REVIEWED by J.A. Kenney

Review: 4.50 Stars

Summary:

Darkness by Laurann Dohner is the 12th book in the New Species series.

FBI agent Katrina Perkins is sent into Homeland, the New Species Organization’s primary base to locate a missing man, Jerry Boris former head of Fuller Prison, and provide evidence that the NSO is using their sovereign status to harm US citizens.

Kat does not believe for a minute that the NSO has committed any crimes, nor does she think her boss has authorization to send an agent into Homeland.  But she follows orders, and arrives at the front gate undercover as the local police department’s CSI tech who has been brought in to teach modern crime solving techniques to New Species.

That is when an armored vehicle filled with heavily armed protesters tries to breach the gate.  Without thinking about the consequences, Kat steals a gun from one of the New Species guards, shoots the driver of the vehicle, and uses one of their own grenades to deal with the threat.

She is immediately arrested, and interrogated to discover her real identity and purpose.

Darkness is the physical and mental embodiment of his name, master interrogator, and even among the abused and damaged New Species both feared and respected. He is sent to discover the identity of this mysterious women, and her purpose no matter what it takes.

After hours of intense but fruitless interrogation, the NSO is informed by their contacts in the US government that Kat is an FBI agent, and they decide to allow her to continue her mission under heavy guard and observation so they can find out what her mission really is. They convince her the time in a cell was a misunderstanding and that she can proceed with her teaching duties as planned.

Darkness assumes responsibility for watching, and monitoring Kat during her time at Homeland. He is assigned the house next to hers for the duration of her stay.

Positives:

I’ve been a fan of the New Species series from the beginning, but this was one of my favorites.  “Justice” book #4 is still number one on my list, but this one is in the top 3.

What helps this one stand apart, is that like “Justice” the female protagonist is a strong, tough, take no prisoners type who doesn’t need protection or a big alpha male to tell her what to do.

But also Darkness is by far the darkest New Species character so far, having been trained to be a killer, and torturer by terrorists. He was also forced to make difficult life and death decisions for his blood brothers and was betrayed by a woman he loved and trusted.

As always the sex scenes were scorching, and the romance very satisfying, with the added bonus of a very good subplot surrounding Jerry Boris and Kat’s FBI boss.

Negatives:

It’s a rare day when I have a hard time coming up with something to write in this section, but I’ll admit I had to think about it for a second.

If you do not like erotic romance, heavy on the erotic, this is neither the book nor series for you.  These are romance books that have erotica level sex scenes, and they also focus very heavily on the animalistic alpha male.  While these are not shape shifters they have a lot of the same characteristics.

Also while in theory these are science fiction, because the origin of the New Species is scientific experimentation, I hesitate to suggest them as Science Fiction Romance they are written like, and feel like paranormal.

Overall:

This was an extremely enjoyable read, that rebooted my love for the New Species series.  The last few had started to get a little too repetitive, but here we have great characters, lots of drama, and a good plot in addition to hot sex!

For me…almost the perfect book.

Keep Reading!

J.A. Kenney

Genre: Erotic Paranormal Romance

Publication date: September 23, 2014

Length: 359 Pages

Blush Quotient: Wink

Disclaimer: This book was purchased independently by the reviewer for her own pleasure.