The Darkest Torment

April 18, 2016
Showalter’s 12th Lords of the Underworld paranormal novel pays perhaps unwitting homage to If a Man Answers, a 1960s rom-com about a young wife’s attempts to use dog-training techniques to bring her husband to heel. In a vaguely described setting that might be the present-day U.S., Baden, a once-immortal warrior who was cast down by Zeus and later resurrected by Hades, plays a deadly game against Pandora to win his freedom from the god of the underworld. As part of the game, he kidnaps Katarina Joelle, a dog trainer and a brutal criminal’s bride. He dislikes and mistreats her, and she is horrified to be under the thumb of another violent man, but a spark of attraction begins growing between them. Lust eventually turns into love, but Baden is possessed by a beast called Destruction, who cannot bear the touch of another; Katarina chafes under Baden’s chauvinism; and war looms between Hades and Lucifer. Showalter’s writing has retained its erotic intensity throughout the series and has a darkly humorous edge here, but the story is excessively violent and overpopulated to an unwieldy extent.

May 1, 2016
In Showalter's (The Darkest Touch, 2014) latest Lords of the Underworld novel, Baden is back with the Lords, and he still has issues. His second chance at immortality comes with a price: he is beholden to Hades and a new demon, Destruction. Hades desires a special golden coin, and Baden must retrieve it. Too bad it's owned by someone else. Katarina is entering a marriage of convenience, forced to wed a crime lord to save her rescue dogs. When Baden crashes the wedding and seizes her as collateral for the coin, Katarina doesn't take kindly to her new imprisonment. Her depression after losing her dogs intrigues Baden, and he and his demon find themselves drawn to her, even though she is hardly their dream girl. Katarina's experience training aggressive dogs lifts her out of her darkness as she begins to train the beast inside Baden, and they enter a strange relationship that will entrance Showalter's fans. Readers new to the series will be overwhelmed by the elaborate plot threads, but their patience will be rewarded by this steamy story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)