Dark Taste of Rapture [Mass Market Paperback]

Gena Showalter is on her A-game with this latest installment in her Alien Huntress series. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this one. I didn't exactly love Noelle in the last book. But here we get to see that there is much more to her than good looks, piles of money, and a perverse sense of humor. And Hector... (sigh)... he is my favorite kind of hero: broken, tortured, powerful and unsure. Not to mention: ripped, loyal and sexy. Yum.

I expected the book to pick where Ecstasy in Darkness left off... but it actually started about a year before the events of the last book. Noelle and her best friend Ava were just beginning their training for the Alien Investigation Removal (AIR) agency. Hector is one of the instructors there, as are his best friend Dallas and Noelle's cousin Jaxon. Right away, Hector is taken by Noelle's beauty. But she projects the image of a spoiled debutante. It's a defense mechanism she uses to keep people from seeing the real her. And slowly, Hector begins to see past the facade.

He is unbearably attracted to her, but fights his feelings tooth and nail. He can't be with any woman. When he gets angry or aroused, his hands and arms atomize, turning anything in his path to dust. The one time he tried to be intimate with someone, he killed her. And he isn't taking that chance again. At least, that's what he tells himself.

Noelle has other ideas. She wants Hector and manages to get close to him once or twice. Just enough to excite them both... and send him running for the hills. Fast forward a year, and both Hector and Noelle are AIR agents. He's been trying to avoid her all this time, but they are forced together by a case. And if things aren't complicated enough with Hector's disability, we've got Dallas thrown in the mix. He's had a vision that he and Noelle are supposed to sleep together... and another vision that Hector and Noelle are supposed to be together. If the wrong chain of events is set in motion, it could be disastrous for him. But he has no idea which path is the right one. (This thread of the storyline confused me a little. I remember his visions in the last book, but I still don't get how an "unchangeable" vision can still be wrong.)

Aside from my Dallas-induced head-scratching, I was completely besotted by this book. There was great action, as Hector and Noelle worked their case together. There was great sexual tension. And there was romance. Perhaps one of the things I liked most about the book was the fact that this was no flash in the pan, instant-love. The attraction happened right away, but the feelings developed over time.

(By the way... There was no mention of the ongoing arc involving the evil-Queen-alien turning people into cannibals.) We do have appearances by the great cast of characters we have grown to love, including Mia, Devyn, Ava, and McKell. And we see someone introduced in Awaken Me Darkly, who I didn't expect to see again. Somehow, I think Mr. Surprise will end up with his own book. One can only hope. 5 stars.

I have only EVER come on and written a review when I really LOOOOVE a book, and when I DESPISE one. Unfortunately, this book was just a complete mess from cover to cover. I really only gave it 2 stars because the sex was hot (which I like!). Noelle was seriously one of the most annoying heroines I have ever had the misfortune of reading. Every chapter has her doing something that causes her to be TSTL (too stupid to live), and I completely agree with the only other lady on here that gave it a bad review in that she is constantly saying she is so much deeper than what she portrays, but it is never actually PROVED to us. I couldn't stand to even hear her talk about half way thru the book. I skipped over MUCH of the middle of the book, as all the dialogue seemed to consist of was angst from both lead characters about the arm thing and "why can't we be together" nonsense. It also seemed Gena was trying to be overly clever with all of the back and forth dialogue in the book, and it just seemed way overdone and definitely made a lot of scenes draaaaaag unecessarily. Hector could have been great, but I just felt his growling/shy/He-Man/tortured/"I'll kill you all if you even look at her!" personality was really forced and flat. His inner and outer dialogue was SO one dimentional, that as soon as he started thinking or talking about Noelle, I would skip forward a few pages.

I absolutely love Gena Showalter, but the last 2 Alien Huntress novels (Noelle & Ava) have left me cold. There is no depth to any of the characters, and this latest installment could even be skipped, and you would probably not even know in the following book (it's that unimportant). Try the Lords of the Underworld series if you haven't. I have liked every book so far.

