At the beginning of this book I kind of felt like I was playing catch-up, there was a lot of information and introductions and it just seemed as if I was missing out.
Things settled down and it can easily be read as a stand-alone (it is a stand-alone). I was a little annoyed with myself when I discovered (on finishing) that the series it links with (The Vessel series) is actually on my to-read list. I really wish I’d checked and read that first.

Anyway back to Darkest Heart.

I really enjoyed this read.
Earth is the battle ground in a war between angels and demons. Humans are in real danger of becoming extinct as the war rages on. There’s no black and white anymore, the lines have become blurred and it’s not always pretty.

Dommiel is a demon he’d been the high demon of New Orleans for over a century before the war. But he’s a demon with a heart who’s considered a traitor by both sides. This makes for a lonely life but he considers he’s paying his penance for his previous sins.

Anya is an angel who desperately needs help and together they both find themselves in each other.

It’s entertaining and exciting, I liked the characters, the romance and the world building and I’m looking forward to the next book.

I voluntarily read a review copy kindly provided by NetGalley.

Thank you to Entangled and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this.

This is the second Juliette Cross novel I have read. The first one I enjoyed, but did not love, but when I read the synopsis for this one, I was taken with it instantly. I loved me some angel and demon YA romances, so got really excited to find an adult one.

I’ll be honest for the first 20%, I did not love it. In fact, I was actually quite bored. It was a slow build to anything actually going on, other than the two characters just meeting each other. I found myself skimming a few pages here and there. Somewhere between 20% and 30% is where it started to get really good! And from then on, I was hooked into the story. It took me so long to read only due to working all the time, but had I been at home relaxing, it would have been read really quickly because that is how into it I was. The drama, the fantasy elements, the sex, the characters, and the romance were ALL on point!

I loved Dommiel’s character. He’s fun, sexy, fierce, but more so…no perfect. He isn’t built to be a perfect looking demon. In fact, the author gives him a robotic arm and an eye patch to cover an old eye scar. He’s built to look broken and I guess, at first image, not the perfect sexy god that is usually built in these books. Now, for the rest of his looks though, he isn’t ugly. This is not a Beauty and the Beast retelling. But his image flaws help, I think, with the romance and suits the fact that his other half is an angel.

Anya is an interesting character. She’s fierce too, and super loyal, doing all this to save a fellow angel. I loved the scenes when her wings are described, because as I read I was often imagining her without wings for whatever reason, so the small reminders here and there helped a lot. To read about her using them was fun.

There were two sides of the romance: the sexy and the romantic. The author blended both of them beautifully! The scenes of Dommiel and Anya together were super hot all through the novel. But when they started to fall for each other, the novel and its romance, turned super sweet. Given the character built up for Dommiel especially, being in his head was wonderful when it came to thinking about and protecting Anya. My stomach was in knots for much of it because of how swoony it really was. I loved reading about these two falling in love and I loved Dommiel’s reaction to Anya and falling in love in general.

I give this 4 stars because the beginning started out quite boring, and I found the ending was a tad rushed for my taste. I would have liked it stretched out a little bit more because Anya’s issue was solved with no trouble at all really, when it came down to it.

Overall, though I did enjoy this book a lot and I will be keeping my eye out for book 2!

Goodness but this was seriously breathtaking!
A bite from a demon prince means his venom slowly works it’s way towards her heart and thereafter enslavement. Only an arcahangel can remove the venom but the only one who would be willing to spend such power was missing; feared taken by demons himself.
Interestingly, the angels in this story are rather selfish and self serving. Most are mainly fixated with their wat with demons and aren’t bothered much that humankind are caught in the middle. Anya is the epitome of the perfect, compassionate angel. Innocent, pure yet a skilled warrior, she leaves the archangel general she served under when it became apparent that he was one of the “callous” ones. Preferring to align herself with other guardians and demon hunters who work to save the humans. It is one of those that call upon Dommiel, a notorious high demon to help Anya locate Uriel, the archangel she seeks.
Dommiel is a fascinating character. Such a conundrum of a demon! One who serves as a mercenary, open to hire in helping humans infiltrate demon strongholds, who seems to have quite a few connections with angels and demon humters no less. Even with his outward devilish behavior, it was pretty obvious he was so much more than a demon.
The story is fast paced, loads of action and wonderful chemistry between Anya and Dommiel. When he falls for her, wow but did he fall hard. It was smoking and totally swoonworthy. All I can say is “read this!”

Darkest Heart is a gritty, raw tale of an apocalypse. Where the demons are taking over the world. And the angels and human’s are trying to stop it, trying to survive.

Darkest Heart had a draw to it; the cover initially caught my attention. I had to have it, and I had to jump into this story. I don’t like to read blurbs or reviews. I had never read anything by Juliette Cross. But I had a feeling. This was written in such a poetic way. The detail of the world and what was going on around them was enthralling.

Dommiel and Anya are by far total opposites. A Demon whose own kind is out to destroy him. And Anya an Angel, whose sole purpose long ago before the fall was to protect children. Dommiel is one of those characters that you should hate. But you adore. He’s real, and even as a Demon, he has a bit of a conscious. But he wasn’t always a Demon.

