Thea Harrison – Rising Darkness

The first book in the Game of Shadow series, published April 2, 2013.
Genre: urban fantasy
Cover: compelling



USA Today bestselling author Thea Harrison begins an all-new, darkly romantic paranormal saga, in which the fate of existence itself lies in the balance - and the key to victory may rest in the hands of two eternal lovers...
In the hospital ER where she works, Mary is used to chaos. But lately, every aspect of her life seems adrift. She's feeling disconnected from herself. Voices appear in her head. And the vivid, disturbing dreams she's had all her life are becoming more intense. Then she meets Michael. He's handsome, enigmatic and knows more than he can say. In his company, she slowly remembers the truth about herself...
Thousands of years ago, there were eight of them. The one called the Deceiver came to destroy the world, and the other seven followed to stop him. Reincarnated over and over, they carry on - and Mary finds herself drawn into the battle once again. And the more she learns, the more she realizes that Michael will go to any lengths to destroy the Deceiver.
Then she remembers who killed her during her last life, nine hundred years ago...Michael.


I do love Thea Harrison’s Elder Races series, so when I found out she had written a new series, I pre ordered it sight unseen. But a few days ago I read the book, and I still don’t know if I like it or not.

The story is certainly well written and original, but I have a hard time liking the main characters. I am not a big fan of the name Mary to begin with, and she is not someone I can relate to at all. And so her story is distant to me. She feels herself incomplete, like she is missing something. She is a good doctor apparently, but she has no friends or close family, she is a loner. She doubts her own sanity because of her very vivid dreams. And when something really strange happens while she is out running, she discounts it totally, doesn’t even take a closer look.
And then there is Michael (this is a name I do like), but he is portrayed as a psychopath waiting to happen, he is a trained warrior and filled with rage. They are both missing their Soulmates, and now that they have found each other, everything should just be fine with them. They have suddenly real feelings, can understand them.
Then there is Asia, who is kind of their leader, but she is cold and untrusting and distant. I can’t get a feel for dynamics, for a team fighting evil here. And that is what they are supposed to do, fight the ultimate evil, who has escaped from their planet millennia ago. They started out with 7 warriors, and only 3 of them are left.

Of course there are some scenes I loved, but there is a lot of violence and death, and indeed, evil in this book. At one hand, Mary is accepting of what is happening and at other times, she totally ignores the miracles that happen and tries to explain them away.

I will read the second book, as I thing her Elder Races books are also improving with each book, but for now, I am not a fan of this story.

6 stars.

© 2013 Reviews by Aurian