Review: Taste of Darkness – Katie Reus

*I received a free copy of Taste of Darkness from via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *

He spent more than a thousand years imprisoned in hell…

Drake is an ancient dragon shifter, one of the most powerful beings in existence, but a millennium trapped in utter darkness has left him ill-equipped for modern society. If it wasn’t for Victoria, the sweet female brave enough to befriend him, he’d be lost. She’s smart and gorgeous and everything he never dared dream of during his years of agonizing loneliness. He may not have anything to offer her, but one thing he knows for sure: he’d die to keep her safe.

Only to fall into the heaven of her touch.

Victoria is a wolf shifter, healer of the Stavros pack. She’s seen a lot, but she’s never met anybody quite like Drake, the fiery, fascinating shifter who can blaze through the skies unseen by mere mortals. He’s lost, dangerous, and the last male she should fall in love with, but the more time she spends helping him navigate modern life, the deeper—and hotter—their connection becomes. She’s thrilled when they finally locate his family, but reuniting with his people plunges them both into unimaginable danger. It’s a race against the clock trying to figure out who wants them dead and who they can trust, especially when the threat is closer than they ever imagined

A sexy dragon-shifter, a beautiful were-wolf, intrigue, war and betrayals, Taste of Darkness have all of that and a lot of slow romance as well.

My Taste of Darkness review:

Right back into the action, Taste of Darkness brought me back to a universe that is well made, with really good characters and a wolf-pack that is very different from the norm – what with the alpha married to a vampire, and the fact that they were willing and able to also help take care of a dragon shifter who had escaped from hell. Drake is confused by the world, after being brought to hell when he was only twelve, he spent the next fifteen-hundred years there. Mostly alone and in his dragon form to survive. When he was freed, he saved the alpha’s daughter, met Victoria who is his fated mate, and had to learn how to live in a very modern and fast-moving world.

There is really a little of everything in Taste of Darkness, the romance is slow and tantalizing, just the way I like it. The characters help move the story forward, and the universe is well done as well. Drake wants to be worthy of his female, be able to take care of her and protect her the way a male should. Victoria is almost afraid to love, after her family left her for dead, she was taken in by Finn Stavros and his pack.

While there is romance in Taste of Darkness, there is also intrigue and mystery, especially as two unknown dragon shifters show up looking for Drake. As they come closer, he realizes they might be from the family he has forgotten all about. The only thing he knows is that he was  betrayed when he was a boy, and that he was used as a sacrifice to open a portal to hell. Arriving in his family’s town, he needs to both keep Victoria safe, get another dragon tribe to work with his family, and find out who the traitor was.

Quite fast-paced and well written, the story didn’t take long to read, but it did bring me a pleasurable time and a want for more from this world. Apart from a couple of typos, the writing was good, mostly in third person point of view, in past tense and interspersed with dialogs to help me get to know all the characters better. If you want a different kind of paranormal romance adventure, the Darkness series is a good bet!

Some of my favorite Taste of Darkness quotes:

It didn’t matter that they lived close to the beach, she smelled like the mountains, crisp and fresh.

Using the roof as a launching area, he shot into the night sky, expanding his wings and savoring every second of his freedom. He’d never thought to be free. The concept was still foreign and if he thought about it too long, he sometimes wondered if he was still in Hell and had finally lost his mind.

The thought of going sledding with her, of doing something normal like this, filled him with a sensation that was so foreign he wasn’t sure he remembered the word for it. It felt a lot like pure, unadulterated happiness.

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

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