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    When Darkness Comes
    When Darkness Comes
    When Darkness Comes
    Audiobook9 hours

    When Darkness Comes

    Written by Alexandra Ivy

    Narrated by Arika Rapson

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    It's been a hell of a day for Abby Barlow. In just a few hours, she's survived an explosion, watched her employer die, had a startling dream, and now she finds herself in a seedy Chicago hotel with the sexy, unearthly Dante, a man she both desires and fears.

    For three hundred and forty-one years, Dante has stood as guardian to The Chalice, a mortal woman chosen to hold back the darkness. A terrible twist of fate has now made Abby that woman. Three hours ago, Dante would have used all his charms to seduce her. Now she is his to protect. And he will do so until his very death.

    A terrifying plan has been set in motion, one that will plunge Dante and Abby into an epic battle between good and evil-and a desperate race to save their love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 3, 2013
    ISBN9781452683669
    Author

    Alexandra Ivy

    Alexandra Ivy graduated from Truman University with a degree in theatre before deciding she preferred to bring her characters to life on paper rather than stage. She started her career writing traditional regencies before moving into the world of paranormal with her USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times bestselling series The Guardians of Eternity. Now she writes a wide variety of genres that include paranormal, erotica, and romantic suspense.

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    Reviews for When Darkness Comes

    4/5

    22 ratings13 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I have the audio version of this book. I enjoyed Dante and Abby's love story. The back story of witches, demons, and a phoenix makes for an intriguing storyline. The sex scenes are tame and the violence is mildly descriptive.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Kind of refreshing to be reading paranormal romance again, since I've been dipping my toe so much on the contemporary romance pool.

      Good start to a series. Solid. Abby was extremely likable and identifiable, if you discount the in love with a vampire thing. Same for Dante. Good banter and some sexy times. pretty good plot too.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I have the audio version of this book. I enjoyed Dante and Abby's love story. The back story of witches, demons, and a phoenix makes for an intriguing storyline. The sex scenes are tame and the violence is mildly descriptive.
    • 3/5
      This was a very strange book. It should have had everything to make it great - an interesting and almost new idea, a decent heroine and vampire hero, and some quick and sassay dialogue. The thing is, it totally failed to work. It failed for me and also for a friend I spoke to about it, so I know it wasn't me alone.When I was reading it it felt like an okay read, but when I put it down, I really didn't care if I picked it up again. I finished it more out of determination than any great need to finish the story.However, I have no idea why it failed. There was nothing I could put my finger on. It just did. Which makes this review pretty much useful and unhelpful, but I'm afraid I can't me any clearer. I also don't feel the need to waste any more time on it trying to figure out the why of its failure.
    • 2/5
      Loved the story. But the voice reading didn't sound right for the story.
    • 4/5
      I wanted to try to get a review in real quick before I head off to work. So this will be a bit shorter than normal. I have of late been on the hunt for some good vampire romances lately, its been the type of trope I have been in the mood for. And when I saw a review for the most recent book in this series, I realized I hadn’t read this one yet…and that I needed to get a head start on it. So I grabbed it on B&N and started reading…and wowzers I was very impressed with the story. Now it’s not a J.R. Ward or Kresley Cole type romance…its fun and silly at times, romantic and sweet, dangerous and suspenseful and packed with a mystery that kept me guessing. The heat in the book I would consider “Warm” just because it’s not the primary focus of the story (which is refreshing)…I loved seeing more than just sex in a vampire romance…that there is substance and realism to the relationship. Or maybe just lately the paranormals I have been reading there is way more sex than story and it has just been too much since I like a good story and then great sex to make the story fabulous. What i found most endearing about this story was the charm and plot twists, at times it was predictable but others it blew me away and I kept thinking “I totally didn’t see that coming” and it surprsied me in moments that I was overwhelmed but in a positive way. I can hardly wait to get my hands on the second book…bring it on Alexandra Ivy!!
    • 3/5
      When Darkness Comes
      3.5 Stars

      The world building, plot and characters have incredible potential but the book falls short of living up to it.

      Numerous intriguing elements are introduced - vampires, witches, zombies, the Dark Prince, the Chalice, the Phoenix, etc. Unfortunately, none of these is sufficiently developed and the reader is left with gaping holes in the world building and characterization. This is the first book in a series with 15 books so far, so it is possible that explanations will be forthcoming - I certainly hope so.

      The romance fares better as the hero, Dante, is simply scrumptious and Abby is sweet and feisty. Their dialogue is one of the highlights of the book and their smexy scenes are steamy. Nevertheless, Abby’s stubbornness often leads her into TSTL territory; she is too accepting of all the supernatural events going on around her, and her transition from distrusting Dante to loving him is too rapid.

      The villains belong to the typical megalomaniac class and are efficiently dealt with. However, there is a flaw in the internal consistency of the plot here when the author seems to lose interest in her primary villain and shifts focus to a new adversary who only makes an appearance in the last 1/4 of the book with absolutely no prior development. This dilutes the build up of tension and results in a lackluster climax.

