Darkness Awakened, Volume 1

By: Katie Reus

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

From New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Katie Reus, the first story in her Darkness series.

Years ago he ended things between them to protect her...

As leader of one of the fiercest werewolf packs in the south, Finn Stavros is in full battle mode 24/7. He has no choice - he's one of the few beings strong enough to fight the Akkadian demons, whose mysterious escape from hell threatens the entire world. With the battle turning bloodier by the second, Finn is ready for anything...until his vampire long lost love shows up on his doorstep in desperate need of his help, sending his heart into a tailspin. He agrees to help her, unaware that she carries a shocking secret that will turn his life upside down.

This time, he's not letting her go...

Vampire Lyra Marius curses the day she met Finn. The ruthless werewolf promised to love her forever, but he rejected her instead - before she could share her life altering news. Pregnant, kicked out of her coven, and cast aside by the love of her life, Lyra struggled to raise their rare shifter-vampire daughter Vega alone among humans. When the 16-year-old is kidnapped and used to fulfill a frightening prophecy, Lyra swallows her pride and turns to Finn for help. But how long can she fight her feelings for him and keep him from guessing the truth about who Vega really is? As they race against the clock to save their daughter, they must defeat the lethal threat imposed by demons infiltrating the human world and a hell gate that could not only reveal their existence to mankind, but destroy the world in the process.

©2013 Katie Reus (P)2014 Katie Reus

Didn't want to put it down.

Darkness Awakened is a new paranormal series by Katie Reus. Lyra, a vampire (royalty – because she is blood born – not made) and Finn, a werewolf (potential Alpha) have a relationship, something that is dangerous and could be deadly if discovered by his Pack and her Coven. At their last meeting, to protect Lyra, Finn breaks things off (unbeknownst to him, Lyra was going to tell him that she was pregnant). So, seventeen years later – Lyra and her daughter Vega have a fight. Vega wants to meet her dad and runs away, to do this. (Being a hybrid she can be outside during the daytime). She is kidnapped. Having nowhere else to turn Lyra asks Finn for his help. (Still not telling him that Vega is also his daughter). There are some great plot twists and turns. An ancient prophecy comes into play (using Vega – one born of two houses) to open a Hell Gate. Demons are released – mayhem ensues. Who can you trust and who can’t you? Can Lyra and Finn overcome prejudices and misunderstandings to finally have their HEA? I’m not going to go into more details but I can’t wait for more of this series. Oh and did I mention the dragon shifter? This book was a great read and also a great listen. Jeffrey Kafer does a great job with the narration and also the character nuances. I could almost feel what the characters were feeling as he was narrating. There were no obvious mistakes or breaks in the recording. The pace and flow went well. I didn’t really want to stop listening until the book was finished.

I find you can never go wrong with this Narrator

Which character – as performed by Jeffrey Kafer – was your favorite?

All of Jeffrey Kafer's characters are my favorite, his reading voice is outstanding

Any additional comments?

Wonderful writing and Narration combination!!

Good story but terrible narration..

I liked this story a lot. Loved Finn and Lyra, but find it kind of unfair that Lyra didn’t tell Finn about Vega, until Vega was 16 and had been kidnapped, twice. The kidnapping was exciting throughout the book, all over Biloxi then to New Orleans.

LOL… I liked how Finn helped her get to sleep. After 17 years apart he figures that making love to her will put her right out. It was some serious sex since both of them had been celibate for those 17 years.

Finn’s uncle, before Finn killed him had to have been crazy, as was our bad guy (not telling you who) because he thought he could open a hell-gate and let demons in and he’d be able to control. Umm, NO! He was even crazier than Finn’s uncle, who only wanted to kill everyone Finn might care about. As opposed to the bad guy who wanted to kill every human on earth. See, he was cray-cray.

I liked all the characters in this book: Gabriel, Vega, Victoria and Drake. I especially liked Drake because I love, love, love Dragon shifters.

There is explicit sex in this book and the F-BOMB was said 24 times. So, don’t buy this book then complain about the language.

As to the narration: The next 2 books are about dragons but I think I’ll just read them, instead of buying the audio like I did this one. The narrator was pretty terrible when it came to the female voices. It was like two men when they made love and if I wanted that I would buy a gay romance. AND he just read the book. No emotions whatsoever. He never shouted, whispered, laughed, nothing. When people are about to attack someplace and they are make their final preparations outside the building and the book calls for a whisper and the reader just ignores it it makes for a bad narrator. I have no idea how he got so many good reviews but I have to go with the 1 and 2 star reviews. He does suck as a narrator and he does all 3 books in this series. So, I’ll pass on listening to the other two.

Really good start to the series :D

4-4.5 stars

This was a really good story and start to the series. I really liked both Finn and Lyra and found their story to be very enjoyable and engaging. I liked it well enough that I've already purchased book #2 to read next.

Lyra is a born vampire that is part of the royal blood line. Not that this is very helpful to her since her brother banished her from her coven years ago and she's had no support from any vampires since. Lyra fell in love with a werewolf years ago (Finn) and ended up pregnant by him (which is the reason why her brother threw her out). She was going to tell him about her pregnancy when he broke up with her (for her own good). Lyra wound up alone and pregnant and went to live (hide) among the humans in order to survive.

Finn is the alpha of his werewolf pack. His uncle had been alpha of the pack for a long time before him and was a bad man. Finn had to break up with Lyra because he feared his uncle would kill her out of spite. A while after he left Lyra, Finn managed to kill his uncle and take over the pack. Finn's been looking for Lyra ever since but hasn't been able to find any clues to her location.

