The Darkest Surrender

By: Gena Showalter

Narrated by: Max Bellmore

Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

The Lords of the Underworld return in this enthralling tale of an immortal warrior determined to win and the beautiful seductress he can’t resist.

Possessed by the demon of Defeat, Strider cannot lose a challenge without suffering unimaginable pain. For him, nothing stands in the way of victory. Until Kaia, an enchanting Harpy, tempts him to the razor’s edge of surrender.

Known among her people as The Disappointment, Kaia must bring home the gold in the Harpy Games or die. Strider is a distraction she can’t afford, because he has an agenda of his own - steal first prize, an ancient godly artifact, before the winner can be named. But as the competition heats up, only one prize will matter - the love neither had thought possible.

©2011 Gena Showalter (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

You'll be defeated if you don't read this book.

Another great one in the series. This one is up there with some of my other favorites; Darkest Kiss and Darkest Whisper. I'm a little weary of the next one, due to the hype the series has been leading up to it. I'm sure it will be good. Of course this series needs to be read in order (1. Darkest Night) since it has arcing of characters in the series.

LOL

OK, so this is now my favorite LOTU book. The story is great & Showalter wrote this one really well. Of course it didn't hurt that this HEA couple appeals to my warped sense of humor. The story moves fast, is funny, and the sex is really good. The Harpie sisters had my favorite comic passage in this one...

Kaia: "Your just jealous because you don't have a white knight racing to your recue."

Taliya rolled her baby-blues. "Your injuries have made you delusional. When I find my consort I plan to stab him in the heart before he can cause me a moment's unease."

Kaia: "I understand. Your consort can't compare to mine, no one's can, so you'd rather go without."

Bianka: "Mine's better than yours,"

Kaia:"No way."

Bianka: "Way."

Taliya: ..."Both of your consorts suck. Now shut up and move out."

Bianka stuck her tongue out at Kaia. "Mine sucks less than yours," she muttered.

Kaia: "Yeah? Well mine sucks better than yours."

Can't get enough!

Again I'm loving the character, narration, and story. On to the next adventure and new character (s).

Strider

Loved this book. All except that Kaia, who seemed to be defeated more than someone of her strength and character should have been in this story but still, I loved the book.

I want a Strider of my own!

Ms. Showalter has truly delivered a winner by injecting this novel with the perfect amount of action, humor, romance, sensuality (hot) and suspense to bring us in my opinion one the best books in the series. This installment has made it to my top favorites alongside the Darkest Kiss, and the Darkest Whisper. You won’t be disappointed; this addition has all it takes to keep you glued to the book from beginning to end.
I love it when the harpies come out and play!
Great Job Ms. Showalter!!!

Wow! Once again Max Bellmore is fantastic, once more he’s staying true-to form with these characters, no over the top theatrics, but just a genuine way to convey all this novel had to offer; the humor, suspense, and..…. Well …. The sensuality of course, it couldn’t have been brought better to life than with the bass tone or should I say Bose tone (yea! He’s that good) of Mr. Bellmore.

I hate hearing the narrator swallow.

I love this series. After I finish this I'll listen to the dark angel series than I will listen to this series again. If you like IAD or the Immortal Guardians you'll love this series. But you can hear every deep breathe and swallow the narrator make. Like he needs to spit. It's annoying. That's my only complaint. Oh and I'm tired of all the characters licking their teeth and the pearled nipples :/ but still really good series!

Very good addition to the series :)

4 stars

This was a very good story. I liked Kaia and Strider and was happy with how things turned out for them. TBH, I didn't like Strider much at first and I thought Showalter did a great job and making me like him as things progressed.

Kaia is a harpy and the sister of Gwen (heroine of book # 4, [book:The Darkest Whisper|5509920]). Kaia made a big mistake when she was 14 years old and even after 1500 years she still hasn't lived it down. Gwen has always wanted her mother's approval but Tabitha (her mother) wasn't exactly mother of the year and Kaia always felt lacking because she couldn't be what her mother wanted. Kaia has endeavored to get past that and be happy with the unconditional love of her sisters.

Strider is one of the immortal warriors that was responsible for opening Pandora's box and releasing the demons inside. As a way to punish the warriors responsible and imprison the demons, the Greek gods decided that the warriors should act as hosts for the demons. Strider was made the host of the demon of defeat and any time Strider loses a challenge he is crippled by horrible pain that takes a while to get over.

Ok, first of all I have to say that Strider's demon is completely stupid. Strider doesn't even have a choice about whether he accepts a challenge or not...if anyone even makes a statement around him that's slightly challenging, his demons automatically accepts any implied challenge and Strider's stuck trying to win or face horrible pain. So yeah, I feel a bit bad for Strider...however, that doesn't give Strider the excuse to be the consummate dickhead and egotistical asshat that he was in the beginning of the story. Kaia realized that Strider is her consort (someone that's very dear and rare to a harpy) and tried to approach Strider (and in a nice way, especially for a harpy). He had reasons for turning Kaia down in the beginning but they were pretty stupid reasons and while he tried to blow her off gently, he still hurt her for no real reason.

Although Strider is determined to keep Kaia at a distance, he ends up deciding to help her out at the Harpy games but makes sure she knows their partnership is just temporary and not going anywhere. His helping ends up being a good thing because the prize for the contest is one of the artifacts that the LotU have been searching for. This does cause some strife though because Kaia and her team want to win it outright and Stider wants to find it an steal it so there's no question of getting it. It doesn't help that the contest is pretty much rigged against Kaia and her team because all the other harpies are ganging up on them in the contest. Kaia and Strider have some major issues to get past but as they work together more and more, Strider does start to realize that a relationship with Kaia might actually be able to work after all. After a lot of danger and drama, Kaia and Strider do end the story starting a HEA together.

This was a very enjoyable story. I liked Kaia from the start...she was strong but had a bit of vulnerability that endeared her to me. After Strider's actions in the previous book and how he acted in the beginning of this book I wasn't too hot on him but he did turn it around and by the end I was good with him and liked him with Kaia. Overall, I enjoyed the story very much and liked the characters so I'd recommend it (and the series). :)

LOVE Kia and Strider

For some reason it took me awhile to get into this book. Way longer then any of the others. But I kept going and I am so glad I did!
Kia and Strider are awesome together! The way they pick at each other and are both so stubborn! They are also so HOTT together! Both are tapped into their sexual side and there is no shyness in that department.
Another great story to the series!

good story

more adventure and romance than steam this go. but still a great story. a must for fans of this series.

Never More Glad For an Happy Ever After

Kaia and Strider deserved their ever after it was exciting to hear how they get it! great; book by an amazing author!