      In sum, the story is enjoyable overall and the hero of the next book is enough of a draw to continue with the series.
    • 4/5
      This was a re-read along with the audio. I must say I didn't enjoy it as much as I did in 2016. Probably because I've become such a fluent reader. I'm not going to pick it apart here. I'll save that for my Goodreads and Amazon Review.
    • 5/5
      This is the first book in the Guardians of Eternity series. It stars Abby Barlow who finds herself in the middle of an urban fantasy world when her employer is murdered by wizards and her employer's power is transferred to Abby. Her employer had Dante, a vampire, bound to her by witches. When the employer dies, the bond switches to Abby.Abby is a survivor. She was both abused and neglected as a child and has grown up to be tough and self-sufficient. She isn't very trusting and is baffled when dumped into a world with vampires, demons, witches and wizards. Luckily, Dante is there to protect her. Dante has had more than 400 years as a vampire. Quite a few of them were spent bound to an employer he was forced to guard and who couldn't be fed from. He was eager to be free when she died and not interested in being bound to Abby at first. Abby had developed quite an interest in Dante while she was working for her employer and Dante more than returned the interest. While they are on the run, their attraction blooms into love and includes quite a few hot love scenes. I really liked Abby's quirky voice. The story was fast-paced and engaging. Between Abby's need to come to terms with her new role and attempts by various villains to either kill or capture both her and Dante, the action was non-stop. The book was narrated by Arika Rapson who did a good job with both the voices and the pacing of the story.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book in the Guardians of Eternity Series by Alexandra Ivy. The book is about a Girl named Abby Barlow who works for a reclusive woman named Selena. Dante works as a guardian for Selena. Unknown to Abby, Dante is a Vampire. After an explosion in the mansion where Selena lives the story really starts to begin. Without giving too much away, Abby's life changes completely in that instant. It had an excellent plot, was full of surprises, and I fell in love with Dante, Abby, and Viper. It was a great action packed read. There was some romance and sex, but iI don't think it was too much.The only unkind thing I want to add is that you do get tired of hearing how hansome Dante is and how beautiful his eyes are and how much she wants to have sex with him. That brings the rating down for me. It gets a bit tiresome reading that in every chapter.
    • 5/5
      When Darkness Comes is the first book in a new paranormal romance series called the Guardians of Eternity by author Alexandra Ivy. When Darkness Comes is set in Chicago and includes demons, evil wizards, witches, and vampires. This story is about Abby, who inherits the power of Phoenix (a good creation keeping the Prince of Darkness at bay), when her employer dies. Dante, the protector (or beast as referred to in the story), is a vampire and magically chained to that power to protect the Phoenix, also call The Chalice. For most of the story it centers around the growing attraction between Abby and Dante and conflicts to include the dangers that Abby and Dante face in the form of zombies, demons and the acolytes of evil while trying to find the witches and have the Phoenix removed from Abby.I again, was looking for a new paranormal series and found that this definitely fit the bill for it. I feel as though Alexandra Ivy did a phenomenal job at making the characters likeable and the plot entertaining, not to mention the hilarious back-and-forth between Dante and Abby with her stubborn ways and his arrogance attitude. When Darkness Comes is a hugely enjoyable read and a strong start to the Guardians of Eternity series, it has everything a vampire romance fan could ask for - sexy vampires and hot romance. I am looking forward to the next book in the series, Embrace the Darkness, which hopefully is the story of the cunningly wicked Viper.
    • 4/5
      Abby Barlow has been working as a maid for Selena for only a short time when she is killed by an explosion. During this time she also met Dante, a vampire, who was chained by invisable chains to Selena by a coven of witches, as Selena is a mortal who is The Chalice as she carries the spirit of the Phoenix within her. The Phoenix is a spirit who can keep the dark lord at bay. At Selena's death the spirt transfers to Abby and things get interesting from there.Dante and Abby have to fight demons, wizards and witches to save the day and of course they fall in love along the way.This is the first in a series of 7 called "Guardians of Eternity". It was good read.
    • 3/5
      Abby Barlow has unknowingly become The Chalice, a host body for The Phoenix, the Goddess designed to keep the Prince of Darkness and his minions at bay. Dante is a 341 year old vampire who's been bound by ritual to protect The Chalice from all the demons and minions now hunting her. With the death of the current Chalice, and it's transference into Abby, they're now running for their lives from the demons that hunt the Chalice, in the hopes of bringing the Prince of Darkness back into our realm.This book struck me from the beginning because the main character's last name is very similar to mine, and then on the very first page of the Prologue, the Duke of Granville is mentioned, and Granville is my Dad's middle name, taken from what was once part of his last name before he moved to America from England as a teen. In any case, it just struck me as quite coincidental. :-)This is Alexandra Ivy's first novel and though the story itself was fairly decent, it did have a bit too much romance for my liking. Also, I thought her style left something to be desired. She was constantly using incomplete sentences as entire paragraphs! I know authors often do this for emphasis sometimes, but I thought it was very much overused, such that as a reader, you couldn't stop mid-way through a chapter because you might stop at a paragraph that makes no sense standing alone. I didn't like that... but I often see a lot of quirky things I don't like in an author's first novel anyway.The story itself was supposed to contain an element of danger, and it tried to, but for some reason, it just didn't come across that way, probably because Abby and Dante were stopping to have sex every 1/2 hour. We hear at least once per chapter about his silver eyes, and long dark hair, and gorgeous body, etc. It's this kind of thing that made it too romance-y for me, and caused my attention to wander. Once I got beyond all these things though, I did enjoy the underlying story. If I hadn't, I would've given up without finishing. So I'm guessing romance readers might appreciate some of it more than I did.