Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Light Warriors #4

In the Darkest Night

Rate this book
Fleeing from both her dark heritage and the magical council she attempted to steal from, Farran’s greatest fear is to be sent back to the father she has utterly betrayed. Yet when a demon attempts to capture her, Farran knows she cannot stay hidden.  She must find help.

Kel Andrews is a magical troubleshooter with troubles of his own. Recovering from being kidnapped and tortured by darksiders, Kel has been removed from active duty by the magical council. When the mysterious Farran collapses on his doorstep, begging for help, Kel feels compelled to assist her in any way possible.

As danger—both demonic and human—closes in on them from every side, Kel and Farran must learn to trust each other as they battle the monsters that are determined to keep them apart.

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 30, 2010

1 person is currently reading
120 people want to read

About the author

Patti O'Shea

36 books116 followers
Nationally bestselling author Patti O'Shea has won numerous awards for her writing and been nominated for many more. Her books have appeared on the Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, and Borders bestseller lists and have earned starred reviews in prestigious publications such as Booklist.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
18 (26%)
4 stars
23 (33%)
3 stars
17 (24%)
2 stars
9 (13%)
1 star
2 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Laurie Garrison .
727 reviews173 followers
April 21, 2010
This is book 4 in Patti Light Warriors series.

This book really surprised me. This is my first read by Patti O’Shea, I loved it. I loved the magic that’s used plus the use of magic fighting against demons and Shadow walkers. Everything is well devolved, so you get a fantastic storyline and characters. Farran and Kal both have messed up lives lets just say they definitely belong together. They both share their bad past life with each other, so you really get to know both of them, I found it awesome the depth the author takes you into their past lives.
This story has just about everything emotions, adventure, magic, action on top of action and a mystery to find out who Farran really is (It shocked me) It takes along time for the sex to come in, but when it happens look out, its scorching hot!

Spoilers
Farran had a horrible past family life, she even has the scar on her face to prove it. Farran has magic. She can do a few things, but she doest thing she is very powerful, but when someone comes in her work and takes a picture of her scared face to make fun of her, Farrans whole life changes she some how goes back in time and changes the whole situation. The next thing Farran knows is a Demon is tracking her on her way home, he catches up with her and tries to capture her. Farran know she is to weak to take on a demon, but she fights as much as she can until someone steps in and helps he is a Shadow Walker. After the demon and shadow walker battles it out, Farran gets away from both of them, to find help with her friend Logan. Logan is a troubleshooter, but low and behold Logan is not available, so she has to make do with twin brother Kal.

Kal has a tortured past its so bad he cant even sleep with the light off. When Farran drops in his lap he commits to help her with the Demon and shadow walker. Then he find out she or her family may have helped tortured him he wants nothing to do with her. Farran has to convince him she will not betray him, so it takes a while for these two to trust each other.
I have to say Kal is awesome with Farran. As you read about Kal you’ll find he is really messed up, but they way he treats Farran by protecting her, I found myself AWE.
Profile Image for SheLove2Read.
3,114 reviews205 followers
February 7, 2011
This is the 4th book in the Light Warriors series. Although its part of a series, if you haven't read the others you will still be able to follow the path of the series fairly easily, as O'Shea gives you enough background (without rehashing too much for previous readers) to understand the world she's created.

The storyline is fast paced and starts almost from page one. Farran (the heroine) and Kel (the hero) - I love the unusual names! - are both fairly tortured individuals, both coming into the story with substantial emotional, and in Kel's case physical, damage and pain. O'Shea does a great job using each characters "damage" to motivate the other in a way that isn't trite or unbelievable. The dialog is pretty concise. I never felt like I was just reading filler to move the story along, yet it was packed with emotion and feeling. It was easy to read without being too far out or so techy it turned you off. Just the right amount of romance and the pace of their joining made for an entertaining and enjoyable read. Definitely Ms. O'Shea's best work to date!

My only complaint was the cover of the book. I'm very much a cover snob and I just didn't feel like the models represented the characters, especially Kel, and it was distracting to me.

