Untouchable Darkness by Rachel Van Dyken

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve been given 30 days to prove my love to another immortal – as a human. Cursed to use nothing but the side of myself I’ve always despised to win her affection. I am Cassius, the King of the immortals, A Dark One. And today I tasted fear for the first time.

How can I win her when my human emotions over take every ounce of logic I possess? A darkness is brewing. One I cannot stop as a human. One that Stephanie, my love’s visions, have shown, will be my end.

Thirty days ago I was King of the immortals. Today I know fear. Today I know how I will die. By her hand. The woman I love.

Untouchable Darkness

Immortal Love… With a 30-Day Deadline

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💚💜💙
Story/Plot: 📕📗
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪
World building: 🌏🌍🌎
Character development: 😋🙂😍
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Dual Narration

🦸🏼‍♀️ Heroine: Stephanie
Stephanie is a Dark One — an immortal siren who’s walked the earth for centuries — but even after all that time, she still doesn’t know quite how to handle her feelings for Cassius, the man she’s loved across lifetimes. When she learns that Cassius cast a protective spell on her as a child to hide her from angels sworn to destroy newly made Dark Ones, her entire history shifts into a new light. Just days ago, she gave her essence to their king, fully expecting it to cost her life. Instead, she awoke… altered. Alive, yet changed. And in the aftermath, Cassius vanished without a trace.

🦸🏻‍♂️ Hero: Cassius
Cassius is half angel and, until recently, king of the immortals. He sacrificed his immortality for Stephanie, a choice that stripped him of his power and left him painfully human. His father, the archangel Sariel, offers him a single, razor-edged bargain: make Stephanie fall in love with him within thirty days, and he regains his immortality. Fail, and his story ends forever. After millennia of existence, Cassius had grown weary of life, but now as a human, he’s suddenly aware of how fragile and vivid living can be. Still, he knows how the Dark Ones see humans — and he fears that, despite their centuries-long history, he may not stand a chance with Stephanie.

🔥 The Story
The book picks up immediately where the previous one ended — though for me, it had been long enough since listening to that earlier installment that I needed a refresher on the world. This universe teems with supernatural beings: sirens, vampires, demons, angels, werewolves, and more. The cast is large, featuring many returning characters from the prior book: Stephanie’s brother and his mate Ethan, Genesis, her adopted brother Alex, and her friend Mason, among others.

Stephanie’s new condition — carrying angel blood after Cassius gifted her his immortality — draws the unwanted attention of demons. She’s also still discovering what abilities now lie beyond her siren power to feed on emotions. The real shock comes when she learns Cassius hasn’t abandoned her at all — he’s still here, only… human. Stephanie has never had much patience for humans, barely sparing them a thought, but her love for Cassius complicates everything she thought she knew about herself.

Unfortunately, I ran into the same problem here that I had with the first book in the series: the characters felt flat, their emotional arcs unconvincing. For me, part of the magic of an audiobook is feeling completely immersed — caring deeply about the characters, living inside their struggles and triumphs. That spark just wasn’t there. I’ve enjoyed many of RVD’s works in the past, but this story simply didn’t pull me in.

🎙 Narration
The audiobook is told in dual POV with dual narration by Chris Chambers and Hollie Jackson. Hollie Jackson is a narrator I usually enjoy — particularly in alien romance — thanks to her expressiveness and appealing tone. However, her voice felt slightly mismatched for a darker romance and sounded older than the heroine. Chris Chambers isn’t one of my personal favorites, though his performance is competent and consistent

💬 Quotes

“I think the best thing for you right now would be to get Cassius caught up on pop culture.”
Cassius groaned. “I’m not stupid. I know about the Backstreet Boys.”
Alex burst out laughing. “Oh this may be my favorite moment – of my entire existence. Right up there with the time I watched Ethan take his first bite of pizza thinking the sauce was blood.”

“She was the equivalent of a superhero who just found out they had supernatural powers.”

“Why did I suddenly care about the Demon’s blood downstairs? Or the lives that could be lost because of the secret he held?
Why did I care?
The answer?
Came to me as Stephanie lightly brushed the back of my neck with her fingertips.
Her.
It was because of her.
I cared because I loved her.
Her love made me feel.
All the things I’d pushed away.
The Darkness told me it was dangerous to feel.
The Darkness was right.
Because in feeling–I cared–I wanted fairness. I wanted equality. I wanted peace.
Hell, I wanted the impossible.”

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