109 reviews for:

Awaken Me Darkly

Gena Showalter

3.51 AVERAGE

kippins's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

DNF :(

I have read & really enjoyed Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series so I thought I'd give this a go but it's definitely more on the UF side than the PNR and I generally prefer the latter.

I found it hard to get into it or care about the characters much and really wasn't too interested in what was going on so I gave up at 25%

I absolutely enjoyed this book!

I really liked the story of Mia and Kyrin and flashed right through the pages. She's tough. He's hot as sin and caring. Would have liked to feel a bit more connected to them, but it wasn't too bad. Although, I was a bit disappointed with the final fight scene. The whole story lead up to that point and when we got there is was...over. Just like that. There should have been some serious feelers written in there. It felt as though the story was suddenly rushed to end. Pity.

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

3.5 stars!

this was an awesome book, I could barely put it down. The Chemistry between Mia and Kyrian was phenominal. Although, it was pretty predictable about her being part Alien, but other than that it was great. It had humor, violence, a good plot, sexual tension, sex, love, a good ending.

First in the Alien Huntress paranormal romance series. It will definitely be my last in this series.

The Story
Mia Snow has been called out to a homicide. A man, William Steele, has been found nude in a dicey neighborhood and it's only luck that Mia and Dallas each find a clue that narrows the list of suspects down. All on that list are aliens, which confirms that their unit, AIR, is in charge.

The team members of AIR are hoping this isn't a serial killer as Steele is the fifth man who's been snatched in the Chicago area although he is the first to turn up dead. Their boss, Jack Pagosa, gives them til morning to solve it…oh, really…well, that is just so realistic. Fortunately, Mia and Dallas are cynical enough that they suspect Lilla en Aar and the policeman who arrested her so they have lots to do that first night. Now if Lilla only had some realistic dialog and George Hudson weren't so obviously an idiot. If life worked this way in the real world we wouldn't have a lot of criminals skating about.

Then we meet Kyrin en Aar, Lilla's brother who is obsessed with Mia. Leaping into her vicinity with no finesse whatsoever and quickly eliciting a lustful reaction from her…yawn… Then we get to meet Howdy Doody…oops, I mean the steely-eyed sex club owner, Mark St. John.

We finally get to the sex part when Kyrin kidnaps Mia out of AIR headquarters when he strips her and dresses her in one of garments worn by women from his planet and ties her to the bed…double yawn…

I'm sorry, Showalter is [not] trying so hard to create some tension [of any sort] and I'm just not feeling it as she has Mia fighting with Kyrin about his keeping her prisoner, telling her that there are things he can't tell her because she is not yet ready to hear it. So naturally, he gives in and tells her. She rages off with completely unbelievable reactions. Okay, I might believe them if she were, oh, 16 instead of 28. Oh look, read this at your own risk…

The Characters
A.I.R. is short for Alien Investigation and Removal. A branch of law enforcement tasked with hunting down and executing aliens who have broken human laws. Sounds rather like Anita Blake.

About the only positive I find in this story are the interactions between Mia and her team. The dialog is realistic and showcases their camaraderie. If only I didn't have to read the bits in between…

My Take
This could be a good story if Showalter had taken the time to develop it. As it is, the "leaps of intuition" and the inner dialog are embarrassingly lame and I cringed as I read through this really bad space opera. Yeah, Mia may be kick-ass, but she can be stupider than *ahem*. She's a lousy interrogator and it takes her how many pages to figure out that the central theme is fertility?? Then when Kyrin kidnaps her…oh brother.

"…the hem of my black leather jacket danced around my calves." If she's wearing a jacket and its hem is down to her calves, she is short and she must have taken it off and tied the sleeves around her waist.

It "just happens" that hair follicles are found at each crime scene that pinpoint the murderer?

The Cover
The cover is very sexy with its deep royal cast and the sexy woman in her black patent leather bustier. I think she must have wandered over from another story because there aren't any women in bustiers in this one…

*3.75

magikspells's review

2.0

Whoops I finished this book a while back and I forgot to update. It was so memorable lol
slow-paced
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No

ladyshrake's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

I found the male lead to be overbearing, and it felt like he was belittling the main character.