A Darker Shade of Dead by Bianca D'Arc

Title: A Darker Shade of Dead
Author: Bianca D'arc

Series: Guardians of the Dark (Book 3)

Published By: Brava
Genre:Science Fiction Romance

Intrigue, terrifying betrayals, and a dangerously commanding hero make Bianca D’Arc’s newest paranormal romance an irresistible temptation…
Tapped for a classified military program, Dr. Eileen McCormick has nothing left to lose. Bad enough her genetic experiments were used to turn innocent victims into zombies; worse still, a ruthless ex-colleague is threatening to expose her unless she joins his sinister research project. Now the only way she can set things right is to develop an antidote under the watchful blue eyes of Commander Matt Sykes. And the last thing Eileen needs is Matt’s penetrating gaze, easy understanding, and compelling kiss uncovering all her deepest secrets…
Matt has a sixth-sense for lies as well as danger, and Eileen promises plenty of both. She’s the only person who can eradicate the zombie virus before it reaches epidemic proportions, but he still can’t let her passionate determination affect his steely cool…or keep him from discovering where her true loyalties lie. But as the clock ticks down, Matt and Eileen’s uneasy trust may be their only way to avert catastrophe;if it doesn’t get them killed first…

My Thoughts:

In compliance with FTC guidelines, I won this book through the First-reads program on Goodreads.

First off even though I did receive this through First Reads on Goodreads this isn’t an actual ARC book. The publisher listed the contest and then waited until well after the release date to send me an actual copy of the book. So there was no rush on my part. 

I was a little skeptical about the combination of zombies and romance, it seemed a little odd to me. To me zombies are terrifying, great to read and watch but scary as hell, so to add a main romantic storyline just reads odd to me. To be honest I’m still not sure I like it, it’s just too unrealistic for my tastes. The characters are fairly stereotypical despite their new and fancy roles as a military commander and a scientist. The woman is still the independent, strong, yet silent type who is unaware of her appeal and the man is the uber confident and physically wonderful sex god. Nothing new there, good characters for a story without a storyline but kind of flat for one that does. Now the zombie storyline, there is an actual storyline…or there was until the sex got in the way. It's pretty interesting, and I will admit to having missed out on the books before this one since it wasn't listed as a series at the time. So I'm sure there are things I still don't know that would probably make this more enjoyable for me. The way the zombie outbreak started is fairly standard but I liked Sandra's part in it. But then Matt and Sandra get together and suddenly zombies are no longer important, it becomes relationship first and zombies second.I got tired of them having sex every 5 pages. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy that type of story too but that wasn't what I was looking for in a book that takes on a heavy topic like zombies. I'm a firm believer that if you are going to create a storyline (outside the erotic genre) then you should stick with it, not half way neglect it for a romance. Their relationship is an enjoyable one, it's just not at all what I was expecting out of this. 

As I said before this is number three in a series, it doesn’t tell you that anywhere on this book so I was a little lost at first but I caught up pretty quickly. The author did a nice job of recapping in a believable way. I personally don’t think I’ll be reading the other books in this series unless I happen across them and they are cheap (or free). It gets a three because it wasn’t terrible and it wasn’t wonderful, it’s fairly standard. 

3 Kisses - Sweet & Soft