Last Published: 08-22-2019
Book Summary
Awaken the Darkness is the 8th book in the Immortal Guardians Series by Dianne Duvall.
This book kind of stands on its own, but then follows after what happens in book 6 and book 7!!
This is where Stanislav finally gets his story!
First, let’s share some #bookdetails!
This book was published in July 2018. So this is the only book cover for this book!
You will find that Duvall has printed this book in a larger size format causing it to have a smaller number of pages and is not to be considered a pocket book.
It’s a full length novel, but I found that it wasn’t as long as some of the others in this series.
It’s written in 3rd person, jumping from the two main characters for most of the book. Now, if you’re familiar with this series, you’ll know that this series has a ton of characters. So when the others join back into the book, the POV jumps to them as well.
This story is about Stanislav and Susan Meyer.
Stanislav is one of the older Immortals but only about 400+ years old! He’s Russian and is best friends with Yuri. He’s also an empath and can influence others emotions.
The prologue in this book happens to be the epic battle that happens at the end of book 5, Night Unbound. This is where Stan gets captured and then buried. Just after he finds out that Yuri is beheaded.
This causes Stan to go into a tailspin and loose concentration, enabling the vampire hunters to capture him.
They take him to a small house and bury him in the basement. But due the fact that he can manipulate their emotions, he’s able to take revenge on the ones that took him, but not able to get free.
So the book actually starts with Susan Meyer looking at buying this quaint little house in the middle of nowhere. At first, she doesn’t think it’s a good idea.
But then, when she feels good every time she goes there and the house just seems to want her there, she takes the plunge and buys it.
What she doesn’t know is that there’s something in the basement.
In a moment of desperation and compulsion, she, with the help of her little dog, Jax, dig up the basement.
What they find surprises them both. They find a man buried in the ground and he’s severely injured.
He also can’t remember who he is. He has no idea who he is or what he is. All he knows is that he needs to be near Susan.
You should know that Susan happens to be telepathic. A strong telepathic that can not only hear others thoughts but also enter into others dreams when her guard is down. She moved into this little house away from everyone so that she could be free of others thoughts.
What she finds with Stanislav is different. He can guard his thoughts and make it that she can’t hear what he’s thinking.
But he’s got some interesting quirks that make it difficult for him to really be open with Susan. He also doesn’t want to start a relationship with her until he knows for a certainty that he’s not committed elsewhere. So you won’t find a sexy scene till after chapter 12. And yes, there are details within the scene. You can skip it if you want without missing much!
And just to keep things interesting, Susan and Stan are being chased by a group of men that want to find and recapture Stan. As they duck and cover from these bad guys, they get to know each other and realize that they kinda like each other.
They also get to a point where they know that they need help. But due to his memory loss, he doesn’t know who to call.
Using a memory trick, Susan is able to help him contact his Second.
And this is where all of the other characters start coming back into the story. Alexei is Stan’s second. Susan calls him in to see if he can help.
This is where the story starts moving forward really quickly.
After they team up with Alexei again, Stanislav’s memory starts to return and that includes the devastating news that Yuri was beheaded.
They also find that a band of men are still after them. This poses a problem only when there’s just the two of them to defend themselves.
Back up comes just in time.
Seth, the oldest and their leader comes to their aide. He heals Susan and then tells him what happened to him and why. Which then closes part of the storyline for us.
Then Susan and Stan are welcomed back into the fold of the many Immortals and their Seconds and the women that they love.
So this story does end happy. But the background story is not over.
It takes us directly to book 9, Death of Darkness. This happens to be Seth’s story!!
Now you should know that the timeline of this book is during the timeline of the book 9.
