Book Review: Darkness Unbound by Keri Arthur

Darkness Unbound
Author: Keri Arthur
Series: Dark Angels (Book 1)
Publication: Dell; Original edition (September 27, 2011)

Description: The fight against darkness rages on for the next generation—in New York Times bestselling author Keri Arthur’s exciting new series set in the world of the Guardians.

Being half werewolf and half Aedh, Risa Jones can enter the twilight realms between life and death and see the reapers, supernatural beings that collect the souls of the dead. But she soon makes a terrifying discovery: Some sinister force is stealing souls, preventing the dead from ever knowing the afterlife.

Reapers escort souls—not snatch them—but Risa is still unnerved when a reaper shadows her in search of someone Risa has never met: her own father, an Aedh priest, who is rumored to be tampering with the gates of hell for a dark purpose. With the help of her “aunt”—half-werewolf, half-vampire Riley Jenson—and an Aedh named Lucian who may have lost his wings but none of his sex appeal, Risa must pursue whatever shadowy practitioner of blood magic is seizing souls, and somehow stop her father . . . before all hell breaks loose.

My Thoughts: Keri Arthur begins a new series in the world she created in the Riley Jensen series. This time the main character is Risa Jones, half-Aedh and half-werewolf. Risa and her friends Ilianna and Tao met in school and now have started a restaurant together. They are all independently wealthy. Ilianna is a mare and a witch; Tao is half-human and half-werewolf.

Risa has inherited some of her mother's gift of clairvoyance but she has also inherited some of the Aedh gifts from the father she has never met. Her mother uses motherly guilt to have Risa visit a children's hospital to see if the child of one of her mother's clients is gone or can be healed. Risa is astonished to learn that the child's soul has been ripped from her and destroyed, making it impossible for her to be reincarnated.

Risa is also being followed by a reaper named Azrael. Usually reapers are the ones who guide souls to the light path or the dark path but Azrael isn't that kind of reapers. His job is to destroy those who escape from the dark path. He is following Risa because he believes her father is planning to seal the gates to the dark path and the light path. While this sounds, at first, like a good thing, in fact, it means that the world will run out of souls and babies will be born vegetables.

Risa has never met her father but that doesn't keep Azrael and a number of others from trying to use her to get to him. The story is filled with kidnappings, attempted murders, and other mayhem as Risa and her friends try to find out who is stealing souls and what her father really wants.

This is the first book in a series that has now reached seven books. Fans of urban fantasy and especially fans of the Riley Jensen series won't want to miss these.

Favorite Quote:

Reapers came in all shapes and sizes, often taking the form most likely to be accepted by those they'd come to collect. I'm not sure what it said about me that my reaper was shirtless, tattooed, and appeared to be wearing some sort of sword strapped across his back.

I bought this one on Sept. 27, 2011. You can buy your copy here.