Wicked Nights was my first book by Gena Showalter, and I am so glad I gave this author a try. Ms Showalter really does have a way with words. More than just enjoying the story, I loved her writing. She made even the most simple of sentences really powerful, just through her wording. Another thing I was pretty impressed with was that I don't think Showalter used one swearword in the entire book. I think the worst might have been "damn". Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the swearing. It's just that in a genre where authors feel completely at ease liberally spicing their books with F-bombs, it was refreshing to find an author who manages to create tough-guy characters without the harsh language.
Moving on to the story. Angels of the Dark is a spinoff from Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series. I didn't realise this before starting, but I wasn't confused, only curious about the few characters introduced from the previous series.
Wicked Nights was really loads of fun. Angels have become pretty popular in paranormal romance lately, and I think it's pretty easy to get lost in the crowd. This book definitely stood out. Zacharel is an angel, and he's as cold as ice. He was forced to kill his twin brother, Hadrenial, after the poor guy was tortured by demons. Since then Zacharel's had a major clamp on his emotions, and he considers himself above petty human emotions like anger, despair, love, and lust. Zacharel has gotten into more than a little trouble for killing demons without any thought for possible collateral damage ie. humans. His actions and lack of remorse have caused him to become the leader of an army of misfit angels. He has a year to whip these angels into shape, or he and his army will be cast from heaven. One more thing I'm going to mention about Zacharel is the fact that he's a virgin. I wouldn't normally consider this to be something worth mentioning but, since it doesn't often happen that the guy is as pure as the driven snow, it made for a nice change. It was pretty entertaining to watch Zacharel struggle with his reaction to our leading lady.
Annabelle Miller has had a supremely crappy last four years. When she was eighteen, she saw her parents being killed by a demon. The demon disappeared after the slaughter and Annabelle, being the only possible suspect, was charged with their murder. She was later institutionalised, crazy chick who saw monsters, and had pretty much gotten used to taking care of herself until she met Zacharel.
I really enjoyed our two leads. Zacharel, having been out of touch with his emotions for so long, is completely clueless and seeing him try to deal with this pint-sized human chick was really funny. Annabelle was a good heroine. She was tough, but not so bent on proving herself that she was stupid. She was in touch with her emotions without being a crybaby.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I'm already excited for the next book in the series, Beauty Awakened.
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