ARC Review: When Darkness Hungers by J.K. Beck

Alexis is out to avenge her sister’s death.  A former FBI agent, she won’t stop till she drives a stake into the monster who took Tori from this world.  Until then, she fights, hunting the monsters and eliminating them one at a time.

Serge has walked the earth for two thousand years.  He’s tired of the daemon within.  The daemon is blood thirsty and thrives on violence and the fear in others.  Cursed, he now has another beast inside him to contend with.  The beast doesn’t need blood to survive, it needs a life force.  Refusing to give in to either and slaughter innocents, Serge now has become a different kind of monster.  Once he stalked humans.  Now, he hunts his own kind.

Alexis and Serge cross paths as they both fight to rid the night of the monsters that thrive off it.  Injured, Alexis has no choice but to take blood from Serge to heal.  She used to be repulsed by vampires.  Now, Serge fills her mind with erotic desires.

When Darkness Hungers is like the grown up version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.  Alexis outfitted with stakes and crossbows hunts down vampires, hoping to one day get the one who murdered her sister.  Serge hates what the daemon in him makes him do.  He battles himself constantly to suppress it.  Now with the beast he can feed in a different way.  He hunts the vampires who have gone rogue.  The ones who kill for the simple pleasures of it.  The ones who were once like him.

I’m really on the fence with this one.  The story was full of action and gore.  The romance aspect though seemed rushed.  Serge and Alexis didn’t finally meet until the book was well in play.  Once they got romantic it was absolutely hot of course, but it felt out of sync.  The storyline took on a new dynamic.  It went from action to romance.  It just didn’t flow well for me.  Plus, part of it was hard to believe.  Alexis has spent her last few years hating vampires.  Yet, after two encounters with Serge she finds herself not only attracted to him, but falling in love as well.  I can accept the attraction and desire, but love?

I will say though that when they are romantically entwined it’s sweet to see a softer, vulnerable side of both her and Serge.  Somehow Alexis is able to soothe the monsters inside him.  The need for blood and destruction is subdued around her.  Serge feels maybe he has finally earned redemption.  But, when the truth is discovered he feels it’s his own private hell instead.

When Darkness Hungers is part of The Shadow Keepers series.  It can be read as a stand alone book.  I had no problems keeping up with the storyline or previous characters.