Whoa baby. This book was spicy and hot. I love this fantasy book so much. Dual POV was great, I love getting inside his head!

I received this book for free from Netgalley for an honest review.

Smoking hot and intense. The main character was complex and well written.

Kyra’s seen and survived the worst things imaginable, all because of the magic she was born with. Trapped by her secret, she has no choice but to serve Councilman Gallagher or risk everything she has tried so hard to build. When I started reading I couldn't put it down.Taylor Aston White is magnifysent and amazing writer.I cannot wait to read more of there books.Keep up the great work.You should definitely read this books.Can't wait for the next book

Mmm, what to say about Kiss of Darkness? I’m a bit undecided still. Was it a good book? Well, it certainly has all the elements to be on my this-was-awesome-list. But I’m afraid it is not going to qualify. Was it a bad book then? Well, no. There was an interesting story on Kyra and how she was forced to serve councilman Gallagher.

The sheer number of different species and their different agendas made me dizzy, however. And this distracted a lot from the original plot. So, therefore, it will unfortunately not make my list, but it is still an interesting read.

Three out of five stars and a special thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc.

This book was step out of my usual comfort zone and I was well aware of that before requesting the arc. However I wasn't disappointed!
Paranormal romance, fantasy, realms, fae and deamons - everything my usual romance books don't have!

This is the first of a spin off series I believe and I'd suggest reading the first series more to completely understand and grasp the world and it's concepts.

This was a fast paced fantasy with a slowburn romance.

our FMC is a black witch in a world that automatically makes her illegal without a license and our MMC is a guardian who's role is to protect the world from deamons.

He was created to help and protect, while she was born to sacrifice innocents.

Book review :
This is the first book in the Curse of the Guardians series with many explanations about the magic systems, breeds of demons, classes of witches were awesome.

Kyra is labelled as a black witch - illegal unless she has a special license. Kyra is trying to find out who is threatening her, plus dealing with her delight of a boss. Xander is the one assigned to protect her which, of course, leads them to be in close proximity to each other. Xander does turn it around, but his dislike of Kyra (without actually knowing her) is a bit offputting for a while.

The author has demostrated all the characters very well. I was so intrigued by the characters and their bonding that i could not resist reading it soon. I completely devoured the love/hate relationship between these two. I cannot freaking wait for Kace and Eva's book next and even more love/hate tension!♡

I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend this series book 1 to all. I am thankful to netgalley and the publisher for giving me this book in return of an honest review.
Happy Reading!

This was fine, not exceptional in any way, but entertaining enough. Before I get into any specifics I have to have one major gripe, and it’s one I feel like I’m making constantly.

This book is very clearly labeled Book 1 of the Curse of the Guardians series. That’s why I chose to read it. However, I made it about 20% in and put it aside, went over to Goodreads, and read the blurbs of the author’s other books to find out what Curse of the Guardians is a spin-off of. Because at that point, I was 100% sure that Kiss of Darkness is one. The characters had met previously, previous events are referenced, the world-building was sketchy (as if I was meant to already know it), there was a strong couple that was clearly from another story-line, there were even internal jokes between characters that the reader was obviously meant to understand.

Point blank, no argument, if I can tell a book is a spin-off because I can feel previous books are missing, the book does not stand alone well enough to be a new series. And in those scenarios the ‘book 1’ label a lie. I am super tired of having this happen.

OK, that’s my big gripe. Outside of that, the book is fine. I liked that Kyra is strong, even as she’s put in impossible situations. I never really took to Xander though. He was just kind of a bland, generic paranormal romance hero. But the writing is easily readable. And while there wasn’t anything that stood out as stellar in the plot, it wasn’t all out bad either.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I really like the characters and their development throughout the book. I just wish that I found the world building more interesting. It felt like information overload with all these terms thrown out there that didn't get much explanation until you'd heard them 10 times and by then I was already confused. It just didn't flow in my opinion. That took a hefty toll on me trying to finish this book, so it was hard for me to get through it. I ended up skimming parts of it towards the middle/end of the book because it was just blah. But I did really like how the story played out and felt the ending was really good, all things considered.

Thank you Netgally for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Let me start by saying I truly enjoyed this book overall. Kyra is a great character and shows a lot of self control. Xander is a sexy bada** with a chip on his soldier about witches. My biggest letdown of book 1 is that it felt rushed. Xee’s childhood played a major part in who he is now and was barely talked about. It’s hinted that Kyra has been through hell, but her build up was very lacking, It just felt very rushed unfortunately. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Do I think there’s room for improvement later on? Absolutely.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dark Wolf Publishing for providing a free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Dark urban fantasy with an enemy-to-lovers romance...yes, please! This was a fun read with a great feel and interesting characters. This would be a great read to welcome in the spooky Halloween season, or pick it up any time! This is a fun read that I will definitely recommend!

