COURTING DARKNESS - Yasmine Galenorn
An Otherworld Novel , Book 10
Jove
ISBN: 978-0-515-15007-0
November 2011
Paranormal Romance

Seattle, Washington and other Realms - Present Day

In the year since her banishment from Otherworld and her father, Camille D'Artigo has faced many scary things, but perhaps the most terrifying is Hyto, a white dragon and her father-in-law.  Alongside her sisters and her three husbands, Camille, Priestess of the Moon Mother, has fought demons, vampires, and other things out to destroy the world.  Camille's relationship with Smoky, a half silver, half white dragon enraged his father, and Hyto's reaction was the last straw as far as Smoky's mother was concerned.  She has had Hyto cast out of Dragon Reaches, and Hyto holds Camille responsible.  Learning that he is searching for her and plans to get his revenge is only the beginning of the troubles that Camille is about to encounter.

The latest in the Otherworld series, COURTING DARKNESS will have Camille confronting her worst nightmare in the struggle that has become her life.  As if having three husbands wasn't challenging enough, her love for Tryllian (a Svartan, one of the Charming Fae) caused a rift between Camille and her father, resulting in his disowning her, and her love for Smoky has turned a psychopath's rage her way.  Her third husband, Morio (a youkai-kitsune, or fox shifter), is currently recuperating from their last battle, and she is still keeping a secret from her husbands that will endanger the life of another friend.  With only a week until Winter Solstice, when she's to pledge herself to Aeval, Fae Queen of the Dark, Camille doesn't really need any extra stress.  But Hyto has plans for Camille, and she'll be lucky to live long enough to see the Solstice.

The series, which follows all three of the D'Artigo sisters, has the ongoing war between them and the demons connecting book to book, and there is very little time between the events taking place in each novel.  Add in the history between the sisters and their lovers, and the fact that much of the action in this book is a result of what happened in earlier stories, and COURTING DARKNESS is probably not the book with which to start.  Though a bit dark, the story is intriguing, yet there may be times when a reader unfamiliar with the series feels a little lost.  Either way, COURTING DARKNESS is an engaging story.

Jennifer Bishop