Scent of Darkness, smells delicious
Scent of Darkness is the first book in the “Darkness Chosen” series by Christina Dodd. The series is centered around a family of renegade demons on the lam in Washington state.
Their “demon” is the cursed gift to shape-shift into a predator. Jasha Wilder is the shifter in this book, and his ability is to change into a wolf. He is the owner of a successful vineyard, maker of award-winning wines, and his executive assistant, Anne, has the major hots for him but has long kept it on the down-low, or so she thought.
The story begins as she arrives at his remotely located home to personally deliver some information about his business. But she has a hidden agenda, and is going to use her wiles to attempt a seduction.
Anne doesn’t want to hide her attraction for her boss anymore. When Jasha (in canine form) returns to his house and doesn’t realize he has a visitor, her simple idea goes sideways when she instead witnesses her boss morphing from wolf into fully naked man right before her eyes!
It is at this point that the title finally makes sense to me.
When Anne flees from the house at a run, Jasha is triggered to chase her down. This leads to a very intense scene in the forest that will make you want to splash some water on your face afterward! But I don’t want to give away any more.
I liked Anne’s character. I thought she might have been a little too trusting and naive, but it was a careful balance, and she didn’t become ridiculous. Jasha is conflicted, as all male characters battling a foreign legion of evil Russian relatives hell-bent and determined to extinguish their entire family would be, but he keeps it sexy, and that is all that matters.
This book includes introductions to Konstantine (direct descendant of the first Konstantine who bargained with the devil), his Gypsy wife Zorana, the other brothers Rurik and Adrik, and their little sister, Firebird (the first girl born to the clan in 1000 yrs). It’s a good setup for the rest of the series.
I am definitely ready to read the next book in the series: Touch of Darkness.
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