If I were to say one word about Dark Taste Of Rapture it would be, LOVED. LOVED LOVED LOVED! This book was so awesomely awesome it simply knocked my socks clean off. I had not read a full length novel by Gena Showalter and now I'm wondering what the heck I was waiting for?

Dark Taste Of Rapture takes us to a world where humans know of alien existence. In fact they plainly walk around among humans. In true to human form, some are prejudiced against them and some embrace their differences. In this time a police force of sorts has been formed. One specially trained to deal with the alien race. Hector Dean is one of those specially trained. Now he does training of his own at a school built to weed out the potential new hires. Noelle is one of the prettiest new cadets he's seen yet. She's also infuriatingly stubborn, sassy and manipulative. For someone he pegged as a sure fire drop out, she's giving him a run he never expected. Hector has a dark side though, one that he doesn't reveal to anyone. One that is particularly deadly and Noelle is quickly lighting his fire.

Noelle doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. She'd much rather they think she's a dumb bimbo when she strikes her blows. Hector though, he sees right through her act to her very soul. He keeps giving her the hot and cold act which leaves her completely confused. Men usually love her....if not for her money then for her supermodel looks. The man is getting her way more hot then she thought possible. He isn't even her type! His all consuming fire is about to broach the one thing Noelle fears most...her heart.

*Le Sigh* Hector is so hot...literally...no really his arms become fire when he gets emotional. So no sexy sexy for him. Or at least that's what he has told himself. I found his use of hookers sad...and his thoughts about masturbating (you know, hand of fire would kinda hurt) funny. I mean, it's a completely valid concern. His one sexual experience ended with his girlfriend dead because his firearm went straight through her. I can see how touching himself might be a bit scary to try. You only have one appendage and it doesn't grow back. Wouldn't want to incinerate that right off now would we? Since sexual release seemed to calm him down the hookers came in handy. Hands off approach worked for him until he met Noelle. He immediately connected with her. He wanted her and spent a good chunk of the book convincing himself he didn't. There is a TON of..I want her...no I don't....yes I do..... Hector is super "on my god" sexy. At the beginning he had a bald head (which I love) and by the end its glorious dark locks I wanted to grip and hold onto for dear life. Covered in tattoos (drool) and with attitude to spare (sigh). HOT!

I totally loved Noelle too. She had this raw edge to her that just spoke to me. I loved her snarky attitude and her codependent relationship with her best friend. Those two were hilarious together. The underlying love though was very emotional. Since Noelle didn't really have a stellar family life, Ava was it. They had developed this connection with each other that was unbreakable. Together they were willing to take on the world. Noelle hadn't even wanted to join the force but since Ava did, she was making it happen. If along the way she found what had always been looking for...well that's just icing.

Have I said that I loved this book? Heh. I never once got bored reading it. The interactions between the characters was well thought out and it set up the next book in the series. Since the world building was pretty much done in this book (since it's book 6) I can honestly say it felt complete. I didn't have a hard time understanding anything and Gena does an excellent job of getting the basics out to the readers that haven't experienced the series before now. Not once did it feel like an information dump to get readers caught up.

The only thing that I found odd in Dark Taste Of Rapture was the time jump halfway through the book. There is a span of a year where everything seems to happen. Ave and Noelle go through some changes and then the readers are plunked back down in the middle of things. I thought this was a strange thing to do. I understood the meaning but thought it could have easily been reworked so that instead of jumping ahead a year, things could have been sped up when Noelle was in training. There was a ton of time spent on that when there didn't necessarily have to be.

Dark Taste of Rapture is a book that won't disappoint. Action, snarkiness and hard bodied men...hmmmmmm Nikki likey! GIVE ME MORE GENA, GIVE ME MORE!

Nikki- Ramblings From A Chaotic Mind