Elena Likes Books

I was pleasantly surprised by this book's relative unformulaicness. Most romance novels are totally predictable, but this one wasn't at all. It was also really disturbing--this book is not for the faint of heart. It's sort of a superhero thriller romance. And you get three romances for the price of one! (Well, mostly.)Born to Darkness follows a whopping seven characters as they race to rescue a thirteen-year-old girl who has been kidnapped because her blood--and her terror--are valuable in the manufacture of a street drug that grants superpowers to their users--at least until the users "joker" and turn into crazed killers. The Obermeyer Institute is a facility that researches people who come by superpowers naturally ("Greater-Thans") and help them achieve their full potential, and its top three Greater-Thans, with the aid of a new recruit who's a former Navy SEAL, the OI's medical chief, and the missing girl's older sister, will stop at nothing to rescue the girl, who may be an unprecedentedly powerful Greater-Than. And in the midst of all the action, they must also navigate their emotional hangups and relationship issues as they find themselves developing feelings for each other (in neat little pairs--no love triangles here, thank God!).This book's blurb puts all the emphasis on the relationship between OI operative Mackenzie and former Navy SEAL Shane, but the book gives nearly equal treatment to the other two couples. My favorite was the absolutely adorable relationship between OI operative Stephen Diaz and Doctor Elliot Zerkowski. I love them so much, both separately and together.Disappointingly, I wasn't a very big fan of the two female romantic leads, Mackenzie and Anna. Mackenzie was an idiot and Anna was just boring. But there were enough characters in this book, and enough action, that my dislike of the supposed primary heroine didn't really detract much from my enjoyment of the book.The plot was really super intense--much more intense than I'm used to from a romance novel. Honestly, I think people who aren't really into romance would still enjoy this, as long as they're okay with the occasional brief side trip into sexytimes (and with three couples, this happened more than a few times).I'm confused and disappointed that there's no sequel to this. There were quite a few threads left dangling, both plot-wise and relationship-wise, and I would love to see them resolved in a second book.