The Darkest Warrior

By: Gena Showalter

Narrated by: Max Bellmore

Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

A searing Lords of the Underworld tale by New York Times best-selling author Gena Showalter, featuring a beastly prince and the wife he will wage war to keep.

He is ice....

Puck the Undefeated, host of the demon of Indifference, cannot experience emotion without punishment, so he allows himself to feel nothing. Until her. According to ancient prophecy, she is the key to avenging his past, saving his realm, and ruling as king. All he must do? Steal her from the man she loves - and marry her.

She is fire....

Gillian Shaw has suffered many tragedies in her too-short life, but nothing could have prepared the fragile human for her transition into immortality. To survive, she must wed a horned monster who both intrigues and frightens her...and become the warrior queen she was born to be.

Together they burn.

As a rising sense of possession and obsession overtake Puck, so does insatiable lust. The more he learns about his clever, resourceful wife, the more he craves her. And the more time Gillian spends with her protective husband, the more she aches for him. But the prophecy also predicts an unhappily-ever-after. Can Puck defeat fate itself to keep the woman who brought his deadened heart back to life? Or will they succumb to destiny, losing each other...and everything they’ve been fighting for?

©2018 Gena Showalter (P)2018 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

What the hell happened?

Max could not sound more bored or apathetic with reading this one. The usual enthusiasm and pitch changes (especially to differentiate internal monologue and to a lesser extent for female characters) are gone and it's like he's rushing to just get it done and over with. And he 100% dropped the Irish accent for Puck which was a huge part of the appeal! I don't get it. It's not like his accent was bad to begin with so he decided to just Americanize it to make it easier. He couldn't have just forgotten since the author alludes to Puck's "Irish lilt" and he calls Gilly "lass" quite frequently. How did Gena not listen to the post version and insist he re-record it? The story itself is fine but the audio frankly really tanked this for me. I've read and/or listened to the entire series so I still plan to stick with it but friendly warning to prepare to be disappointed in the voices for this installment.

What's happening with the rest of the warriors?!?!

The story is interesting however why did Gena take this turn in regards to Gilly and William, it doesn't make sense. What's going on with the rest of the warriors, it seems like the last 3 books have only been about the love connection and not about the artifacts/war .... what's going on Gena. Did will they find the box; has that story died. I don't get it. I listening to The Darkest Pleasure now and I realized wow this book and all the books up to Torin's where exciting and not only about the love connection, they were all about the Lord's and the quest for the box.

I had my doubts!

Ok so I also was a little disappointed that there would be no Liam and Gilly, BUT I have to admit Gena did not disappoint. I LOVED Puck, I loved Gilly, I loved Liam, I just loved this book. Gilly's crush on Liam was a little girls crush seen through little girls eyes. She had to come in to her own in a spectacular way and it took Puck not treating her like a child to accomplish that. There is a reason for the madness and as the story unfolds it all starts to make sense. For those of you who will rate this low without even reading it or feel "betrayed" by the author, I hope you decide to give it a chance. I don't think you'll be dissappointed.

Forced, Boring & Forgettable (Spoilers)

I really struggle to finish this book, the story, plot and everything in it seems forced to me, also the way they talk seems very cave style ( "Me: Tarzan - You: Jane") which could be good for some characters but the author is doing it for all of them and it gets tiresome at least for me. As far as characters, I really can't get pass the hooves, hairy legs and horns as a permanent fixture for the maim character, I don't find it sexy at all, I mean that I'm ok with the character being different but to be able to change back to a normal hunky guy and that to be his primary form, but to have him primary as a satyr... eww!!! I was also expecting to be a development in characters as a couple, not like 500 yrs passes and we only know because of letters, and she misses him when she only met him like for 5 minutes and he was horrible to her, and not even a blip for missing William at all, and then boom he comes back and now it's the love of her life.... Like I said it seems very forced all of it. The only reason I finished listening to this book is to see if there was any developments for the story of the other characters, but it was probably during the last 5 minutes of the entire book and barely any hints... what a waste of time!!!

Really enjoyable addition to the series :)

4-4.5 stars

This was a really good story. I have to admit to reservations about this story when I started. I never really liked the idea of Gillian with William but I also wasn't sure how Showalter would pull off the Gillian being with someone else but for me, she pulled it off well. :)

Gillian is a human girl that's just turning 18 when the story begins. She was sexually abused when young and ended up on the streets until she fell in with the Lord of the Underworld and found safety. It was rough to trust again though and weirdly enough, her best friend became William (the ever-randy) because she felt safe with him. But this also confused her young heart and convinced her that she felt a romantic love for William.

Puck is an immortal that was a Prince of a realm but is now the keeper of demon of indifference. There is a prophecy about Puck and his brother, who would rule and how it would happen, that set them at odds (though they had planned to try to get around the prophecy until others interfered). Puck's demon left him with a widespread apathy but the suffering of his people finally prompted Puck to figure out how to change things.

