Dark Rival by Brenda Joyce

Rating: 3

Synopsis: A golden man, he is called Black Royce—a battle-hardened soldier of the gods. His vows are his life—until he is sent to New York City to protect a Healer from those who would use her powers for themselves. The moment Royce sees beautiful, feisty Allie Monroe, he knows she will be his only weakness—and he is right. Destiny is a dangerous thingAllie Monroe is more than an heiress. She is a Healer, willing to do anything to save victims of the evil that lurks in the city at night. But alone, she can do only so much—until destiny sends her the darkest Highlander of them all. Then evil strikes and Royce is destroyed before Allie's eyes. Now Allie will do anything to save Royce—even if it means going back in time to a dark, dangerous world. Confronting their enemies could cost not only their lives, but their love—for all eternity.

Review: I don't know WHAT was going on with this book. I actually liked the first book (Dark Seduction) better than this one. The sexual tension was just not there at all, and I felt like things were not really explained very well in parts. Like at one point she is supposed to stay on a holy island for her own safety, but she leaves it, like, 2 seconds later, but the warriors and gods guarding her never come after her to bring her back? And at one point they have sex, but the hero takes too much of her "white light" and makes her powers weak for a while. The powers that be tell them they can't have sex again because she needs to keep her powers sharp, but somehow this never becomes an issue again. They do it, nothing bad happens and the gods don't make a peep about it. It was just so inconsistent most of the way through. Things that seem like a big deal one second, evaporate and are a non issue the next. I will keep going in this series only because I already have the next couple of books, and I will really hope it gets better. So far I am thinking she should stick to historicals....