Review of Darkness Devours by Keri Arthur

 

Publisher: Signet Select

Series: Dark Angels #3

Format Read: Mass Market Paperback

Release Date: June 26, 2012

Buying Links:  Amazon   Barnes & Noble  The Book Depository

Book Blurb (from goodreads): *contains spoilers for previous books*

Half-werewolf, half-Aedh Risa Jones can enter the realm between life and death, and she can see the Reapers who collect the souls of the dead. Now, she is using her gifts—and the investigative know-how of a man who broke her heart—to find a cabal searching for the power to control time, reality, and fate. And this is besides her work for the Vampire Council, half of whom want her dead.

    But for now the Council needs her alive. Someone is killing blood-whore addicted      vampires, and Risa must find the guilty party. If she succeeds, she may finally convince the council to lift the execution order on her life. But before she succeeds, she must first survive…

Bea's Thoughts:   *contains spoilers for previous books*

Risa's hunt for her mother's killer takes a back seat in this story. The focus is on her dealings with the vampire council and on her hunt for the keys. There's little overlap between the story lines. She and Azriel grow closer though trust is still an issue between them; I admit, I got tired of Risa's continual distrust. Azriel has proven repeatedly that he's trustworthy; no, he doesn't tell her everything she wants to know but he's honest about that. I hope that the next book shows a deepening of her trust because the lack of it is getting boring and annoying. There's progress in Tao's storyline also, which I was happy to see and there's potential for a range of new subplots.

Lucian has a smaller part in this book, due to something that happens early on. He's not nearly as trustworthy as Risa has thought and she has serious second thoughts about him in this book. I think he will betray her at some point, it's just a matter of time. I could be wrong but it's one of the few things I'm certain of in this series. :D

 As if Risa's love life weren't complicated enough, along comes a former boyfriend, Jak, a reporter whose help she decides she needs. I'm a little worried that he may be a serious contender as a romantic interest. My worry is that Risa is starting to acquire all these men who want to be with her a la Mary Sue plus I just don't like him. Granted, each man has different reasons for being with her and she has very different attractions to each of them but if Arthur isn't careful she could have an Anita Blake on her hands, and that, for me, would kill the series. 

At times the story line with Jak and his help with the hunt for the keys overtook the storyline with the vampire council. It was interesting most of the time and moved things along in baby steps but honestly it could have been the whole book and moved the story along more dramatically; the vampire council storyline was filler. The vampire council is all about politics, as we've seen previously. Risa has to prove herself, prove her worth, to them or lose her life. The case they assign her is a challenging one as the people being killed are not ones she's sorry to see die; her sympathies lean more toward the killer though that does change as the story goes on. I thought the whole story line was unnecessary; we already know that Hunter is manipulative and not to be trusted, we know that Risa is obliged to help Hunter; it just didn't add anything or advance the storyline in any way that I can see. Actually, I take that back. The storyline does allow for some interaction with Amaya and a change in Risa's relationship with her/it. But, that could have been done using the main storyline. Also, Riley is noticeably absent in this book, though Roane has some brief appearances. Given that Risa was dealing with ghosts, Riley's absence was a gaping hole and the rationale for keeping her uninvolved was weak.

Overall, this is an okay entry in the series. Risa develops her abilities further and she becomes closer to Azriel, which has potential, but most of the story just didn't seem necessary. It was okay, nothing wonderful. I found with Riley's series that there wonderful books and meh books so I expect that the next one will be better.

I received this book from the publisher for review. Ms. Arthur very kindly sent me the first two books in the series so I could read this one and not be lost.