Kiss of Darkness Review: Did This Paranormal Romance Deliver?

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I finished Kiss of Darkness, and I didn’t know how I felt about it. I still don’t fully know how I feel about it.

Kiss of Darkness had all the ingredients of something I should have loved. A paranormal romance set in a supernatural London, black magic, Daemons, complicated characters, and two people who have every reason to stay away from each other, and absolutely no intention of making it easy…for anyone.

The first book in Taylor Aston White’s Curse of the Guardians series (a spin-off from the Alice Skye series) follows Kyra and Xander in a world where black magic is banned, an offense punishable by death, secrets are dangerous, and the line between protecting someone and wanting them becomes increasingly difficult to just let go.

And on paper? This sounded exactly like my kind of book.

But Kiss of Darkness ended up being one of those reads where my answer to “did I like it?” isn’t as simple and straightforward as yes or no.

Title: Kiss of Darkness (Curse of the Guardians, 1)

Author: Taylor Aston White

Publisher: Vinci Books

Format: eARC

Genre: Fantasy, Enemies to Lovers, Paranormal Romance

Release Date: July 30, 2026

Pages: 338

Star Rating: 3 stars

Spice Rating: 1 chili pepper

My Thoughts on Kiss of Darkness

And maybe that’s what made Kiss of Darkness difficult for me to rate: I never reached the point where I overwhelmingly loved it, but I certainly didn’t dislike it either.

By no means was it bad.

I enjoyed parts of the story, wanted more from other parts, and ultimately found myself buried somewhere in the middle. I think it’s because it never quite gave me the depth to completely sink in and immerse myself in the world.

The pieces were there. We have daemons, witches, druids, black magic, a shady Council, different Breeds, and an entirely supernatural society operating within contemporary London. But I often felt like I was being introduced to those pieces instead of being encapsulated by them.

The Worldbuilding Left Me Wanting More

My qualms are not with the fact that we are in a version of London we can inhabit on our own, but with the lack of rich material. Kiss of Darkness feels like it had so much potential to create a rich urban world that felt more lived-in. It feels like pieces are missing, and for someone (like me) not coming from the original series, it leaves gaps in places that should have been more detailed.

What I found myself wanting most was a better understanding of the rules governing this world. Kyra is a dark witch, black magic is banned, and the Council clearly holds authority, but I wanted to understand what all that meant beyond what was necessary to move the immediate story forward. What governs magic and its limitations? Exactly what does the Council control? What does being a dark witch mean within the larger supernatural hierarchy?

And perhaps my biggest question was: how has magic changed this version of London? If at all.

Kiss of Darkness mentions that there are laws outlawing black witches but never fully explains why or what the laws truly are beyond being put to death because “they cannot be contained”. As it stands, the laws feel rather… arbitrary.

We know we’re in a supernatural London, but I never quite developed a sense of how the supernatural had shaped the city itself—its society, its rules, or the lives of the people within it. Those were the details I kept reaching for because they would have made the world feel alive rather than simply a backdrop for Kyra and Xander’s story.

And while we may have gotten those details in past and/or future books, it would have been incredibly helpful to add them to Kiss of Darkness.

A Slow Burn Romance With Even Slower Pacing

Some of that lack of depth may also come down to the pacing.

The overall pacing felt too slow for me. And while, yes, the author mentions this is a slow burn (check out my interview with Taylor), slow burn and pacing aren’t automatically the same thing.

Kiss of Darkness is undoubtedly a slow-burn romance (Xander is quite prejudiced against Kyra), but the slow burn wasn’t limited to Kyra and Xander’s relationship. The story takes its time unfolding, which isn’t inherently a bad thing. But because the pacing was already slower, I found myself wishing more of that time had been used to deepen the world around Kyra and Xander.

Interestingly, while the story itself moved slower than I would have liked, White’s actual writing style was one of the things I enjoyed the most about Kiss of Darkness. Her writing felt pared down and easy to digest, making the book incredibly easy to read even when the story itself was moving quite the way I wanted it to.

And when White wanted me to feel something, she was incredibly effective at it.

I hated every single moment Councilman Frederick was on the page. I loathe that man and what he represented so much that there were moments I wanted to DNF solely because I couldn’t stand being in his presence.

Every time he appeared, I was practically screaming into the void, please somebody, ANYBODY, kill this douchey asshole.

And I mean that as a compliment.

It takes incredibly effective characterization to make me feel that strongly about someone who doesn’t actually exist in real life 😂. White made Frederick so thoroughly unlikeable that my reaction to him became visceral, and that ability to pull such a strong emotional response from me was easily one of the strengths of her writing.

KISS OF DARKNESS BY TAYLOR ASTON WHITE CURSE OF GUARDIANS BOOK ONE THE DIARY OF A READER

The Guardians Were the Heart of Kiss of Darkness

And that strength carries across all of Taylor’s characters (though, thankfully, none of them made me hate them quite as much as I hated Frederick).

There is a warmth to the characters in Kiss of Darkness that makes them feel as if you know them. As if somewhere along the way you became one of the Guardians. They are layered, messy, and carrying their own histories, but it was the relationships between them that made them feel alive to me.

This is particularly true for Kyra and Xander. Both are carrying the weight of painful pasts, and much of their relationship is about becoming vulnerable enough to let the other in. For Kyra especially, who has spent so much of her life alone because of what she is and what she has to hide, there was something tender about watching her come to a place where she didn’t have to be quite so alone.

But as much as I enjoyed Kyra and Xander, the standouts for me were Kace and Lucy.😂Lucy should definitely have more page time (I am so glad he gets his own book). He and Kace added such great personality to the bunch of Guardians. They both had such sparkling personalities that I want to keep reading just so I can see them get their happily ever afters as well.

So Who Should Read Kiss of Darkness?

So we’re at the age-old question: who is Kiss of Darkness for?

Kiss of Darkness is a great option for those new to fantasy and paranormal romance.

It is for readers who enjoy very slow-burn paranormal romance, darker power dynamics, contemporary supernatural settings, and who don’t require dense world-building to become invested in the story. It offers a great entry point to the genre without overwhelming readers with pages of lore, magic systems, or political machinations.

Thank you to Taylor Aston White and Vinci Books for providing me with an eARC of Kiss of Darkness to read and review.

Please shop indie on Bookshop.org and support a local indie bookstore of your choosing at no extra cost to you. And if Amazon is the easiest choice for you, thanks ok just support Taylor and buy Kiss of Darkness; just make it your last choice (please).