Lady of Darkness (Lady of Darkness Series Book 1)

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I loved this even more the second time! This world and these characters are some of my favorites of all time. Scarlett deserves no one and her constantly entitement to a throne she knows nothing about made me furious.

If you’re an assassin I would expect emotional control, including your tongue. This to me made zero sense.Fritz Leiber maintained that the two texts "should be regarded as the same story told at different times." [2] I’m praying for character growth throughout the series because if book 2 is filled with “It hurts, make it stop Cassius/Sorin/Callan” I might not continue the series Our Lady of Darkness (1977) is an urban fantasy novel by American author Fritz Leiber. The novel is distinguished for three elements: the heavily autobiographical elements in the story, the use of Jungian psychology that informs the narrative, and its detailed description of "Megapolisomancy", a fictional occult science. It was originally published in shorter form as "The Pale Brown Thing" ( Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January/February 1977).

Strangely enough, I was very engaged with certain parts of this novel, how it set itself up as a horror within a horror, a horror writer going through a dark patch that then leads him into a very STRANGE patch where ideas intersect with an almost Lovecraftian (or Clark Ashton Smith-ian) becomes a novel of investigation and eldritch (idea) horror. I have a feeling i could criticise this book for days but i am neither a good reviewer nor is english my first language so ill try get straight to the point. This review is for both books, that is for whole story.I feel like if this could have been written the way I wanted it: When Sorin can't tell her the lady's name, why don't you ask why? Why don't you give a little on your end. Then when he lets some secrets out that are daunting, ok be mad, but don't become catatonic and unable to deal. Scream, vent, and put him in the dog house but don't cry about being betrayed. He literally was figuring things out as he went, its not like he knew from the beginning. This story has an air of decadence I didn’t care for. You can see changes in the times, with the shift in values that occurred past the mid-20th Century, both good and bad. For instance, there is an air of anything goes sexuality, the rejection of anything good and decent for the sake of nihilism or the love of chaos/anarchy, and the liberal use of drugs and alcohol. The author doesn’t quite condone this in the story, but he is not shy about showing some of these aspects. Some of it gave me a bad feeling, but then I have never been one for sexual violence, darkness or depravity, in real life, or in my fiction.

Cons: Their relationship came out of nowhere for me. Something happens to Harlow that really gets under the guy’s skin and that seems to spur them into exploring their feelings for each other. As soon as Harlow is safe, she’s their girlfriend…. Another reviewer mentioned this and it is absolutely true. Spit as lube in the majority of the scenes is just ridiculous. These people are super rich and can’t afford lube? Not much to the plot about Charles’ murder and why. Harlow doesn’t push for more information. There could have been a great plot point there to discover Charles’ reasoning for betrayal. There were some instances of missing words few and far between too. Authors, if you are a member of the Goodreads Author Program, you can edit information about your own books. Find out how in this guide. Tropes: Age Gap, Alphahole, Enemies-to-Lovers, Secret Society, Forced Proximity, Touch-Her-and-💀, Why Choose This is the start of a very promising series and such books remind me why I love fantasy romance so much. One thing I want to mention, though, is Lady of Darkness is a character driven book and there's not much of a plot going on, at least for me. Also, I felt a bit like I was thrown in the middle of the story and, while I usually am okay with that, this time it felt weird and took out of my enjoyment, because it didn't give me the proper payout.

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Considering you all are commandeering my apartment to sneak the Crowned Prince into it, it most certainly is my business,” Sorin retorted. Scarlett pursed her lips, crossing her arms. He had a point. Then he asked, his tone a touch softer, “Have I not yet earned your trust?”

Thirdly, she is like such a special snowflake because she's beautiful, she fights like a badass Sarah J maas mc, and she has all these bois lining up to snog her. Not just Callan or Sorin, but also Cassius and Mikail! Wow........ o.O Unbelievable and honestly frustrating because love squares I prefer to leave those in the past.... It's very much a full cast and they all play their important role well, which is a credit to Melissa keeping all these characters so consistent and engaged with the plot. Tropes/Features: Secret society, age gap, enemies to lovers, chosen family, anti-hero MMCs, 18 yo FMC, kidnapping, touch her and die, OTT J/P, kidnapping, MM, bi-awakening MM, group scenes Here we have a daughter of some dark lord (she doesnt know that yet), who comes to england for her fathers funeral and gets jumped in her room by 4 handsome, crazy attactive men (who are in their 30s and she is fresh out of high school ,18, not that im bothered but kinda kills the vibe for me cuz i wanted mature characters) who are lords of darkness and are ruling the world from underground practically (drugs, arms dealing, assasinations whatever you can imagine honestly idk) and now she has to fill her fathers place. And there is no arguing about it. I found this duo to be highly unorganized and frankly boring. In the first part of book one there is a section describing the Lords, it was very confusing because she was talking about 3 but there are 4 Lords. Throughout the books the Lords personalities were not differeniated alot making it hard to seperate them or even to get emotionally attached to the character.Overall, I can’t say I liked this book that much. There were some appealing components, such as the literary nods and the clear evidence of Leiber’s extensive knowledge of classic dark fiction and horror, as well having his bibliophilia show through in his characters. As a huge fan of MR James, it was great to see more than a couple of references to him. Similarly, fans of Lovecraft will appreciate the nods to his pivotal work in 20th Century horror and supernatural fiction. I guess my big issue was the fact that some concepts were just too out there for me (and their explanations somewhat tedious), the overall level of moral decadence (not a big draw for me), and the slow unfolding of the plot. Sure enough, the climax is a good payoff (really quite scary), but not enough to elevate this book to a higher level. Especially after how much I enjoyed its sister story, “Conjure Wife" out of Dark Ladies: Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness. It's never a good idea to compare things, but sometimes the comparison is obligatory and that one thing fails to live up to its companion in the end. Such was the case with "Our Lady of Darkness." Creampie and breeding fetish is all over the books (mainly the 2nd), not complaining but I think it severely overshadowed other things. Like, there was more focus on semen being too much or staying inside than the sensation of DP or having four d1kcs in the female MC simultaneously. Call me crazy but in a smut book I care more about the description of sensations, idk I may be weird, share your opinions in the comments! Where to start with this review… I have definitely seen both sides - some obsessed with this series & devouring it whole, others finding the FMC annoying, angry & bratty (side note, I hate the word bratty for an FMC 😅) but I can see she is an angry woman & some people feel uncomfortable with that - might want to ask why that is? So disappointing. Started out 4 stars, I even had the second book marked. Then my distaste for her just grew and grew. And right after Callan accuses Sorin of murdering children, her blades go swinging at Sorin YET AGAIN. Without PAUSING TO THINK ABOUT HIS CLAIM OR TRUSTING SORIN FOR A SECOND. and WHY DOES EVERay MALE LOVE THIS PSYCHO? tHERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TORTURED, DARK HEROINE, AND THIS NUTCASE WHO NEVER PROCESSES INFORMATION BEFORE ZOOMING INTO ANOTHER BREAKDOWN FOR NO REASON. Despite being both English and Lords, their dialogue seems hardly British-English (the word lad was thrown in there once, just for the sake of trying I guess) and they sounded hardly upper class, let alone aristocrats. Generally they reminded me more of your average American thug to be honest. Again, this took away from any possibility of these books being immersive. Just have them call each other mate and you 'd already have done half the job. Had the author inserted words that the British upper class uses or talked about pronunciations and accents (which for the rich and aristocrats is usually quite distinct compared to lower classes), there would also have been some evidence of trying. But no. There was zero effort there. No research... again.