I didn’t want to stop reading this story. I love when that happens, that urgency. This world is full of evil, full of hope, and death surrounds everything. But there’s a light in that darkness. There was never a dull moment in this story. Dommiel and Anya’s connection was real. The fire that was between them no one could extinguish.

Overall, I have to give this Five Boundless Stars. Thank goodness this is a series. I can’t wait for the next one.

This is my favorite book by Juliette Cross. It was much better than I thought it would be. I love angels and demons stories. Anya was an angel on a mission to find the archangel Uriel. She couldn't do it alone. She was paired with an unlikely ally, the demon Dommiel. They were very different but worked well together. Opposites attract and all that.

Anya was pretty straightforward. She was a super goody two shoes even for an angel. However she was a warrior. It does seem rather contradictory to me that killing is okay when it's for the right reasons. She did have her own personal plight to deal with wondering if she would overcome succumbing to evil.

Dommiel was complex with an interesting past. An angel who fell. A traitor to the demons. All around an anomaly. He was the perfect man: just enough bad to be enticing but overall a decent guy. I wish more of his past had been explored about his fall. Even the cause of that didn't seem horrible. Heaven is unbending on its standards of good and bad to the degree that it unfairly punishes some. From what was portrayed in this he never did anything despicable. His days of debauchery were long over. He did evolve the most as a character.

Oh my gosh, this book was so freaking good!!! Dommiel just topped my list of all time favorite male leads! He’s sharply intelligent, borderline arrogant, and has this intensely sensuous personality that just pulled me in... I mean seriously, his opening line alone told me I was in for a freaking fantastic ride and his reluctant hero status turned out to be icing on the cake!

Have you ever picked up a book and found yourself mesmerized? Darkest Heart was more than your typical battle of angels and demons, good versus evil. (Although the battles were well done and satisfied the action junkie in me.) It was an intensely sensuous love story of redemption and salvation that literally swept me off my feet! Dommiel’s dark intensity paired beautifully with Anya’s light, but they weren’t simple black and white characters. There was a deceptive complexity to their creation that captured my attention and held me captivated until the very. last. word.

I’ve yet to read the Vessel series (something I need to rectify immediately!) and had no trouble following the story. I’m doubly thrilled I have a new world to delve into!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Whew-ey Juliette Cross penned the most juicy PNR I've read in ages. Anya and Damiel have a smoldering chemistry from moment one that steams into some scorching scenes that'll keep you turning the pages for more. We've got two lonely opposites, the demon who's done all the sins (and then some) and the virgin angel, who team up to find a lost archangel. There are a lot of twists and turns in the mystery of what happened to their query that push these two characters together. The story was action packed and loaded your emotions up and shot them out. Can't even imagine what the next book in the series will be like, but I can't wait to pick it up.
Dommiel is a book boyfriend I wish I could keep. I might be convinced to share him but I just want to savor this character and never let him go.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Well who doesn’t love a bad boy ? Dommiel is everything you want in an antihero as for a start he’s a demon , he’s considered to be a traitor as he dances to his own tune and his cocky attitude belies just how jaded by life he is. So pairing him up with a sunny, do goody angel really sets the stage for sparks to fly.
Anya has a secret that could see her become the mindless creature she fears the most. Getting Dommiel to help her rescue the one angel who can save her is easy but what Anya hadn’t expected was the pull of someone she should loathe. Dommiel is snarky, corrupt and yet strangely sad but no matter what so very protective of “his”angel.
With Darkest Heart the author has captured the very essence of a romance that for hundreds of years readers have clamoured for. It’s no accident that her hero is well read and his literary bent and poetic nature tugs on the heartstrings showing that this demon is no degenerate. Dommiel isn’t typical, he is his own man and whether fierce or slyly loving his goodness is so very tangible.
So if the hero is all sorts of shades of grey where does Anya fit in? Once she fought as a warrior but at heart she’s the one who wants nothing else then to be the guardian of those lost children who need light shining on their lives. Yes she is good, yes she is a pure being but Dommiel makes her ache for things she never knew she could want. Their journey sees them getting closer and slowly but surely guards begin to drop although Dommiel knows they can never have a happy ending. Anya might prove that she’s no shrinking violet but it’s Dommiel who made me catch my breath as he became everything I want to dream of and if there’s more to come in this world I can’t wait to read it.
A fabulous paranormal romance about redemption that had me glued to the page, recommended.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

Dommiel is not a bashful man, "...straining as he dipped his head under the steaming water. His eyes still closed, his action-rough voice startled me from my shameful ogling. “You can join me if you like.” Dommiel is like a protective/possessive man he doesn't like when he knows others are going to ogling his woman, “***l. I’m going to lose my godda*n mind with those horny-as-eff demons watching you.” Dommiel doesn't mind voicing his wants, “that depends on the needs. I’m hoping she will have lots and lots of sexual needs. Those, I can tend to all night long.” I liked this book, I loved Dommiel the man was just sexy.