Wicked Abyss (Immortals After Dark, #17)

by Kresley Cole

This fairy tale doesn't end with a kiss in this spellbinding Immortals After Dark tale from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole!

The terrifying king of hell...

As a boy, Abyssian "Sian" Infernas had his heart shattered by a treacherous fey beauty who died before he could exact vengeance. Millennia later, a curse has transformed him into a demonic monster-just as she's been reincarnated. Sian captures the delicate but bold female, forcing her back to hell.

Meets his match.

Princess Calliope "Lila" Barbot's people have hated and feared Abyssian and his alliance of monsters for aeons. When the beastly demon imprisons her in his mystical castle, vowing revenge for betrayals she can't remember, Lila makes her own vow: to bring down the wicked beast for good.

Can two adversaries share one happily-ever-after?

As Calliope turns hell inside out, the all-powerful Sian finds himself defenseless against his feelings for her. In turn, Lila reluctantly responds to the beast's cleverness and gruff vulnerability. But when truths from a far distant past are revealed, can their tenuous bond withstand ages of deceit, a curse, and a looming supernatural war?

• ISBN10: 1501120565
• ISBN13: 9781501120565
• Publish Date: 25 April 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[FranJessca @ A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog]

Wicked Abyss is the seventeenth novel in Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series. This was my first time reading Wicked Abyss. It reminded me of a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and Hades and Persephone, which both are my favorite to read in romance books. I purchased it a long time ago since Kresley Cole is one of my auto-buy authors. I never got a chance to read it since I was working full-time, and I’m making up for it now, especially since the most recent novel was released in early 2022. (I’m so glad that Kresley Cole is back. I’ve missed her writing.) 

Storyline/My Thoughts: One of the reasons I also held off reading Wicked Abyss was that I wasn’t sure about the new characters introduced in this book. I was familiar with Abyssian “Sian” Infernas because he was first introduced in Sweet Ruin, but I wasn’t familiar with Princess Calliope “Lila” Barbot. Now that I’ve read their books, I adored these two together. Sian is King of Hell and also part of the Morior. He’s a demonic monster with a curse that had his heart broken by his mate many years ago. (millennia, to be exact) He finds out that his mate that hurt him is now reincarnated and living in the mortal world. He will do anything to have her, even keep her locked away in his kingdom. Unfortunately, Lila is not one to not fight back. She was banished to the mortal world because her parents failed to kill the Fae King of Sylvan, who Lila was supposed to marry. She’s been biding her time in the human world until the Fae King calls her back from her banishment. Unfortunately, other plans are in place for Lila, and she’s forced to be with Sian and his kingdom and deal with his anger at her past self that she can’t even remember. 

I felt for Lila because she is treated poorly by her so-called fiance (the Fae King), but she’s treated like crap by Sian too. She’s not the same person he knew in the past. She’s feisty and knows how to handle him. Sian is a typical alpha, and he tries everything to torture Lila with crazy tasks that can’t be completed, but she proves him wrong each time. He has issues with how he looks since he’s turning into a monster, and he mentions it several times; he’s afraid no one will love him for what is happening to him. Poor Sian!

I love how Kresley Cole opens the book up with Nyx telling a story to other Valkyrie. I swear Nyx is getting crazier in each book, but it’s due to dealing with the Ascension coming up and the Morior. I hope she gets her HEA because she deserves it with everything she’s dealing with in these books.

My favorite part of this book was the ending. Yes, Kresley Cole knows how to write an epic conclusion. She also knows how to write kick-butt heroines, which is one of the many reasons why I adore her stories. Lila is another one of those heroines who will go on my list of favorite kick-butt heroines. She proved it at the end of this book and how she handled Sian and dealt with the Fae King of Sylvan. Lila didn’t need any man’s help (or demon’s help). 

There are some very steamy scenes between the main characters, so if you are looking for steam in your PNR, this book is it, and the rest of the Immortals After Dark books. 

Overall, this book receives 4.5-stars, and I’m so glad I finally made time to read it. Now, I wait patiently for the next book. (I’ve already read Munro, released in January 2022, and loved it.) 

Standalone or Part of Series: It’s part of the Immortals After Dark series, and I would recommend reading in order.

Steaminess: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Trope(s)/Element(s): Fated Mates; Enemies to Lovers

Would I recommend this book? Yes. If you enjoy Paranormal Romance books, this book is for you. I will always recommend the Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole. This is one series that is worth so many rereads. I’ve lost count of how many times I read some of these books in the series.

[Linda]

Wicked Abyss was the perfect book to end 2018 with! I loved Calliope and Sian, and of course, Nïx's machinations are always fun to read about as well.

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

This is one of my favorite series. I’ve been a fan of Immortals After Dark ever since I read book two (I accidentally grabbed book two, A Hunger LIke No Other, instead of the novella, The Warlord Wants Forever, which is actually listed as book one. Luckily, this series does okay if you read some of the books out of order).

This book, however, might be my least favorite book in the series. I’m not sure exactly why I didn’t like it. I know the lack of the Valkyries was a big part of it. Nix has a part at the beginning and end, but the majority of the book is completely Valkyrie-free. We do see a few characters from past books. We see a little of Sabine & Lanthe, as they are hired to kidnap our heroine and deliver her to the hero. Rune is also present at times. Mostly though, the characters consists just of Calliope ‘Lila’ Barbot, a fey who has been living in the human realm working at Disneyworld. Abyssian ‘Sian’ Infernas, who is the ruler of Hell and is cursed to a demonic like body and face. There is also Uthyr, a dragon that’s friends with Sian.