B+ (-1 star for the cover)
Profile Image for Kelley.
300 reviews24 followers
May 11, 2010
Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Farran lives a life of fear after barely escaping the cruelty of her Tàireil family with her life. She also hides from the enemies of her kind, the Gineal, in fear of the reprisal they will take for her role in the near death of their Dragon Mage (see Edge of Dawn). As if that wasn’t enough, she also has a demon hunting her and a strange new enemy she has never known before. The only chance she has of survival is to throw herself upon the mercy of her former best friend, Shona’s, trouble shooter husband Logan. What Farran gets is Logan’s twin Kel, a Gineal man battling with his own personal nightmares.

Kel Andrews is in agony. He is suffering severe PTSD (post traumatic stress syndrome) after being imprisoned and brutally tortured by the Tàireil. He experiences horrific nightmares almost daily that are slowly destroying him. When he shows up at his brother’s house in search of some peace, he finds Farran, one of the Tàireil, desperately seeking protection. Kel reluctantly agrees to help her, especially when he discovers the odd calming effect she has on his suffering.

Soon Kel and Farran find themselves caught in a battle between various enemies wanting Farran and Kel dead. As they race against time to find a way to defeat their previously unknown enemies, they find healing with each other. But is the growing love between them enough to slay their worst demons, In the Darkest Night?

I had been really looking forward to reading Kel’s story, especially since I knew from the end of Edge of Dawn that Farran would be his mate. I have had many instances over my years of reading when I fell in love with a secondary character or two, but the deep pain Kel and Farran were fighting touched me deeply and I wanted so much for them to find their own happiness. Here in In the Darkest Night, we have their story! Kel and Farran desperately need each other, even more than they realize. Yet they are absolutely terrified at what would happen when they gave their hearts and souls to one another. Both have been through severely abusive circumstances, different though they may have been, and this has changed them at their very cores. Watching them slowly come together, only to have something push them apart before they could come back to one another makes for an incredibly beautiful story.

In the Darkest Night is the perfect title for this novel as it speaks to so much of what we find between the covers. Both Kel and Farran are at very dark places in their minds and they need each other to provide the light to break through. This book is very gritty, really reaching deep into those bleak places in our couple’s souls. There are some explicit torture scenes we see through Kel’s nightmares, discovering just what he went through during his imprisonment. Patti never crosses the line into unacceptable range, and she never uses these scenes except when necessary for us to really understand how much Kel suffered. She also balances it out by providing many light moments as well.

I was especially intrigued by our new mystery characters of In the Darkest Night. I don’t want to go into any detail to spoil the story for anyone, but these new beings are quite fascinating. I had a few different ideas of who and what they were. Let’s just say, I was spot on in a few of my guesses, and way off the mark on a few others. Yet this only added to my enjoyment of the story as I tried to solve that little mystery.

One thing is absolutely certain after finishing In the Darkest Night. Patti O’Shea is at the top of her game and there’s no telling where she will take us next on this adventure with the Light Warriors. I look forward to seeing what will come in the next book.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, May 2010. All rights reserved.
Profile Image for Paranormal Romance.
1,318 reviews46 followers
July 22, 2025
The heroine is burning the wick at both ends. Not only has she to deal with the abusive childhood and outcast from her people, but she's horrible scarred AND now she's being targets but unknown but power beings.

In her desperation, she seeks out the help of a woman who was once her friend but she instead finds the hero. He is beyond traumatized by his imprisonment and torture and racked with bone deep chilling guilt over what he did. He doesn't trust anyone, certainly not a woman who's supposed to be his enemy. But he's her only hope for survival and the fact that when she's around he feels something other than pain makes him take on the job as bodyguard. But they're battling an enemy he knows nothing about and she's weak-a burden to him when it comes to battle. But he feels such a possessive need to keep her safe that he'll do anything to battle the demon and shadow walkers determined to destroy her.

The hero and heroine were the perfect match for each other because they trying were just as damaged and fucked up by life as the other. It was hard to choose the more tortured soul between the two but it had to be the hero. The vivid and gruesome flashbacks of his ordeal were slowly driving him crazy. He couldn't sleep, he was terrified of the dark so he kept every single light on in his house. And worse of all, he couldn't talk about it to anyone. It took a lot to make him finally open up to the heroine and it took such trust in her to speak about his guilt.

