This is the sixth book in the Darkyn series.
At first glance, one would think that Liling Harper was just a quiet, unassuming gardener. She loves her flowers and plants, she loves soothing the patients at the nursing home where she works and she has a secret crush on the owner of the facility, Valentin Jaus.
Valentin visits the care facility to visit Luisa Lopez. A special patient there who is of importance to Alex Keller. While there Valentin runs into Liling and becomes intrigued by her. Unbeknownst to the both of them, Valentin's interest in Liling sets of a chain of events that reveals Liling to be something more than just a simple gardener.
The two of them are forced to together during an assassination attempt on Liling. As they work to survive, the give in to a growing attraction. Jaus learns that he can love someone other and Jema Shaw.
Meanwhile John Keller has uncovered some information about the Brethren. He learns that they have facilities where they were conducting experiments on children and then placing them with adoptive families. Alex has very little memory of her life before she and John were adopted by the Kellers. But John believes they had been in one of the facilities.
I really, really enjoy this this book and this series for several reasons:
1) The author had a plan when she sat down to write it. Now, I don't know this 100% for sure, but six books in and it simply does not feel like the author is just throwing things in to fit the plot. Anyone who reads series, knows what I am talking about. You're bumping along, reading the series and when you get to book four,five,six and you're like 'But...but...wait. Where did that come from? Who is this person?'. I never get that feeling in this series. Six books later, she is still building on stuff revealed in the first and second books.
In the back of my mind I wondered why Alex, Sam, Nic, Jema and now Liling were able to be turned into Darkyn so easily when it had been clearly stated that no Humans had been turned to Darkyn for hundreds of years. Now suddenly these women in the course of months have been turned? Also, each woman had a supernormal talent before they were Darkyn. Reading paranormal romances sometimes inures you to the fantastic. Your suspension of disbelief is such that you automatically think "okay, this is possible in the context of this world." So I had completely glossed over that aspect of these characters. But those ability were important clues about these seemingly disparate women. Alex's "speedy fingers", Sam's ability to read blood, Nic's ability to find things and Liling's control of fire, are all important. When I got to this part it completely blew my mind and a lot of things started to tumble together. So yeah, this author had a plan.
2) Rich in detail and plot. Like all the other Darkyn books, this one is not door stopper big. It comes in at about 300 pages. But while you are reading, you feel like you've just read a 500 page book. So much story, so much plot, so much information is put into this one book. And she manages to pack plot without sacrificing character. In just a few words we catch up with old characters and still get a sense of what they are about. Nic and Gabriel are still traveling Europe and not necessarily wanting to be around Darkyn right now. Jayr is thriving in her role as suzerain. John Keller is an outright, absolute mess. Alex and Michael are still the heart and center of it all. Jaus was still suffering from his loss of Jema to Thierry and so on.
3) Diversity of characters. At first I wasn't so thrilled with Liling. She seemed to passive, too sweet, too boring. I groaned with dismay. I didn't want Jaus to settle for some little dab of a girl. But then three chapters later and Liling was revealed. Not the little dab. And, like Alex, she had a problematic brother. Liling, her brother, her brother's traveling companion (now that was a revelation!) are all great additions to the Darkyn character pantheon. It is nice to see such a cross section of character and types. Alex and John are biracial, Liling is Asian, in Evermore we had a gay Darkyn couple.
4) Sexy. Each successive book has gotten a little more sexy. Jayr and Mac Byrne in Evermore were hot. But Lililng and Jaus are simply smokin'! There is a nice little like D/s going on with Jaus and Lili. I get the impression that Jaus had these Dom tendencies all along but was seriously suppressing them for Jema. Now Lili is all "make me submit" and Jaus' is all "hells yeah!" makes for some nice hot passages.
And finally, like Dark Need, this book ends on a humdinger of a cliff hanger. So of course I am biting my nails waiting fo the next (and last *sob*) book of the series.
I highly recommend!