So Sian is a member of the Møriør, as his dragon friend Uthyr. Sian is thousands of years old. He is a demon, which means he needs his mate for sex. However, several thousands of years ago, his mate ran off to marry some another and die in childbirth before she hit her immortality. He has waited a long time for his mate to return. He has her now and he isn’t in a forgiving mood.
One thing that bothered me with story is that Sian constantly treats Lila poorly. I get that she was cruel to him in a past life, but she was young then, as in early twenties, as she is now, at around the same age. Shouldn’t he be the grown up? Also, I have a hard time punishing someone for something they did in the past life, that they don’t remember. If I were to have a past life, I hope that no one ever do that to me.

I liked Lila. She made do with the best she had. She couldn’t seem to catch a break. She got crap from the fey. Then she was captured by Sian, who not only kept her locked up, he tormented her. For instance, once he sent spiders after her, because her past life hated them. She wasn’t too thrilled with them, at first, this time around either, but she makes the best of it.

I actually liked Uthyr, too. I think he was the highlight of this book. He pushes Sian to treat Lila better. He swims in the lava river.

Anyway, I wish this book took place on Earth instead of this other dimension. I really missed all the characters that I’ve grown to love. I hope that the next book will bring back those characters.

Narration
Robert Petkoff is the best ever. I just love his narration. He does an amazing job of both male and female (don’t ever tell me men can’t voice female characters. He nails them and a large cast of them, too). This book didn’t have the amazing accents some of the other books, but he still did an amazing job. I can’t imagine tackling this series without his narration. (I still haven’t tackled Shadow’s Seduction (Immortals After Dark, #17; The Dacians, #2) because it isn’t available on audio. I really hope it get added sometime soon).

**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[EBookObsessed]

I finished this book in a day. Each chapter kept drawing me into the next into the next and then the next thing I knew, it was done.

This had a very obvious Beauty and the Beast premise. Including Lila hiding in plain sight working at the Magic Kingdom, and wearing a yellow dress after being invited to dinner. Sian’s biggest concern is his looks since the once handsome prince of Hell, once he became King of Hell transformed into his Hell Demon form which would continue to become more grotesque the longer he was King. Of course, this was the one thing that Calliope really had no issue with.

While there is no dancing candlestick, there is a magical castle in Hell.

If you, like me, just re-read Shadow’s Claim to reacquaint yourself with the story after the release of Shadow’s Seduction, you will recognize Sian’s fraternal brother in the Primordial Hell Demon who was fighting for Bettina’s hand. Sian’s brother, also handsome until he had become king, was so lonely he wanted to win a bride of his own. So scary, gross, oozy Primordial Demon now get an “awww…” 🙁

I always enjoy a Kresley Cole story and while this is not my favorite story of the series, I did like it more than Sweet Ruin. Calliope is a perfect IAD heroine. She’s clever, smart, witty, snarky and doesn’t take any crap from Sian. Like Belle, Calliope likes to read and learn and Lila uses this intelligence against Sian.

Whenever Sian and Lila put aside their differences, they had magic. Unfortunately, KC uses the premises of reincarnation in this story which I am never a fan of since it always seems that the hero is trying to recreate the love they had with the prior person and that tarnishes the romance for me in a who are you in love with way. Here Lila is the reincarnated mate of Sian who once upon a time chose another over him. Calliope used to be Princess Kari of the same Sylvan Court that Lila is from but Kari was a pompous fey princess and looked down on the beast prince from the demon realm. Sian was only sixteen when he met Kari and didn’t understand why she wouldn’t chose him since he knew she was his mate. So sadly, once Kari is reincarnated as Calliope, Sian intends to take out all of his pain from Kari’s rejection on Calliope. He seriously can’t let it go.

Even the dragon shifter, Uthyr, who hangs out with Sian, and who obviously has some big issues himself since he won’t return to human form, keeps telling him to use this as a second chance and stop punishing her for something Kari did, especially since Calliope didn’t share the same memories and seems to be a nicer person. Sian just can’t get past it. Anytime things are going go between them, he remembers something nasty Kari said to him and everything devolves between them. He’s 10 millenia old, but he remembers every unhappy moment of the two weeks he knew Kari.

This isn’t the first time KC subjected a heroine to punishment for someone else’s ill deeds. In the very first novel, A Hunger Like No Other, Lachlain tortured Emma because she was a vampire and vampires tortured him. Same with MacRieve and the succubus.

I like a romance which focuses on just the hero and heroine trying to work out their relationship, but it would have been a more enjoyable story if once Sian decided to let go of the past, he actually did but he just couldn’t do it which ruined the flow of the budding romance.

Since more of this story takes place in the Hell Realm, we get very little interaction with other characters. Nix shows up at the very beginning and she uses Lanthe and Sabine to capture Lila and present her as a captive/spy to Sian. In another crossover storyline, Lanthe, Thronos and the Vrakeners settled in Pandemonium at the end of Dark Skye, which is Sian’s Hell Realm territory. Lanthe uses turning over Lila as a bargaining chip so Sian will let them stay in the territory they claimed.

With several more members of the Møriør travelling to Gaia, and I am sure they will each be getting a story, I guess we, or maybe just I, need to accept that KC has started a new story arc in this series and may never go back to finish the old stories which were hinted at.