They found a kinship with each other that was life saving-for both of them. Sure the hero was the hammer-the warrior. But the heroine soothed him.

I really enjoyed this book but I did have a few issues. First off was the very simple plot line. It got stuck in this repetitive routine of going to the cabin-talking. Going to the library-talking. Getting attacked outside the library and going back to the cabin again. It went on and on in this same fashion for the entire book and I got a little bored. BUT, the characters really saved it for me. You could truly relate with them and feel their pain. Plus the sex scenes were hot. Over all this wasn't the home run I remembered it being but it was still very worthy of the 4 star.
Profile Image for Steven Cole.
299 reviews11 followers
September 20, 2011
So, first things first: I received this book as part of the Goodreads First-Reads program, which sends out free books to readers hoping for them to post glowing reviews on the various book-reader web sites.

But here’s the truth: I really didn’t like this book much. Granted, paranormal romance isn’t a genre that I’ve spent any time with, but I do like paranormal and urban fantasy stories, so this really wasn’t a huge stretch for me. No, the real problem with this book was a pair of characters who could most accurately be described as “losers” for most of the narrative. The first protagonist is a woman who constantly goes on about how weak and helpless she is, whining about issues she’s too wound up about to actually enunciate. The second protagonist is a protector type with a deep and dark background he doesn’t want to talk about, either. In other words, a pair of people that are impossible to feel any empathy toward.

There was a time in the late 90s when I watched a lot of “date” movies with British actors who had an inability to communicate, and I walked out of every single one of those completely frustrated with characters who couldn’t TALK to one another. This book might not have British actors, but damn, it’s sure full of people who can’t talk.

So if I didn’t like the characters, I could hope for a fun setting, right? Well, no. Not here. This book takes place in essentially two places. If there’s any world here, with any other people around, the author sure left that information in her notes, because it didn’t make it into the novel.

Was there any good at all then? Well, the last quarter of the book moves more from “romance” to “paranormal,” and that was a lot more interesting. (Though “paranormal” is wrong. This is urban fantasy, only without a good urban setting.) The fantasy elements are reasonably well thought out, and might be an interesting thing to explore—with a different set of characters and setting all together.

2 of 5 stars.
Profile Image for Jacqueline J.
3,566 reviews370 followers
December 28, 2012
This was a 5+ star read for me. It had lots of things that makes me happy in a book. Lots of gut wrenching pathos for example. Sometimes I just get into that stuff. I don't always enjoy a heroine who is unsure of herself but she was well written. She was the type that felt unlovable because of the way her family had treated her growing up and her insecurities just added to the angsty pathos. The hero wins the award for the most messed up super tortured hero I've read in years. But he still managed to fall in love with the heroine and be super protective of her. I enjoyed the way the magic was set up and the different dimensions the people came from etc.

There were obviously books that came before this in a series but I wasn't lost. There were enough references that I caught the gist of what was going on easily enough. No info dumping to catch me up which I appreciated since I'm not dumb. This story stood well on its own. It focused pretty closely on the hero and heroine and their relationship. These were two messed up people who found each other and were stronger together.

The mystery of why the heroine was being attacked was the outside conflict and there was plenty of trying to solve the riddle and plenty of action scenes where the hero was fighting to defend the heroine. She grew during the course of the book, both in confidence that she was worth loving and in how to use her weak magic powers to best effect. The hero desperately needed the heroine's love. You got the feeling that his sanity wouldn't have lasted much longer had he not met her.

Loved it.

Profile Image for Darcy.
14.5k reviews542 followers
July 29, 2011
It is amazing how screwed up both Kel and Farran are, so much so that they are perfect for each other. Farran is on the run from her family who has treated her like a piece of crap and have even physically harmed her. She turns to the one place she hopes where she can find help. Unfortunately the people she was looking for weren't there and she was forced to ask Kel for help.

Struggling to put his demons behind him, Kel impulsively decides to help her, when all hell breaks loose seconds after forcing Farran to accept his help.