Lyra and Finn's daughter, Vega, is a vampire/werewolf hybrid with abilities from both parents. Lyra knows of an old vampire prophecy that says a hybrid could open the gates of hell and that's part of the reason she's stayed away from any supernatural beings since since Vega was born. Unfortunately, someone knows about Vega and kidnaps her when Lyra isn't around to protect her. Lyra has no one to turn to for help so she goes looking for Finn, willing to beg him if she has to, for the help she needs to find her daughter. She doesn't tell Finn that Vega is his daughter though...after the way he left her, she didn't know how much she could trust him and there was no way she'd let anyone keep her away from her daughter.

When Finn finds Lyra at his compound looking for him, he's shocked but very happy to see her. He's not so happy to find out she had a daughter (supposedly) by someone else after they split but he's willing to help her, if nothing else because he doesn't approve of innocent children getting kidnapped in his territory. Finn however has an ulterior motive in helping Lyra, that being to show her that she can trust him so he can convince her to get back together with him. The regaining of trust actually happens pretty quickly but there are the issues of the prejudices between vampires and werewolves to deal with, as well as the task of finding Vega. They do manage to find Vega and get all the loose ends worked out so that the story ends with Lyra and Finn starting a HEA together...finally!

This was a really enjoyable story. I liked Lyra very much and found her to be a strong but believable character. Finn was a good hero. I was frustrated with him for his breaking up with Lyra in the beginning but I could see his reasoning behind it. Still, he could have handled the breakup in a way that would make sure she understood that once he took care of his uncle they could be together...that could have really helped. Still, I guess if he had there wouldn't be a story. Outside of that small annoyance, I really liked the story and found it engaging enough that I didn't want to stop until I was done. I'd recommend this story. :)

Loved it!

I already have all the Darkness books on my Kindle app but when I saw there's the Audible version I was super stoked. I think Jeffrey Kafers voice was so fitting. He sounds like Katie's Alpha Male and let me tell you the voice definitely makes or breaks the book no matter how good. In this case the book was already super awesome. Jeffreys sexy voice makes it unforgettable.

***Copy of audio book provided by Author in exchange for an honest review ***

Wonderful

Minor Spoiler

This was a wonderful read with lots of action/romance and interactions with other characters which I love.

I can not tell you how wonderful it was to know these 2 were not with anyone else during their time apart. So many romances are ruined by either the Hero or Heroine with someone else while being in love with each other, even if they aren't technically together or if they are separated for some reason for awhile. The fact neither Lyra nor Finn slept with anyone else and stayed true to one another for 17 years is beautiful!

Fan Freaking tastic

If your looking for a great Paranormal romance STOP look no further. This was a great story with excellent narration. I was a bit weary at first but after the first chaper, I was hooked. I'm currently going into the fourth listen so its Well worth the credit.

full of action and drama

I found this story to be full of action and drama and i really loved how the story was told.

Short Story - Big Impact!

This story was just five minutes shy of five hours, but was well written, flowed naturally, and had a big impact. It contained everything I look for in a great PNR ~ sexy hero/heroin, steamy romance, action, suspense, great plot, and a happy ending.

The two main characters were great. Finn is my ideal alpha caring, protective, and slightly dominate while Lyra was a strong heroin who would turn over the city looking for her daughter.

The narration was great. Jeffrey is one of the few narrators who can pull off narrating all different types of genres.

This was an awesome five star story made even sweeter by buying the kindle version, and adding whispesync. Who doesn't love getting the best bang for their buck.

GREAT listen! Great story & Awesome narration!!

***



Werewolf Finn Stavros and Vampire Lyra Marius defied the confines of their races and fell in love – 17 years ago. Only Finn, scared for Lyra’s safety, cut the relationship off while he fought and won the Alpha position in his pack. He began searching for her as soon as he became Alpha, and has been searching ever since, with no luck…until she shows up on his pack’s doorstep, desperate for help.





Lyra has a secret she’s afraid to share with Finn, a secret that cost her her position in her Coven, and resulted in her building a life with her daughter in the human world. Now her daughter has been kidnapped, and Finn is the only person she can turn to for help.





Someone is releasing Akkadian demons, and Lyra is fearful they’re trying to use her daughter to fulfill an old prophecy…a prophecy she’s not told the full truth about. But it only takes their eyes meeting for them both to realize feelings are still there, the WANT is still there.





I really liked Lyra – she’s built a life as a single mother for herself and her daughter, and she’s done it with no help from family OR friends. She comes across as a strong, likeable woman whose goal to this point has been raising her daughter. Now the very center of her world is being threatened and she’s willing to ask for help from a man she believes didn’t want her. I liked the way Lyra and Finn interact – while this isn’t a long story, I felt like the past relationship worked perfectly for them to fall for one another so quickly. Not once did Katie Reus lose the perspective of Lyra’s daughter being the focal point of the story.





Finn’s focus has been his pack – and finding Lyra. He’s never been able to find another woman who even tempted him…Vampire or not, she’s the woman for him. And he’s all in to help her find her daughter, no matter the cost. He’s strong, sexy and more than willing to show his pack that Lyra is the woman for him. There’s lots of sexy, smokin’ moments!





This was a great sexy shifter story!


LOVED the narration – I’m not always a fan of a male narrator, but he does a great job with the female voices AND the male voices. And WOW, Katie Reus teases us with a brief glimpse of a sexy Dragon shifter…Grrrr…can’t wait for that one!