KISS OF DARKNESS is the first book in the Curse of the Guardians series, but it is a spin-off from the Alice Skye series. I wish I had read that first as some of the explanations in this book about the magic systems, breeds of demons, classes of witches, etc, were only skimmed over. I'm presuming it goes into greater detail in the original series. Anyway, back to this one.

Kyra is labelled as a black witch - illegal unless she has a special license. One of the triad of witches in charge of everyone else has a secret to hold over Kyra, making her his puppet. Xander has hated black witches for a long time so that, coupled with his attraction to Kyra, makes for a volatile situation every time she is mentioned.

The general story is Kyra trying to find out who is threatening her, plus dealing with her delight of a boss. Xander is the one assigned to protect her which, of course, leads them to be in close proximity to each other. Xander does turn it around, but his dislike of Kyra (without actually knowing her) is a bit offputting for a while.

I enjoyed this story and would like to see where it goes next, but I would definitely want to read the original series first.

This was a wonderfully written and rich world the author created. It's a dense read FYI. Not a quick and easy read but worth it.

This was a pretty good read for me. It kept me invested enough to keep reading, however, I feel like I missed a lot of the story because it is connected to a previous series the author wrote and I did not know that before hand. Sometimes they would reference things from the previous series and I would be taken out of the story trying to figure out what they were meaning.

However, this book really hit all my vibes I am looking for! Paranormal, Romance, different creatures including the fae!

I don't know if I will continue on with this series though because I feel I need to invest more time in a previous series first.

This book is fire. It took me a couple chapters to understand the world building and character dynamics, but once I got into it I could not put it down! The spice and the enemies-to-lovers trope is my weakest. The plot in this book is deliciously dark and complicated. The inclusion of various mythology systems and folklore was phenomenal. Taylor Aston White does an amazing jump of painting an immersive world without any info dumping and I cannot wait to peel more layers and peer more into this fantasy.

I definitely will be watching and waiting for the next book in the CUrse of the Guardians series and cannot wait to see what happens with the Guardians and immerse myself back into this world (and get more of that spice).

Thank you to NetGally and Dark Wolf Publishing for a e-ARC of Kiss of Darkness.

This is a rare case of me relatively enjoying a book that is objectively not good. I motored through this shit even though I doubt an editor had ever set eyes on it.

There were a few times where I had to reread bits and still didn't end up understanding wtf was going on. I don't think that this is a case of confusion due to British wording or slang. It just didn't make any sense in spots.

There were some things that happened that were very eye-rolly. Like him demanding she take off her skirt so he could tend to her wound.. on her leg. Are you familiar with skirts? Have you ever met a skirt? Also, the thing with visiting his mom's house was absofuckinglutely ridiculous.

There was one point where the very butt-hurt MMC who has treated the FMC like crap for some time suddenly does an about-face and is being all sexy-friendly with her, and it was just off. It was not timed well or written well.

The bad guys were super one-dimensional, bad for the sake of bad because the story needs a villain. The MCs backstories were similar, comically tragic almost. It was very much in the moustache-twisting and assorted cackling realm of bad guys.

This book is the first in a series, but it is also a spin off of another series that the author seems to expect everyone to read because she just plops you in there with no explanation or backstory. It didn't really hamper the story for me too much, but I could see it irritating others.

The sexy bits were okay, nothing spectacular, could have been better. They were pretty sparse for a book of this nature. If you have a cover that is 98% naked man torso, you need to up your sexy bits game.

All that bitching aside, I mowed through this fast. It was decent, but it could have actually been good with a bit more effort and polish.

I wanted to like Kiss of Darkness. The premise caught my attention. I enjoy a good paranormal read as much as I do anything else. I liked Kyra. I thought Xander was ok. I just couldn't stay in the story. I kept finding myself paying attention to other things around me. The interactions and conversations felt meh. Definitely had the enemies to lovers down.
I think for the right person this is easily a five star read. I'm just not that person.

I DNF"d this book around the 25% mark. Paranormal romance is my jam, but the way the author described this world was incredibly confusing. There was a lot of information, but it still didn't make much sense. Add in the fact that the two main characters barely interacted up to that point, I just couldn't justify spending more time on this book.

This is a great start to a series. Very slow burn, enemies to lovers with some spice spashed in. Can't wait to see what happens next with Xander and Kyra's story.

I found aspects of this book a little confusing, but over all a quick romance to get through. The magic system/different creatures should be explained a little bit more in my opinion. I also think they went from enemies to in love super fast. I went into the book looking for a fast and steamy romance with magic and that's what I got.

I really enjoyed this book. The main character was a powerhouse in her own right, and the hero was a work in progress who came through in the end. Their relationship was rocky, but together, she was finally able to step into her power. I would have loved a bit more information on Frederick at the end, in order to enjoy his demise fully, but it was not to be. I must explore this author further.