In book five in the Darkest London series, Holly Evernight is too afraid to leave the safety of her London home, Evernight House, and passes the time by creating technical wonders. A year earlier, a cruel fallen angel had kidnapped her and forced her to build a mechanical clockwork heart, which he then brutally installed in an unwilling demon. Even though she’s human, she’s descended from the Fae and can control all types of metal. Her life is now in danger again, and the only man to help her is the one she’s been struggling to forget.
Sanguis demon William Thorne has lived in terrible pain for a year. His platinum clockwork heart keeps him alive, but the metal has taken over his body, turning him into a mindless fiend. He wants nothing more than to kill the woman responsible for building the heart, but when he finds her, he realizes she’s his only hope for a cure. With one touch, Holly draws the pain away and controls the metal. In exchange for her help, he promises to find the assassins out to kill her.
Holly was very cold, logical, and closed-off to her emotions while Will embraced his emotions and always sought out joy and amusement. Even though they initially disliked and mistrusted one another, they quickly found common ground through sexual attraction and a mutual need to belong to someone. They were complete opposites, but fit perfectly together. He loosened her up, and she gave him order.
Though I liked Will and Holly a lot (they’re one of my favorite couples in the series), I don’t understand why neither of them showed remorse for the people they had killed. (Holly killed a female demon in self-defense, and Will killed a human blood donor while in a mindless rage.) Their lack of emotion in those two instances didn’t seem right.
Holly’s cousin, Sin Evernight, has been talked about for a few books now, and I’m so happy he’s finally been introduced on page!
I loved all the scenes with Adam and Eliza May, but I didn’t like him very much.
It was great to see Mary and Jack again, but I wish the questions I had from their book would’ve been answered in this one.
It’s always interesting to see Poppy Lane, the heroine from book three, in her role as Mother, the leader of the SOS, the society that protects the secret of the existence of supernatural creatures. As Mother, she’s cold and a little cruel, but that’s just a front for the kind woman beneath the surface.
As with the previous book, there are some unanswered questions. Will Holly lose her prestigious job with SOS, as Poppy threatened, since she’s refusing to give up Will? The secret group of assassins, the Amulet, was very interesting, but how did Will join up with them? After Will and Holly tricked Mab, will life go back to normal for Will’s human family?
I like Ms. Callihan’s writing style, despite the occasional use of passive voice. It’s flowery and flows well with unique descriptions, metaphors, and adjectives. Behind Winterblaze, this is my favorite book in the series.
4.5 Stars
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I love these books. ( )

I adore this series! It doesn't cater to any of my favored tropes but I still love the characters. I am SUPER excited for the next installment. ( )

It took me forever to get through this book. I don’t know exactly why but I just kept losing interest in it. I had a lot of things on my mind so I’m not sure if it was entirely the book’s fault or not. I do think it dragged a bit at times though. I can’t even put my finger on the exact reason but it became tedious at times. It could be that the tension between the two lead characters went on a little too long. It happened in the last book also and I hope it doesn’t become a pattern for the series.

Holly Evernight comes from a long line of inventors. She is an elemental who can manipulate metal with her mind. She was recently kidnapped right out from under the noses of the SOS (The Society for the Suppression of Supernaturals) and forced to create clockwork hearts by an evil demon, Amaros, who thought her inventions could save his life. She was forced to watch as he ripped the heart out of his victims and replaced them with her inventions so that he could test them before using one on himself. She was saved but has not left her home in almost a year. She even works from home now.

William Thorne is a sanguis demon who was one of Amaros’ victims. He survived but is losing his mind while his body is turning to metal. His friend, Jack Talent, had been taking care of him but in a state of mindlessness, he escapes and is bent on revenge against the woman who he blames for ruining his life, Holly Evernight. When he tries to kill her though, he discovers that she has the power to ease his constant pain and ease his mind so he makes a deal with her not to kill her and to also protect her if she helps him.

Meanwhile, there are assassins out to kill Holly and together they need to find out who wants her dead.

There were some background stories going on that were driving me crazy because they were shrouded in vagueness. Adam, the creator of the GIMs (Ghosts in the Machine, people who upon death cried out for revenge or wanted to live so Adam puts a clockwork heart into them in exchange for servitude for a certain amount of time. They can leave their bodies in ghost form) is running around with a woman chained to his arm, Eliza May. She is Holly’s cousin. She is one of his creations but he is acting all crazy and dragging her with him everywhere. He seems to think she can save him somehow like she is his soulmate or something like that but she seems to hate him and refuses to talk to him. Gee, I wonder why? She died and in a panic, she agrees to be a GIM and then he chains her to his arm and treats her like property and then can’t understand why she is upset with him.

Sin or St. John who Holly calls her cousin is looking for Eliza May for some reason. He is lurking around Holly and Will and wants them to help him find her. He knows she is with Adam but needs someone to call Adam so he can try to steal Eliza from him.

Of course, Holly and Will are attracted to each other but seem to hate each other. It goes on and on like that for most of the book. I really like Will’s character but I never did warm up to Holly. She was just too cold and had no sense of humor.

The next book is not out yet so I will have to wait to read it. I’m interested to see what happens with Adam and Sin’s characters.

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This felt mostly kinda average. I liked the characters okay, but was a little irritated by their antics for a large chunk of the story. It got a bit stronger toward the end I thought. ( )