Forced into close quarters they had to be brutally honest with each other. It didn't happen at first, but the longer they spend time together the barriers break down and it isn't long before they are lovers as well as allies.

It is only once they can confront the problems that are behind their issues that they are able to get out of trouble and be happy.
Profile Image for Imjstgr8.
279 reviews2 followers
March 1, 2011
So I started this book out confused and ended the book confused. Halfway through it I realized that this had to be the second book in the series (found out that it's the 4th). I enjoyed the story line however it referred back to the prior book so much. The author assumes that the reader has read the other books, however there is nothing on the cover to suggest that its part of a series. I did get the concept of what happened previously but not enough to make me want to go back and read the other books. However the story in itself was non-stop entertainment and it had its hot moments. Once you get past the prior references and some of the verbiage, you will enjoy a good book.
Profile Image for Tracy.
584 reviews13 followers
March 25, 2015
Ugh, what extremely crappy writing. Stopped after 14 pages because I couldn't envision forcing myself through any more of this utter crap. Author's style is juvenile, unpolished, and lacking any truly descriptive prose or character development. Lots of telling rather than showing.

Plus, because this novel is evidently part of a series, references were made to things that the author assumes the reader is already familiar with, like "Taireal" (which, if I had to guess, is some kind of magical race of people from, um . . . another dimension??) and "Gineal" (which, again, I sort of gathered to be magical law enforcement or something).

In any event, this book is not for me.
Profile Image for Tamera.
477 reviews1 follower
February 17, 2016
I enjoyed this novel, and thought it was an interesting entry in the paranormal genre. Both Farrin and Kel have somewhat tortured pasts (family abuse with Farrin and tortured captive for Kel), but I didn't feel like it was overly drawn out. The novel stood alone, although I am a little interested in some of the other books in this series. This is the first O'Shea book I read, and I will definatley give her other paranormals a try (especially intrigued by the book in the crimson series). So, if you enjoy paranormal romances, give Patti a try. If you are a reader of urban fantasy and sci fi... this is not going to work for you.
Profile Image for JPerceval.
437 reviews20 followers
February 26, 2010
If I've not said before how much I love Ms. O'Shea's Light Warriors series, well, it can't be said enough: I love the Light Warriors series. In a market saturated with vampires and were-beasties, Ms. O'Shea's world of magic-users who eat solid food and don't turn furry is a wonderful breath of fresh air. And the fact that she follows up a great concept with solid plotting and sympathetic characters doesn't hurt either. In the Darkest Night is no exception.

Read full review here.
Profile Image for Brandy.
172 reviews5 followers
Read
February 16, 2011
I really enjoyed this book. Kel and Farran seem like total opposites, but the longer they are together the more you realize that they are ment for each other and it just takes them getting over some of their personal demons to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think this book is one of the Best of 2010. I can't wait to read more of Patti O'Shea's books. If you like action, love, sexual situations, magic and fantasy then this is for you.
Profile Image for Melissa.
76 reviews1 follower
March 23, 2013
I have read all of Patti O'Shea's books and scored an advance copy of this one. It is without doubt her finest writing to date. Her characters have always been strong and compelling, but the emotion in this book is riveting. Both protagonists are deeply scarred physically and emotionally, and O'Shea holds nothing back. An outstanding read.
Profile Image for Hildie McQueen.
Author 179 books830 followers
April 8, 2011
I enjoyed the chemistry between the Hero and Heroine. The story was good, I wish they would have went to more places, but other than they staying in pretty much two places, I enjoyed the story. I recommend it. I have not read the other books in the series, but I might just do it now.
Profile Image for Annette Clair.
50 reviews4 followers
March 22, 2010
This has become my all time favorite (to date) of Patti's. Amazing story, really really loved it.
Profile Image for Mari.
1,682 reviews26 followers
July 10, 2010
An okay book, but nothing fresh. I am tired of the lists too. Check, fiery spirit. Check, stubborn as heck. Check, hella sexy. Yawn
Profile Image for Cathy.
314 reviews28 followers
July 16, 2010
Excellent, different and I couldn't put it down. Can't wait for more from Patti O'Shea
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.