Review: The Darkest Lie by Gena Showalter

Forced to his knees in agony whenever he speaks the truth, Gideon can recognize any lie—until he captures Scarlet, a demon-possessed immortal who claims to be his long-lost wife. He doesn't remember the beautiful female, much less wedding—or bedding—her. But he wants to…almost as much as he wants her.
But Scarlet is keeper of Nightmares, too dangerous to roam free. A future with her might mean ultimate ruin. Especially as Gideon's enemies draw closer—and the truth threatens to destroy all he's come to love…. (PNR)

Review:
I have to give Gena Showalter credit for writing Gideon’s story so early in the series. He can’t be an easy character to write about. As the Keeper of Lies he cannot speak the truth without suffering intense pain so instead we live in opposite world when he’s talking. Whatever he says, he means the opposite. Love = hate, ugly = beautiful…..well you get the idea. She’s probably kicking herself for ever coming up with that demon! I always found him irritating in the other books but giving him a starring role gives us a chance to be in his head and therefore without as much of the Gideon speak. I ended up liking him quite a bit.
In the previous Lord’s book The Darkest Passion (Aeron’s story) Gena introduced an interesting setup for Gideon’s story. He captures Scarlet, the keeper of the demon Nightmare’s. She can see a person’s greatest fear and use it to torture them in their sleep and that makes her a potentially dangerous weapon against the Lord’s.
Scarlet reveals that she is Gideon’s long lost wife. He doesn’t remember her but is inexplicably drawn to her none the less. His demon should have no problem deciding whether she is lying or not but for some reason it can’t with this one woman.
For this type of ongoing series it’s not so much about the writing but if you connect with the couple or not. I happened to love Aeron and Olivia’s story but I know many people didn’t like Olivia. For The Darkest Lie I just didn’t connect with Scarlet. I liked her and really felt for her situation but as a couple she and Gideon just didn’t cut it for me. Maybe because her self-doubt combined with his double speak just wore me down trying to sort through it all. The sex scenes were steamy but odd. I did like that Scarlet knew of Gideon’s demon and could figure out what he was trying to say, even teasing him, though she translated most of it to make it clear to the reader anyway. Like I said this must have been a really tough book for Gena to write!
I felt like there should have been more issues concerning their demon’s. For all the danger Scarlet seems to pose to the Lord’s she didn’t seem particularly scary or a threat to me. I would have liked it more if I felt she was on the edge of destroying the Lord’s at any moment. Gideon’s demon wasn’t too much of an obstacle even though in the past he could destroy a woman with his lies. You can imagine what a buzz kill it must be to be called an ugly piece of s**t in the throes of passion! You would have to stop and think….”what is the opposite of ugly….beautiful….piece of s**t…..woman I adore…..oh ok – he loves me…carry on”. But because Scarlet already knows about this, it’s not much of a problem. There just wasn’t a lot of conflict other than – when will they?
There are far fewer side stories to keep track of compared to The Darkest Passion but we do still get the set up for both Strider and Amun’s stories. Sienna, Legion, William and Gilly make appearances as their stories are being setup. Paris has been the one I’m waiting for but William is moving up on the list pretty quickly for me!
Loved: Gena’s forward written in Gideon speak – “And firstly to Gideon herself. To my complete delight, you made my job so easy, the words flowing like smooth, rich wine……”
I was surprised how much I liked Gideon.
Nitpick: The characters and story were likeable enough – I loved Aeron’s story so I was a little disappointed in this one. I just didn’t connect with Scarlet.

Rating: 2.5 out of 4. A must read if you’re a Lord’s of the Underworld fan – just wasn’t my favorite of the series.

Author's website: http://genashowalter.com/
Buy the book! The Darkest Lie (Hqn)