An oracle tells Puck that in order to get his brother (who has become a tyrant) off the throne, he has to marry William's woman...Gillian. Gillian is in a life-threatening situation when Puck finds her and he uses it to convince her to bond with him. It sounds kind of bad but he doesn't rush her into the decision and she would have truly died if he hadn't offered her the option. Once Gillian is alive and transformed into an immortal due to a potion and the bond to Puck, Puck takes her to his realm as part of his plan. Puck doesn't tell Gillian his whole plan immediately but does before too long. Part of that plan involves Puck going back to the mortal realm to make a deal with William and because of some clever time-shifting between the realms, this give Gillian a lot of time to mature and gain some fighting skills.

Once the deal is made and Puck is back (with William in tow) there's some conflict because William has convinced himself that Gillian is his. With the added years that Gillian has matured, she realizes that maybe her love for a friend wasn't the true love she thought it was but things are still a bit iffy. Things between Gillian and Puck bloom once they're back together but there is worry that the draw to each other may be caused by the bond and not real feelings. And there's a few different prophecies floating around and some of them seem to conflict with each other, making it hard to figure out how things will work out for the best. Things do work out though and although there's some definite angst getting there, I really liked the way things worked out in the end, allowing Gillian and Puck to get their well deserved HEA together.

This was a really enjoyable story. I've been sort of lukewarm about Gillian in past books, especially since I didn't really like the idea of her with William. However, she grew into a really cool heroine in this story and I like her very much now. Puck's demon made him a cold at times and he's a fierce warrior but he was surprisingly sweet when he could allow emotions without punishment from his demon. Overall, I really liked the characters and story and found it to be an engaging story so I would recommend it (and the series in general).

so far I am disappointed in the narrator.

Max has no emotions everything sounds and feels so flat. And I can barely tell the difference between the characters... although I just started the book and only on chapter 1! I am a huge fan of GS I have read every book in the LOTU series and pre ordered this and was quite looking forward to this story between Puck and Gilly, but I may have to get my credit back and read it myself
EDIT: while I am still struggling with the narrator I am completely in love with the storyline. GS never disappoints. if you have listened to this narrator before and enjoy his reading then this Audible is for you... but I truly recommend just buying the book and reading it yourself!!!! 💁🏽

This one was painful to get through

As the title says, this book was a chore to finish listening to. At least for me. I didn’t find the character of Puk interesting in the previous book and even more so in his own. The character arc of Gilly is awesome but that’s about it. I’ve always enjoyed the internal conflict with the demons and the external conflict with the hunters or Lucifer’s minions with the occasional sex aspect thrown in between. And I get it, this is a paranormal romance series, but this book was boring 3/4 of the way through with pent up sexual frustration with the final quarter being nothing but sex.

narrator lack of intonation leaves me flat

several of the characters and the main character of this book Running induced in previous books where the narrator use different voices for them. This is book 14 in the series this narrator has read all of them and this is the first time he's lost inflection or accent with a character. It totally left the story flat. Extremely disappointing

Expected more

I’m half way through and I’m finding it hard to get into it.

I’m not sure why but Puck who is Irish and uses Irish slang isn’t narrated with an accent. What happened? I loved Max’s accent for puck preciously. Such a let down.

I do not like Pucks caveman attitude towards Gilly. That’s the least interesting character type. Big boorish male that doesn’t listen and thinks he knows best and treats her like an object.

Then I don’t get what happened that Gilly suddenly casts William aside. Granted I never liked them as a couple and am very very glad Gena went in another direction. However it doesn’t make sense Gilly would treat William horribly when he comes to find her with Puck.
Like why would she treat her “best friend” and love so coldly and dismissively. And then treat a male she met only a short while, a man who betrayed her, bullied her, and abandoned her for 500 years as if he’s the Adonis she’d always wanted. Jump the shark much?!
I love the Lords of the underworld but this book is the weakest so far. None of the other characters show up for more than one scene and the plot looses the point of the lords, to find the box! What’s going on?
Why does Gilly like this horrible alpha male jerk?!!
I also think that Gilly should have grown into a strong character with the reader instead of jump several hundred years, write a lame letter to the jerk that left you there, and wham bam she’s a totally different person.
If Gena wanted to have Puck fall for a warrior she should have just written in a new character not completely changed an interesting rape survivor into a badass slayer off script.
I will attempt to finish the book if only in the hopes that some of the other lords show up.
And I really hope that Williams true mate is a nicer person than Gilly.

I want my credit back

This book was too silly. It rambled on and on. I just wanted to know when it would end. The main character is too silly. It’s not funny but aggravating. Most of the story the main characters are apart. I was so tempted to just stop listening and give up on knowing the end. I have never purchased a book that I’ve had to start the chapter over again and again because I can’t get into the host of the book.

The Darkest Warrior

A totally thrilling story, so sensual and erotic. Like Beauty & the Beast. ☺☺ recommended