Review: Evernight by Kristen Callihan (Darkest London #5)

Evernight (Darkest London #5)
Kristen Callihan
Published: Sept 2, 2014 (Forever)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: library

Reviewed by: Margaret

Rating (out of 5): 4.5 stars

Note: While review will be spoiler free, it does make reference to previous books in the series.If you haven’t started yet, check out VBC’s review of Firelight.

Holly Evernight and Will Thorne met in the last Darkest London novel, Shadowdance, while they were both being held captive by Amoros, an insane fallen angel. Holly was forced to create a clockwork heart for supernaturals and Will was the unwilling test subject for her invention. Now the metal from the heart has spread throughout his body, causing intense pain and insanity.

She still remembers every moment of his suffering and how she tried to comfort him in their cell. He remembers only pain and that she is responsible. So when he shows up at her house trying to kill her, Holly isn’t at all surprised. Will, however, has a lot to take in when he regains his senses and realizes that Holly, with her metal elemental powers, is the only one who can help him heal, and that she was a victim too.

It also turns out that his is not the first attempt on her life. If Holly’s going to live long enough to help Will, he’s going to have to protect her. Between his new role as bodyguard and her needing to touch him to control the metal, Holly and Will are in nearly constant physical contact. Of course, that leads pretty quickly to constant sexual tension. I loved the contrast between Will’s over the top flirtation and Holly’s more academic approach.

While Holly helps Will overcome the physical trauma, he helps her overcome her emotional trauma. It’s been nearly a year since they were released from captivity and Holly has yet to leave her house. Once Will starts to regain his memories, he takes her out to investigate and try to draw out her attackers. They visit some great locations in the supernatural underworld, like a demon fight club. And of course, they encounter some more assassins. Holly gets to use some of the great steampunk gadgets that she develops for the SOS and demonstrate her fighting skills. She’s not just a science nerd, she has some tricks up her sleeve too.

Evernight also introduces the Fae into the series. We don’t really learn much about them (well, other than Mab’s a mega bitch), but it looks like they’ll feature heavily in the next book. It also brings up some characters in the Evernight family history that appeared in the novella Entwined. It’s probably helpful, though not absolutely necessary, to read that book before starting this one. And we finally get to meet St. John, the Ellis sisters’ long-lost brother, who was discussed in Winterblaze and was raised as an Evernight. He’s definitely up to something, but it looks like that’s going to wait until later in the series as well.

I’m really loving the way this series builds. After each book I’ve thought, “That was even better than the last one!” Each romance has been a little bit steamier than the last. Each book has had more steampunk elements than the one before it. And each book has added another new type of supernatural to the world. I’m really excited to see what happens next.

Sexual content: Sex