When Darkness Comes

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Synopsis

Abby Barlow is the personal assistant to a wealthy woman who can be pretty difficult, and she has a crush on the woman's bodyguard, Dante. It's certainly not her dream job, but her current day is far worse than most. In less than twenty-four hours, Abby survives an explosion that kills her employer, who touched her as she was dying, giving Abby a very weird and vivid dream, and now she's running from demons who are out to kill her. And oh, by the way, Dante is actually a vampire who informs her that she's now the Chalice, a mortal woman chosen to be the vessel for the spirit of the Phoenix, which will hold back the dark forces intent on taking over the world. It's all a little too much for one young woman to wrap her head around.

Over three centuries ago, Dante was spellbound by witches to be the immortal guardian of the Chalice. While he has no idea how the former Chalice, who was also supposed to be immortal, was killed, he's now bound to Abby for eternity. Given that he likes her, that doesn't sound like such a bad deal, except that there are a number of people who now want her dead. All the demons, zombies and wizards sent by the dark lord he can handle. But when it becomes apparent that the witches who placed him in his role all those years ago want to end all demonkind, he and Abby will have to fight for their lives, their future, and their love.

Review

When Darkness Comes is the first book in Alexandra Ivy's Guardians of Eternity series. Abby has been working as a personal assistant to a wealthy but not very nice woman named Selena for a while. She's also been attracted to Dante, the mysterious man who might be Selena's bodyguard and/or lover, though she isn't certain. One day, Abby arrives to work, only to have an explosion rock the mansion. She and Dante rush to Selena's side, but the woman has nearly succumbed to her wounds. Before she dies, though, Selena touches Abby's hand, sending a powerful jolt through her. Afterward, Dante tells Abby that Selena transferred the spirit of the Phoenix to her and that she is now the Chalice, the mystical human vessel that holds it. Also, he's a vampire who was spellbound by witches centuries ago to be the eternal protector of the Chalice. Many demons are out to get the Chalice, so Dante and Abby go on a quest in search of the witches who transferred the Phoenix to Selena all those years ago, in hopes that they might choose another vessel. Along the way, they're chased by demons, zombies, and wizards who are acting as minions of the dark lord, while falling for one another. But when they finally reach their objective and discover that the witches' mission all along was using the power of the Phoenix to cleanse the Earth of all non-human species, Abby will have to find strength within herself to fend them off to save the man she's come to love.

As the hero and heroine, Dante and Abby were reasonably likable characters, but I have to admit that I felt like they were both extremely underdeveloped. Abby came from a dysfunctional family and was abused by her father. This type of background isn't uncommon for human characters who suddenly find themselves thrust into the supernatural world, and I think that's because it give them an out when they must basically disappear from their human lives. However, we learn little to nothing of how Abby's background affects her day-to-day life and relationships. The only thing I could glean is that it taught her how to be strong in the face of adversity, which perhaps helps her in dealing with all the things that happen to her in a very short span of time. Dante is even less developed. He's a centuries old vampire who was somehow captured by the witches and later compelled through spells to become what amounts to a bodyguard for Selena, and now, by extension, Abby. While he's not particularly pleased about having been forced into this role, he doesn't seem to harbor any scars of an emotional nature because of it either. I really can't tell much more about these two characters, because they were both essentially blank slates with very little filled in to make them genuinely interesting or compelling.

Likewise, their romance fell flat for me. When a reader is given so little to go on with the characters themselves, it makes it difficult to connect with them or to feel any sort of budding emotions between them. Dante and Abby share a mutual physical attraction from the opening chapter that's been going on for the time that Abby has been working for Selena. Once they're thrown together as Chalice and protector, going on an adventure to elude all the forces trying to kill them, things start to heat up quickly. By about a third of the way into the book, they've had sex for the first time. Then after about their third time making love, Dante just mates Abby in the heat of the moment. There was no inkling that this was coming, and no real emotional connection I was able to discern. It's something that simply happens out of the blue. I'm used to the whole insta-love, fated-mates trope that often occurs in paranormal romance, but this was really stretching it a lot and just wasn't very believable to me at all.

I also had major issues with the plot and world-building, both of which are pretty thin. After Abby becomes the Chalice, she and Dante immediately decide to start looking for the witches. Along the way, there's some action, as the demons, zombies, and wizards start coming out of the woodwork, trying to kill them. However, the plot mostly meanders with the basic gist of it being run, fight a battle, slow down for a few hours to make love, wash, rinse, repeat for over three hundred pages with slightly different entities becoming the aggressors each time. I honestly didn't really understand the wider world much either. It's mentioned that vampires are humans that have been turned in this mythology, but I kept waiting for an explanation of how that happens and never got one. This seems to be a pretty basic piece of information to have in a paranormal romance that has vampires as main characters. Then there's this nebulous dark lord who seems to be controlling most of the baddies in the book, but I really couldn't say who or what he is. The witches don't seem great right from the start, with them forcing the Phoenix on an innocent girl and likewise forcing Dante to become her bodyguard, but when we get to the end and discover that their endgame is to kill all demonkind, this didn't make a lot of sense to me. Why wait for hundreds of years then? Although I can't quite recall what it was, I think there may have been some single sentence explanation for this that simply didn't hold water for me. There were a lot of things like this throughout the story that l struggled to make sense of, and the greater world of the series failed to coalesce into a compelling narrative for me.

As I mentioned before, Dante and Abby were nice enough characters. I also was slightly intrigued by the supporting characters of Dante's vampire friend, Viper, and the Shalott demon who helps them all. These two are paired together in the next book, Embrace the Darkness. The characters were pretty much the main reason why I didn't mark the rating on this book any lower. However, as I've already discussed there were many aspects of the story that I found lacking. In addition to those I've already mentioned, there was also an overabundance of Dante arching or raising his brow, along with an overuse of the word "husked" to indicate someone talking in a husky voice. I rarely see this word used in this context, but it was generously peppered throughout the story. Also the dialogue could get a bit long-winded at times, but rarely ever imparted any meaningful information on the characters, plot, or wider world. Otherwise the mechanics of the writing were reasonably sound, and the love scenes were decently written. But unfortunately the narrative didn't really grab my attention well at all. I often found my mind wandering while reading and basically was eagerly awaiting the ending, not out of anticipation but out of boredom. That being the case, I doubt I'll continue with the series. I do have a Guardians of Eternity novella in an anthology I'm working on (the main reason I picked up this book to start the series) that I'll probably read to finish off that book, but if it doesn't capture my attention better than this one, I'll likely be moving on to other things.

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Alexandra Ivy

Themes

Bodyguard Heroes
Physically Ordinary Heroines