Burning Dawn (Angels of the Dark #3)

"I want to give her more."

Available at Amazon.com

Burning Dawn
Gena Showalter
Angels of the Dark, book three
ebook, 432 pages
Published April 29th 2014 by MIRA
ISBN 9781488709562

A tormented past has left Thane with an insatiable need for violence, making him the most dangerous assassin in the skies. He lives by a single code: no mercy. And as he unleashes his fury on his most recent captor, he learns no battle could have prepared him for the slave he rescues from his enemy’s clutches — a beauty who stokes the fires of his darkest desires.

Elin Vale has her own deep-rooted scars, and her attraction to the exquisite warrior who freed her challenges her every boundary. But Thane’s unwavering determination to protect her means she must face her greatest fears — and enter a world in which passion is power, and victory means breathtaking surrender.

I'm definitely enjoying the Angels of the Dark much more than I am the Lords of the Darkness. And this, Thane's story, just might be my favorite of the Angels.

When we first met Thane back in book one, he was the epitome of a cold-hearted bastard and it's almost traumatizing to see him fall so far as he becomes a mindless sex slave to Kendra, a twisted Phoenix who used her poisons (and sex) to bind him to her. At this point not even even his beloved friends, Xerxes and Bjorn, can save him. It eventually falls to Elin, fellow slave and human/Phoenix half-breed, to set him free.

And soon enough, Thane goes from a sadistic/masochistic bed-her-and-forget-her jackass to a besotted romantic, living for Elin's happiness.

He headed into town to buy chocolates and romance novels. Several hours ticked past as he selected the very best of both. A man devoted time to what mattered to him- to what he deemed worthy of his attention.
When he finished, he tracked down Merrick.
A man guarded what mattered to him.

Too bad when he finally gets the chance to prove his faith in Elin, Thane's devastating failure shakes them both and their budding relationship to the core. With Elin's qualms about being unfaithful to her dead husband's memory, she finds even more of a drive to cut ties with the Sent One when he, upon discovering her mixed heritage, shuns her, abandoning her to what would have been her Phoenix masters had Xerxes not intervened. In the end, she ended up at the mercy of demons. Luckily, it took just hours for Thane to come to his senses and he has the chance to play Hero once more.

Had the ending not felt rushed as it did, this was definitely five star material.

4 out of 5 stars


Previously in the series: