Kresley Cole is a powerhouse in the PNR (Paranormal Romance) genre. If you are a fan of this particular genre and you haven’t started the Immortals After Dark series (Why??!), you are missing out. WICKED ABYSS is the 18th book in the series and not really characters most of the fans of the series could get behind (in prerelease). We’re always hoping that one of the “left-hanging” (open plots from other books) characters will get their HEA, but then she throws out characters that we haven’t gotten attached to in the other books in the series.

Even though these characters weren’t “hype worthy”, once I started reading, I was sucked into the story. In typical Kresley Cole style, you have two characters come together that you don’t know if they are going to kill each other or have lots and lots of sex. These two clashed from the start, and their banter was the highlight of the story. The banished fey princess hides in plain sight at Disneyland, and the sarcasm that is spawned from that fact is hilarious. She’s supposedly the reincarnated mate of one King of Hell, and overall super surly bastard, Sian. Sian was tormented by the prior incarnation of Lila and has vowed vengeance for centuries. When Nix tells him his mate has been reborn and living in the human land, he kidnaps her and brings her to his hell domain, his intent is to torture her for her past wrong-doings. But, this wouldn’t be a PNR if he wasn’t captivated by her overall hotness…and is tortured himself by his attraction to her. It was a fun ride–very sexy ride too.

The story was typical of Cole’s Immortals After Dark series, very hot, very alpha males, trying to force their will on a “plucky” female, who doesn’t want anything to do with them. But, their attraction wins them over and they find themselves falling in love. I laughed out loud at parts of Wicked Abyss and blushed at others. Unlike other books in the series, this one was really sexual, I mean really sexual. It’s hard to hold on to the overall plot of the series, because there is just so much going on in this series, but I didn’t catch any overall plot with this, or not an obvious one. On her website, Cole has this listed this as a “stand-alone” so that could be the reason, this book is meant to get people hooked into the series. So, you can start here and go back to the beginning, without getting lost or have too much Lore to digest quickly. Fans of the series might find this frustrating, they want more….let’s admit it, we’re all waiting for Nix’s HEA – but you know that’s gonna be the last one! So, my advice, is if you haven’t read the series, you can start here or you can go to #1 A Hunger Like No Other, and experience it like it should be experienced.

Narration by Robert Petkoff, who has been doing Cole’s books for as long as I’ve been listening to them on audiobook. Petkoff, like Cole is a powerhouse and his accents, manly voice, and sexually explicit sound-effects are swoon-worthy. I enjoyed this audiobook, even though I do prefer to read PNR. I just didn’t have the time.

Overall, an enjoyable, sexy, funny, and action-packed PNR.  Cole does it again, but I didn’t expect anything less.