THE DARKEST TORMENT (Lords of the Underworld) by Gena Showalter
Publication Date: May 31, 2016 (Hardback/ eBook)
Mass Market Paperback Releasing November 22, 2016
New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter returns with her most explosive Lords of the Underworld tale to date, about a fierce warrior on the brink of sanity who will stop at nothing to claim the exquisite human with the power to soothe the beast inside him…
Driven to his death by the demon of Distrust, Baden spent centuries in purgatory. Now he’s back, but at what cost? Bound to the king of the underworld, an even darker force, he’s unable to withstand the touch of another…and he’s quickly devolving into a heartless assassin with an uncontrollable temper. Things only get worse when a mission goes awry and he finds himself saddled with a bride—just not his own.
Famed dog trainer Katarina Joelle is forced to marry a monster to protect her loved ones. When she’s taken hostage by the ruthless, beautiful Baden immediately after the ceremony, she’s plunged into a war between two evils—with a protector more dangerous than the monsters he hunts. They are meant to be enemies, but neither can resist the passion burning between them…and all too soon the biggest threat is to her heart.
But as Baden slips deeper into the abyss, she’ll have to teach him to love…or lose him forever.
Includes Q&A featuring J. R. Ward, Jeaniene Frost, Nalini Singh and more!
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“—friends are looking for you,” an unfamiliar voice said, breaking into her awareness. It belonged to a male. Was deep and raspy, with the same cocky and perpetually amused timbre as William. “I think they want your head on a platter.”
“Thanks to you, Baden brought trouble to Buda,” William replied, utterly unconcerned by the threat. “Gillian needs peace and quiet right now.”
“I told you not to befriend her. She’s human.”
“And I told you to go fuck yourself. More than once!”
“Is that any way to speak to your dear father?”
“Adopted father,” William grumbled. “And I’m tempted to say worse. Let’s take this conversation outside.”
So. He was speaking with Hades, she realized, sweat beading on her brow. The bad boy of the underworld. And that was saying something!
William didn’t know it, but Hades had appeared to her one night. He’d warned her: Stay away from my son. You aren’t the one for him. Don’t make me prove it.
He’d scared her, but she hadn’t heeded him. William was too important to her.
“Not being blood related to me is an embarrassing secret you’d do well to hide,” Hades remarked now.
Gillian cracked open her eyes…caught sight of two towering shadows on the balcony.
“She’s deathly ill. She’s going to die if you fail to make her immortal,” William snapped. “So, make her immortal.”
“I have the power to change her, yes. But in her condition, she’ll die before she’s turned.”
“Then you’re useless to me. Leave.”
“Tsk-tsk. So rude. You might want to be nice to me, my son. I’m the only thing standing between you and scores of angry husbands you’ve cuckolded over the centuries.”
“As if a legion of them would be any match for me.”
“True. I trained you well. But the girl…they’d hurt her without a qualm.”
William unleashed a storm of curses. “Anyone touches her, and I’ll spend the rest of eternity ensuring they and everyone they love suffer unending torments.”
“What’s so special about her?” Hades asked.
Yes, Liam. What’s so special about me? She’d always wondered.
“I’m not discussing her with you.”
“I’m discussing her with you, then. You can’t be with her. You can’t be with anyone. You know as well as I that your happiness walks hand-in-hand with your doom.”
Gillian had heard a little about William’s doom. Aka, his curse. The woman he loved was destined to destroy him.
Did Gillian believe in curses? Yes and no. She’d lived with demon-possessed immortals for three years now. She’d seen things. Supernatural things. Wild things. Impossible things. But curses…good luck versus bad luck? No. Bad things happened because bad decisions were made. End of story.
“I’m searching for a way to break—” William began.
“You’ve been searching,” Hades interjected. “For centuries.”
“My book—”
“Is nonsense. A trick to make you hope for what can never be so that your demise will be that much sweeter. If the book could be decoded, it would have been decoded by now.”
Another tense pause. Then William spat, “Did you come here to piss me off?”
“Pissing you off is a bonus. I came to warn you.”
“Well, you’ve done both.”
“No, son, I haven’t.” Hades’s voice hardened. “The warning is this: if I think you’re falling for the girl, I’ll kill her myself.”
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I loved it! Baden is my new favorite Lord! I think I say that after each book but I can’t help it. Baden and Katarina’s book was so much fun. I just loved them together. Katarina is a dog trainer so we got dogs in this release which made me happy. I was hoping for William’s book, but we get a lot of William and Gilly in this book. Baden’s story needed to come before William and Gilly’s book. The Darkest Torment took the series storyline in new directions and I can’t wait for the next release to see what Gena Showalter has in store for us next. The Lords of the Underworld series is one of my favorites and never gets old. It’s exciting and action packed, with sexy immortals and hot romance. I love the entire series and highly recommend it for paranormal romance lovers.
*Review copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Amazon Series link: http://amzn.to/1LB5575
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Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of the spellbinding Lords of the Underworld and Angels of the Dark series, two young adult series–Everlife and the White Rabbit Chronicles–and the highly addictive Original Heartbreakers series. In addition to being a National Reader’s Choice and two time RITA nominee, her romance novels have appeared in Cosmopolitan (Red Hot Read) and Seventeen magazine, she’s appeared on Nightline and been mentioned in Orange is the New Black–if you ask her about it, she’ll talk for hours…hours! Her books have been translated in multiple languages.
She’s hard at work on her next novel, a tale featuring an alpha male with a dark side and the strong woman who brings him to his knees. You can learn more about Gena, her menagerie of rescue dogs, and all her upcoming books at genashowalter.com or Facebook.com/genashowalterfan
Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of the spellbinding 
Reading in Pajamas 