The Darkest Day by Britt Bury (Immortal Heat #1)
Paranormal Romance
July 3, 2012
Forever

Reviewed by Mandi

Favorite Quote: “I do no’ need you anyhow.”

“Oh no?” She looked down his body. “That thing tenting your pants just called you a liar.”

The Darkest Day is the start of a new paranormal series I’m pretty excited about. My initial thought while reading is how it has a Kresley Cole vibe to it. I like to call it, ‘Immortals After Dark – Lite.’ Not quite as violent, not quite as witty, but the world and characters remind me of Cole. There is a ‘Court of Contention’ that happens every 400 years allowing the four realms to open up and chaos and war ensue (sounds like Cole’s Accession). The females are sassy and the males are very alpha, broody and overprotective. The witch’s name is Ryo the Righteous and she can see into the future, but is a little crazy herself (Nix anyone?) But I also feel like this author definitely has a voice of her own.

The Campbell bloodline (who are a breed of Fionns, possessing magical traits) are full of warriors and have always produced male offspring. That is until Izel comes along. The last of the bloodline, Izel knows she has the gift of persuasion within her body, but she can’t figure out how to call it forth. A simple poet, she feels weaker than her relatives but not any more stubborn. Izel sets out to find her grandfather to get answers but instead runs into Kelvin Kerr, the Campbell family’s most hated enemy. The Campbell’s killed Kelvin’s father long, long ago, and Kelvin has made it his mission to wipe out all Campbell blood.

Kelvin is a Pookah, more specifically a razorback Pookha. He doesn’t shift, but at night and on the solstice, his animal instincts take over. Kelvin is about to kill Izel but learns two things by sniffing her out. One, she is very much a human (and humans are totally extinct in this world, which now baffles Kelvin). And two, she could possibly be Kelvin’s mate, which just throws a wrench into his revenge plans. So his new plan is to drag her back to his castle where his brother is residing to figure this all out. Pookah’s only have one mate, and they won’t know for sure it is them they sleep with them on the winter solstice. Izel is not amused but she also feels like Kelvin could maybe lead her to people that know more about where her grandfather is. Plus there is this almost immediate attraction between them that unfolds very nicely.

While The Darkest Day is a paranormal – there are immortals and magic, it has a very strong highlander feel to it. Kelvin has a heavy scottish accent that I love so much. He is so alpha and controlling, yet so warm and lovable. He is the huge, scary hero that you just want to hug. The author does a nice job with making him very sexy too. I really think the readers will like him a lot. Izel too is a nice heroine. She fights him and fights him, and I love that she tries to be as independent as possible around this oafish man. She has sass to her and really goes through a lot in the book as she learns who she is.

There is a lot of action in this book and we meet some supporting characters, Kelvin’s brother Ian and their witch Ryo who add a lot to this story. While I’m glad the author doesn’t do a huge info dump on the world, I do feel like we only learn a tiny, tiny piece of it. I wish we could have grasped the world a little better. I received my advanced copy off of NetGalley, so I don’t know what format the final version will be in but please note – there is a very nice glossary of terms that showed up at the very end of my book (Kindle version). It would have been helpful to know it was there as I was reading. I also think the first half of this book is slow, and it took me a bit to get into it. Once we got going though, I enjoyed myself.

Rating: B

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