➽ And the moral of this rereread is: best New Year's Eve ever? With Elise Bloody Shrimping Kavannagh. In Hell Paradise. Or is it Paradise Hell? I forget. Not that it matters, really. Because Elise Times always = Super Extra Fun Times (SEFT™). See what I mean? 👋 To be continued with Ascension and stuff. [March 2017] ❣ Honeymoonish Buddy Read (HBR™) with my Dearest of Wives (DoW™), aka Choko ❣ ➽ And the moral of this reread is : Want to have your little black, withered heart beautifully manhandled, delightfully squished, magnificently crushed and splendidly chopped into tiny little pieces? Then this is the series for you. Because this ain't no Disgusting Fluffy Bunny Land (DFBL™), my Little Barnacles! Descent is deliciously dark, violent, bloody, gory, ever so slightly fucked up, a teensy bit on the disturbing side, wonderfully free of Vile HEA of Doom and Destruction (VHoDaD™) and like no other series you've ever read before in the entirety of your entire life. At least. Oh, and by the way, I'll have those of you who think little of my Gloriously Impeccable Book Taste (GIBT™) know that my Dearest of Wives Choko rated this book 5 bloody shrimping stars, which she never normally does for Urban Fantasy (view spoiler)[ she usually gives that kind of rating to Epic Fantasy crap. Goes to show how blind my undying love for her is (hide spoiler)]. Ha! What do you say to that, you Sceptical Arthropods of the Despicable Book Penchant (SAotDBP™)? Come on everyone, time to celebrate the fact that this series stood the test of time and wondrously passed the Nefariously Ultimate and Ultimately Nefarious Shrimpy Rereading Test (NUaUNSRT™)! Time to dance the Triassic Jig! Damn, who the fish let Barney the Child Molester in here?! This is not the Triassic Jig I had in mind! My being nefarious doesn't mean I support colourful pervs! There, much better. (view spoiler)[ DUH. (hide spoiler)] · Book 1: Death's Hand ★★★★ · Book 2: The Darkest Gate ★★★★ · Book 3: Dark Union ★★★★ · Book 4: Damnation Marked ★★★★ · Book 5: Dire Blood ★★★★★ · Book 6: Defying Fate ★★★★★ [March 18, 2017] Asshole Angels, here we come. My Murderous Spouse and I shall very gladly be the slow, horrible, painful death of you. [Original review - August 2014] And it all ends with a bang! Wow, now that was a pretty spectacular conclusion to an amazing series! I had very high expectations for this book and was afraid to be disappointed but I was just blown away. Everything comes full circle here and we get the whole story, from Elise's birth and childhood to the first time she ever met James when she was 8 and when he went to "rescue" her in Russia after her first escape from the garden. Reine's take on the garden of Eden, Adam, Eve, heaven, hell, good and evil is pretty unique and fascinating. Don't expect sunshine & rainbows here. It's all dark, depressing, twisted, and messed up. I just love it! As with all books that I love, I'm having a hard time getting my thoughts together to write a review. There is so much pure awesomeness here. The scenes with Elise in the garden are all mind-blowing:(view spoiler)[ when she keeps trying to escape and can't tell what is real from what isn't, when she finds James' dead body in the cave, all the scenes involving Adam and Metaraon (the sick bastards), Ariane... (hide spoiler)] My heart was beating so fast the whole time I thought it was going to stop any second. Reading this book felt like being repeatedly sucker-punched! And the ending! Oh the ending! (view spoiler)[When she force feeds Adam/James her blood and walks the f*%ck out on them! That last conversation with James! That sex scene! (hide spoiler)] Oh wow! Other random thoughts: Nathaniel rocks, I just love Malcolm (view spoiler)[(too bad he had to die!) (hide spoiler)], Anthony isn't nearly as annoying as he used to be and the way things turned out between Elise & James was very satisfying and felt very true to character. (view spoiler)[I love that there was no happy ending for them, it felt much more realistic. As much as he loves Elise, James had it coming the whole time. He behaved like a fool and didn't deserve any better. As much as she loves James, Elise just can't forgive his betrayal... For now anyway! (hide spoiler)] I just found out that Reine wrote another series featuring Elise and James so I guess that leaves room for development! So this is it, the end for Descent but the beginning for Ascension and I just can't wait to get my hands on the first instalment for this new series! Elise Kavanagh, you kick some serious butt!