From the Bookshelf of Reverse Harem Revolution…

Darkness Rising (The Severed Souls, #1)

A.K. Koonce

Start date: July 10, 2018

Discussion: RH Buddy Reads

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 1 of -3 topics — 351 comments total

RH Buddy Reads

* RH Buddy Read Suggestions 2024
By Daisy Delfin , Nerd · 87 posts · 150 views

last updated May 15, 2025 10:38AM

showing 5 of 5 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Apr 29, 2019 Brittain *Needs a Nap and a Drink* rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, love-triangle, reverse-harem, dark-broody-alpha-male, paranormal, never-again, cover-bait-and-switch, close-but-no-cigar

Overall opinion on this book: It's trying way too hard.

It felt like this book was meant to be dark and edgy but it simply did not have the depth to draw me in and make me feel anything for these characters. The name "Violence" is too on the nose. Stealing souls. Fighting demons in the dark.

It seemed like there was not enough to this book at all. There was hardly any dialogue and there was no light points to balance out the dark. You can't have something be 100% dark, even if it is supposed to b ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Jan 14, 2019 Iretsia rated it liked it

Shelves: fae, magic-user, telepathy-mind-reading, toxic-family, sex-for-utility, reverse-harem, fantasy, dnf-series, royalty, thief

2.5 stars. The story was undeveloped, and it just felt short. I didn’t really mind the length though, because I wasn’t particularly invested in anything in the book.

The MC, Violence, has apparently spent the last few years completely mute by choice, driving the men in the Hunt with her crazy. She finally speaks when in the form of a single expletive when she accidentally breaks a law and touches a living human, taking his soul (or something) ahead of its time. I liked that she finally broke her 2.5 stars. The story was undeveloped, and it just felt short. I didn’t really mind the length though, because I wasn’t particularly invested in anything in the book.

The MC, Violence, has apparently spent the last few years completely mute by choice, driving the men in the Hunt with her crazy. She finally speaks when in the form of a single expletive when she accidentally breaks a law and touches a living human, taking his soul (or something) ahead of its time. I liked that she finally broke her silence to curse, and she obviously had to talk a bit after that because she was called before the king, but I have no idea why she kept talking after all that. It was framed as if meeting the human, Cameron, changed everything and made her want to speak, but I never really got why, and the change happened before they’d ever really gotten to know each other.

Violence really didn’t have any relationship development with any of the guys. Apparently just the fact that she could talk flipped some sort of switch: “As I trail back to the Wild Hunt, they look at me in a new light. The men watch me carefully. They look at me like I’m a real woman instead of a broken girl.” There needed to be more to it than that, but there wasn’t really. Her relationship with Link went from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye, and her relationship with Nollix was overdramatic at times. She decides that she needs to do some self-sacrificing thing to save everyone, meaning it had nothing to do with her relationship with Noliix, but he doesn’t want her to go, so she tells him to give her a reason to stay (because apparently not dying isn’t enough), and when she doesn’t like his answer, she concludes that he never really cared about her. ??? This conversation had nothing to do with anything that was happening at the moment, and the whole thing was just weird. While she mourns the apparent breakdown of their relationship, she thinks, “I try hard not to remember the gentle way he kissed me.” Look, he never kissed her gently. His kisses were always rough and feral or whatever, so she wouldn’t need to try very hard to avoid remembering that nonexistent gentleness.

A few things in the plot confused me. At one point, someone says, “An Elder Warlock wouldn’t have a problem raising the dead, or bargaining with the devil for souls. Especially if the King’s daughter is the one retrieving said souls.” I had no idea why it would make a difference if the king’s daughter retrieved the soul, but Violence responded mentally, narrating, “I start to wonder why he’s making so much sense all of a sudden.” Look, he’s not. I also never really understood how their soul retrieval works. The Hunt seems to be some sort of filter between death and life, a transport to the underworld. My issue is that they eat the souls, so I’m very unclear on how the souls go from their stomachs to the underworld. Also, they don’t get called to retrieve souls very often in the book, so they can’t possibly need to go anytime someone dies, but I have no idea how the magic decides which deaths they need to go for.

Some other things bothered me as well. First, I thought it was weird that Nollix’s big reaction to the fact that Violence could talk happened after the second time she spoke rather than the first time. At one point, Violence fights the big bad guy and chops his arm off. Good for her, but she just stood there staring at him instead of pressing her advantage and going for his head. Also, 87% into this book, we learn that they’ve been wearing jeans this whole time in this high fantasy world. I hadn’t really been picturing them wearing anything specifc until that point, but I sure wasn’t picturing them wearing jeans. Also, I guess these fae can apparently touch iron because Violence didn’t react when she touched it, but why bothering mentioning that the fae prison has iron bars if iron doesn’t affect them?

The writing itself contained many of the grammatical issues that are typical of this author (malapropisms and spelling and punctuation issues), but this book had fewer issues than her other books typically do. Some areas just straight up didn’t sound good though, like this redundant passage: “It fumes a bluish tone. It smokes with color. Pure blue smoke rolls off of the blade and clouds around our feet as we stalk through the hall.” It was like the author was trying to decided the best way to express that and couldn’t choose her favorite sentence, so she just gave us all of her drafts. The author also used past tense instead of present tense in the dialogue at all times, and the author’s statements occasionally didn’t match what we’d actually seen for ourselves in the story. For example, Violence mentions her “constant unsteady thoughts,” but I hadn’t seen any unsteady thoughts, much less constant ones.

This wasn’t the worst Koonce book I’ve read, but I won’t continue the series.

PROGRESS UPDATES
37% “‘Do I seriously have to sit here and listen to him woo her?’ Nollix’s annoyance is heavy in his voice.” Yeah babe, that’s the genre. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 01, 2018 Jordan rated it really liked it

Shelves: magic-and-powers, reverse-harem, fae, royalty, arc

This new book by A.K. Koonce is a promising start to what looks to be another amazing reverse harem series! A little short but definitely a great read, Darkness Rising is full of unique characters and an interesting setting that I can't wait to read more about.

This book follows Violence, a powerful fae princess being used by the King for an unknown evil. Sent to be a part of the Wild Hunt at eighteen, Vi works with three men, Jeriko, Nollix, and Link, to take the souls of murdered fae. Throw in ...more

Like · see review

Jul 21, 2018 Margaux Espinosa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed

This was was fantastic, it wasn’t what I expected at all but much better. Violence is a bit crazy and has some daddy issues and the second strongest magic wielder in the kingdom, but her guys in the wild hunt though not as strong as her magically aren’t really any different, having issues of their own. After an accident during a hunt she ends up stuck with a warlock with magic that rivals her own and an affinity for trying to nick things from her father the king. The king is a royal ass and evil ...more

Like · see review

Jul 10, 2018 Yasmin rated it liked it

Violence (Vio) is a weird name for an MC

The story is okay.

Like · see review

Jul 02, 2018 Ann rated it really liked it

Shelves: continuing-series

love stories with the wild hunt. This one had a bit of a different twist then I was used to. Violence is a part of the wild hunt because the mad king, who is also her father, sent her there as a punishment. The story is short but worth the read. It gave me a glimpse into each of the characters and left me wanting the next book when I finished reading.

Like · see review