Child of War by Lisa Beth Darling

Publisher: Moon Mistress Publishing

Published: 10/08/2011
Buy here

Rating:  Gourmet meal at Spago









As a God of Olympus, Ares should have been utterly content, expecting a son born of a wife he was completely in love with. Alena, likewise was deeply in love with her husband, and was thrilled with her pregnancy. But the politics, treachery, and pettiness of the God's of Olympus rarely allow for happiness to blossom. With the birth of their son Raven, Zeus and Apollo hatch scheme after scheme to tear this new family apart, and with Ares continued secrecy, Alena has no choice but to believe she is little more than a pampered slave. Unable to take her child and flee the evilness on Olympus, Alena watches Raven turn into the the monster that was foretold before his birth.

Wow, just Wow. My first instinct after finishing this book was to scream "Where the HELL is the rest of it????" , and then I wanted to run out and tell people "You HAVE to read this book!!!".  I was completely taken in and captured by these  mostly warped characters and their machinations. There was even a deal breaker in this book, that I moved past. Ares cheats on Alena. He is forced to under the most dire of threats, but still my iron clad rule is "You cheat, and I quit". There has only been one other book that I over looked that rule for, in all my many decades of reading books, so for me to move on from that has to tell you something. Lisa Beth Darling can write her fricking ass off! I sweated more over this book than I did in childbirth, and probably cried more too, but I had drugs in childbirth. With Child of War you just have to suck it up and take it on the chin. This book posed so many moral dilemmas for me, that by the time I finished, I was completely exhausted. I really was appalled at the horrific behavior of Ares, Raven, and even Aphrodite, but I couldn't completely hate them, because I knew the forces that manipulated them. Aaaargh! That's not right!

 The Gods were so completely jaded and morally corrupt I felt like a was in a Jerry Springer show at times, but it was presented in such a poignant manner that instead of finding it darkly humorous, it broke my heart for Ares, Alena, and even Raven.  Actually, I found Eros to probably be the most sympathetic in this book. I really found it incredibly hard to separate myself from these characters. I was completely immersed in their lives due to the expert storytelling of Ms. Darling. If ever there was a series of books destined for the "big screen" this would be it. I can promise you there is nothing out there in any form that remotely resembles this. It is an unforgettable and not entirely comfortable experience that I intend to repeat as often as one of Lisa's books are published. This is the purest from of literary crack, I couldn't put it down to save my life. Phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.