Review of Kick at the Darkness (Kick at Darkness #1) by Keira Andrews

  by Keira Andrews

5 stars

To live through the zombie apocalypse they have to survive each other first.

College freshman Parker Osborne is having the worst day ever. He humiliated himself trying to pick up a cute guy, he hasn’t made any friends at school, and his stupidly hot jerk of a TA gave him a crappy grade on his paper. He’s going to drop Adam Hawkins’ film class and start fresh tomorrow after he’s had a good sulk.

But Parker’s about to find out what a bad day really looks like—if he can survive the night.

A virus is unleashed, transforming infected people into zombie-like killers. After these quick and deadly creepers swarm campus, Parker only escapes thanks to Adam swooping him onto the back of his trusty motorcycle. Now they're on the run—and stuck with each other.

When they’re not bickering, they’re fighting off the infected in a bloody battle for survival. Their only hope is to head east to Parker's family, but orphaned Adam has a secret he’s not sure Parker will accept: he’s a werewolf. Can they trust each other enough to find some light in these dark days?

Riley Hart again nails a sexy enemies-to-lover romance in Depth of Field. She creates to main characters both hiding in their own ways who find that they fit so good together.

There is no hiding it, our absolute love for everything Keira Andrews – no seriously!  We have a crush for everything she writes, and Kick at the Darkness, a paranormal-shifter book (yep, you read that right) is outstanding!!!

We start with a snotty know it all college student, Parker Osborne.  A freshman who has grown up with a silver spoon, I can do nothing wrong attitude.  But College is harder than he thinks; he is struggling with fitting in, making any connections and expectations of his classes.  When his easy-A class get him a crappy grade on a paper he takes it personally and argues his case for a better grade.  But instead of getting his way he comes up against TA Adam Hawkins, a total hard ass. Adam Hawkins has seen Parker’s type before and it’s budging on the grade, and hope that he will drop the class like he said he will.  But, fate has a weird way of getting what it wants.  When a virus is unleashed on the world, Adam and Parker find themselves thrown together, bickering the whole way to survival.

We actually struggled with picking up this book; not really into shifters, zombies, end-of-the-world book, no doom and gloom for us.  But gah – we were so wrong!  Yes, Kick a the Darkness deals with a horrific outbreak, gore, death, but it somewhere in all that horror Parker and Adam find each other.  A werewolf and snotty college student find themselves thrown together to survive and actually find what they have been missing.

So, down to the nitty gritty – what did we love about Kick at the Darkness?  It is romantic, yes, weird to say, as they run for their lives, but it is.  Adam and Parker are clinging to each other, supporting each other and caring for each other, and their sweetness is romantic.  But the story is the real gem here.  So many times we read romance books that don’t have a story, but Kick at the Darkness delivers; it twists, turns and kept us riveted to the edge of our kindle. 

But it isn’t all about running for their lives, these men create some serious heat. Adam is totally the alpha in this relationship but as Parker becomes more comfortable there is a sexy little dirty side that takes over.  So many sweaty, spicy, scalding moments – so good!

Kick at the Darkness is an unexpected gem.  We fell in love with the fast-paced story, the sexy men and it was pretty close to perfection.  Keira Andrews creates stories, not just books; she creates characters that are real and we fall in love with everyone.  Kick at the Darkness of 2 books – and spoiler, we already read the 2^nd and it is better than the first!