DARKEST DESIRES by S.K. Yule, Book 2 of the Darkest Series, picks up about a year or so after Darkest Hours and tells the story of Aiston, the youngest Aleksandrov brother, and Avril Taylor, Ebony's best friend. DARKEST DESIRES is a classic second book in a trilogy and leaves you desiring more.
In DARKEST DESIRES, Avril Taylor is attacked by a bar patron at her workplace. Due to the increasing threat by shadow drifters, Aiston has been covertly protecting Avril, whom the Aleksandrovs consider part of the family. So Aiston saves Avril from her attacker, and their subsequent interactions create a bond between them. Aiston and Avril have always had a love/hate relationship, and when one of Aiston's former lovers gets jealous, Avril believes the woman's lies. Drama ensues.
The Darkest Series showed such promise in book one, however, the plot line in DARKEST DESIRES seems too close to book one with the destructive love triangle and lacks enough character development to support the romantic relationship. The characters don't learn from their experiences in book one, and so the main romantic relationship is a bit unbelievable. The real purpose of DARKEST DESIRES seems to be moving the plot line as it pertains to the shadow drifters. This book gets you to book three.
Also, the editing in book two could use another pass. There were several places where poor sentence construction caused confusion, and the pacing of the story was a bit off, making the timeline seem wonky. There are still more sex scenes than necessary to illustrate the physical aspect of their relationship, which give DARKEST DESIRES a heat level rating of 3, appropriate for those 18 years of age and over.
Overall, DARKEST DESIRES achieves its purpose of persuading me to read book three. The ride to get there was not so enjoyable, though. I give DARKEST DESIRES 2 stars, and look forward to book three's resolution of the conflict building in book two.
*Original review revised for The Romance Reviews.com at http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooks.php?bookid=9278
