Review // Pure Darkness by Aja James

The thing about pain is that your body gets inured to it after a while.
Your mind becomes numb.
Same with shame.
But the soul… The soul absorbs it all.

──────　♔　──────

Pure Darkness by Aja James

Pure/Dark Ones #13
Release - May 1, 2020
Genre - Paranormal Romance
Single POV - hero? It's The Creature's voice
Heat Level - 4 out of 5 when it happened
Format/Source - ebook borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Page Count - 170
Publisher - Indie

We are who we are…

For as long as it can remember, it has been known as the Creature. Neither he nor she, neither Pure nor Dark…a beautiful abomination to all races and Kinds. A faithful henchman of the evil Medusa, it has perpetrated dark deeds beyond redemption, even if its own hands have never directly taken a life.

We are who we’re made…

Once upon a time, the Creature was conceived in love, a True Love that endured across millennia of trials and tribulations. Its parents have never given up hope that they would one day recover their lost son. And, too, the Creature was not always as it is now. But circumstances shriveled its heart and suffocated its soul, forging a being who cares about nothing and no one—

Until now.

**WARNING: EXPLICIT DARK CONTENT INCLUDED.**

This is not a romance. But it is a story about love.

Purchase Links

Amazon CA * Amazon US
(free to read with Kindle Unlimited)

My Two Cents

This book... if there was any doubt about the creative genius that is Aja James... this book is proof!

Who knew that The Creature, the one person who was like an evil puppeteer, manipulating events and causing death and mayhem to my peeps... Who knew that I would have such empathy for him?

I'm in love with how in love he is with his son.

Benjamin doesn’t let me get away with anything. It’s like he sees right through me. Or into me. Like he can see straight into my black, ugly, twisted soul.

OMG and his hero worship of Tal. My sweet, broken, beautiful Tal. With me knowing he's his father and him being totally ignorant... I think it made it all the sweeter!

I don’t know why I ever thought the male less than resplendently magnificent. Yes, he has more scars than skin. Yes, he’s blind and stripped of his Gift. But he’s the fucking Tal-Telal! Lack of empathy doesn’t mean I can’t admire. That’s what people do with legends. He practically oozes confidence, strength, leadership, determination, and pure sexual maleness out of every pore. If I were an unrelated female between the age of sixteen and six hundred, I’d do him. And I don’t even like sex!

Okay, maybe not the whole 'I'd do my father bit', but I'll give him the out because he doesn't know!

And then Tal's emotional response to the son he never knew he had, but loves so deeply anyway...

“Because you are mine to protect,” he says in that low, husky voice, his words sending me staggering, even though my physical self has not moved. “I was unable to do it in the past. I did not know about…you. I know now. I will protect you, Binu. I will always protect you.”

I love The Creature's sarcasm and wit. I love how broken he is and how it drove him to make certain decisions. I wish there was a way to brutally punish every person who ever treated this male unkindly. The horrors he suffered through, the betrayals, abuses, and pains... he deserves some form of vengeance... of justice. Poor thing!

Don't even get me started on how this male connected with Dalair. His feelings were felt. Strongly. At times I didn't know whether I was supposed to laugh or cry. My heart completely broke for him... again. This dude couldn't catch a dang break!

Over the years, Dalair and I grew unbearably close. Unbearably, because I didn’t know how I was ever to survive when this fantasy ended. When I lost my only friend and brother.

and...

Since I’d been reborn as the Mistress’s Creature, I’d never met another living being who impressed me more than Dalair.

and...

Please, almighty gods that be, don’t let anything happen to my heart and my light. I needed them in my life the way I needed air. It might have started in pretense, but the feelings I felt for Dalair and Kira were more real than anything else across the entirety of my existence. They made me feel alive. They gave my life meaning. I loved them, I loved them, I loved them!

I'm not saying I'm loving The Creature, but I'm definitely feeling him. I've always liked him and wanted to know more about him and now that I do... I can see myself falling for him. I'm a sucker for broken males and they don't come in more pieces than this one. I hope the Pure Ones can get through to him (if they finally reveal his truth) and that he switches sides. F-ck Medusa!

Check out the previous books:

About the Author

Aja James just completed the Pure/ Dark Ones paranormal-fantasy romance series in 2020. If you want your heart battered, bruised, shattered and skewered, then put back together in the most glorious ways, check out the series below. Every couple gets an HEA, but they fight like hell for it on the way.

Aja is now working on her new series, Dragon Tails, because dragons are her favorite shifters of all!

Visit https://aja-james.blog/ for more information!