji board and going to psychics is a way of opening oneself to demonic influence. Really Showalter? But gruesome scenes of torture by angels are okay as long as demons are the recipients? That seems unjustifiably unbalanced.

The plot also suffers from what I call the Showalter unravel. She builds up something so complex that she can't write herself out of it within the constraints of her numerous writing demands without resorting to easy way outs and convoluting the story. Also, for all the legitimate heat shared between Zacharel and Annabelle, the sex scenes were so poor and uncomfortable and generic that they made me cringe. I resorted to skimming over them because they were so laughably bad.

It's too bad that the end result of this book felt sloppy. I liked the premise and I believe that it could have been a really good book. I think the main culprit against a well-written, well-thought out book is that Showalter is pushing out new books at an alarming rate at the expense of quality.

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So much FUN!FUN!FUN! Seriously, there were scenes between Zachie and Anna that made me giggle in delight. They were just so sweet sometimes in a ruthless cut-throat way. Love the cameos by the Lords of the Underworld and the bickering harpies.

The only thing that made me rolled my eyes were some of the miscommunications between Zacharel ad Annabelle. But the great thing about it was Showalter didn't harp on it and make it into a huge plot. They were usually cleared up rather quickly.

Loved the book. It is very similar to the Lords of the Underworld series but still really good. Can't figure out the title of the book though.

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Excellent start to a new series. A few references to the Lords of the Underworld but very little interaction with them. Book can easily stand on its own. Lots of new, interesting, characters introduced without boring us to death with side stories and subplots that take away from the central couple. Just enough to get you hooked for the next installment. The angels do seem a bit like LOTU with wings, but if you enjoyed that series, you probably won't mind.

Having read all of the LOTU series and also some of the Alien Huntress series, this book was refreshing in that it delivered something I would never have thought to expect from a paranormal romance, much less a Gena Showalter book: depth. Showalter brought some philosophical and spiritual ideas the the fore that are rather profound in their simplicity and worthy of thought long after the book has been shelved. It was an added bonus to a book that was already fun and entertaining.

I must agree with another reviewer that the proliferation of torture and extreme violence delivered by angels, even if it is against demons, somehow strikes the wrong note. Seems rather hypocritical. And if Showalter is indeed teaching us something about the real world with the rest of the story, what is the take-away from all the violence and torture? Maybe it is a metaphorical device but somehow in a world (the real world) where we are hopefully becoming less tolerant of rape and torture, having the heroes resort to it feels wrong.

The sensuality was a little lean, and perhaps less descriptive than the LOTU books. I've read that she's kind of going in a new direction but I don't know if that is fact or opinion.

I'm not sure I need a philosophical lesson in every book I read, but it was nice to come away this once with a feeling of the author having articulated something profoundlly true even if you never knew the words before.

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I loved this new series by Gena Showalter - it kept me reading non-stop. I loved Zacharel and Annabelle together and the way he was with her. It was a slow build up, nothing was rushed. If you have read and loved the Lords of the Underworld, I definitely recommend continuing with this.

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Mrs. Showalter does it again. A fantastic start to her new series Angels of the Dark. What better way to start than with Zacharel. He is incredibly goregeous. The fact that everything is pretty much a first for him is definitely a different way to take this kind of book. Most of these kinds of books the woman is the pure innocent one without any kind of sexual experience, this time it's the man.

I just...there are no words. I loved this book and the fact that Annabelle is incredibly strong. Not physically but she is a strong female lead. She takes care of herself, fights back, and makes sure she survives. She has to be strong with everything she has lived through. In my opnion Annabelle is perfect Zacharel. She challenges him at every level. She makes him feel and after being closed of for such a long time it's no easy task. The the exchanges between the two of them is great. I a chuckle at how much she could frustrate him.

The angels are definitely yummy. Zacharel is incredible of coarse. His back story about what makes him so emotionally detached is heartbreaking. It wasn't something I was expecting but at the same time fit perfectly within the book. Only Annabelle can help to feel again and ease his way out of his own darkness. She slowly shows him that he is not to blame. That he can be forgiven because she forgives him. Through forgiving himself and actually letting an important part of his life go can he truly heal and have a life with her.

I am really looking forward to reading more of this series. We get Koldo's book next and I am sure it will be great because seriously it's a book by Gena Showalter, how can it not be great. But what I am really looking forward to is getting Thane's book, Bjornes book, and most of all Xerxes book. We don't get much interaction with Xerxes but I think he has allot to go through and hope to read about it in the future.

Looking forward to book 2 Beauty Awakened

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