Review // Dark Redemption by Aja James

August 14, 2021

Dark Redemption by Aja James

For a man who felt dead inside, this woman — Clara — represented the spark of life that inspired him to keep breathing, keep walking, in the hopes that, one day, he might emerge from the darkness that ever surrounded him.
That he might feel again.

Dark Redemption by Aja James

Dark Redemption by Aja James


Pure/Dark Ones #6
Release - October 10, 2018
Genre - Paranormal Romance
Multiple POV - 3rd person
Heat Level - 4 out of 5
Format/Source - ebook borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Page Count - 230 pages
Publisher - Indie

All his existence, he’s fought for the wrong side…

Born and trained to be the most fearsome Dark warrior the immortal races had ever seen, Enlil of Anatolia had only ever known ruthlessness, brutality and rigid control. He was a weapon used by others, his life never his own.

Until he spits in the eye of Fate…

No longer able to abide by the atrocities he witnessed and engendered, he severs all ties to the past, risking his own life and sanity, and awakens a nameless man without memory.

And is taken in by a human woman in search of her own Destiny…

Raised in an orphanage, Clara Scott has always wanted a family of her own. Full of love, life and hope, she adopts a lost little girl and befriends a homeless man. In his eyes, she sees endless darkness and pain. But through his actions, she sees a strong, noble, imperfect, yet beautiful spirit—

She sees a soul worth redeeming.

Buy it here: Amazon
(free to read with Kindle Unlimited)


Did Aja James write a perfect villain redemption arc or what?!

I was already feeling for Enlil. He had many demons and I liked that he was finally going to confront them. To get a whole story devoted to him actually realizing the amazing male he could be... call it bliss!

All he knew was pain, sacrifice and betrayal. Anatolian males were taught from birth never to care for anything but honing their unrivaled skills as warriors. First his father. Then the first and only person to give him affection (screw you, Anu). After millenia spent alone and lonely, no wonder he felt so empty.

After severing the ties that bond, Enlil awoke with no memory. He was lost and yet he knew things. Things that made him dangerous. However, nothing in his past could have prepared him for Clara Scott. She was like a force of nature. Big-hearted, tender and kind, she was the perfect person to balance him out. He didn’t know what she saw when she stared so intently at him, but he knew what he saw: A beautiful faerie with dark red tresses, brilliant blue eyes, a curious mind, and a passionate heart.

Everything that grew between Enlil and Clara felt like magic. She was an orphan who was adopting an orphan (yes, little orphan Annie got a new mommy) and Enlil was a male with no family, no friends, no memories, and no home. She gave him everything he was missing. Passion. Life. Joy. She was all the best feelings Eli could imagine in one package, simply bursting with it. And he fulfilled her in such wonderful ways.

His beauty was so raw, so elemental and devastating, that it reached physically into her internal organs, deep into her blood and bones, and made the primitively female part of her sit up and growl—mine.

This story made me all sappy and I wish I could see a picturesque reunion scene between father and son. I think that would be the only way to improve on this perfection. Let Enlil and Ryu give each other huge bro hugs and have them mansplain their issues away so that we can all be happy together. Seriously, I can't get enough of this series and with all of the loose ends this book gave me, I have to dive into the next one.

And here are my kinda spoiler-y discussion points...


★ Who is the Pure female working both sides? I have my suspicions, especially after the whole description of bells around her ankles, but why is she doing this? What does she hope to gain? How could she betray everyone this way? When will her identity be revealed? When will everyone know? And does the author make her death especially gruesome, as she deserves?
★ It was pretty obvious that Dalair would be the latest inductee into Medusa/Anu's mindless minion brigade. However, if she no longer has her powers, how is she able to control all of these people? I can only hope he doesn't end up like Leonidas.
★ I thought for sure that we would find out more about Clara and what seems to be her own magical identity. Will this be explored in another book? Does she also possess immortality, without knowing? And will she and Enlil/Eli be part of the growing Pure and Dark alliance?
★ Will I get the scene I've been looking for... where Ryu and Enlil finally hash things out and come to some sort of understanding?
★ The Creature is evil. How the heck can he ever be redeemed? I know he is because of the spin-off series, but HOW??? He's making it hard for me to hold out hope for any kind of relationship with his family. After everything he's done and continues to do, how can he look Inanna, Ashtar and Tal in the eye. He helped to keep his father prisoner! He allowed for his torture! WTH?!

Check out the previous books:



“Your past does not define who you are, Eli,” she whispered against his mouth. The palm of one hand cupped his cheek while she pressed the other over his beleaguered heart.

“You still have the present and an uncharted future. I have seen the real you in the past couple of weeks, unburdened by birth, by title, by experience and expectations.”

She kissed him softly, tender presses upon his closed mouth. He felt the heat of her desire, but he also felt her understanding, compassion and care.

“You gave yourself a name, and it is a good one. You traced your steps here, to me and Annie. This is where you belong. In our hearts. This is who you are—the man I love.”

A shuddering sigh filled his chest as he opened his lips beneath hers, simply breathing her in.

Love me, he invited. Even though I don’t deserve it. Even though I’m afraid to accept it. I can’t stop myself from wanting it with every piece of my blackened soul.

She wet his lips with hers and swept her tongue inside, plundering all he had to offer, staking her claim.

You’re mine, her mouth said. Love is a gift given freely, and I want to give you all the love in my heart.

Slowly and deeply she kissed him, coaxing him to kiss her back, encouraging him to claim her just as she was claiming him. Endlessly, their mouths fused, their tongues tangled, their lips swollen with an insatiable, ravenous hunger to kiss and suck and drink and lap.

She pulled slightly away to murmur into his mouth, “This would be a good time to disappear our clothes like you did last time, ‘Lord Wind’.”


Aja James just completed the Pure/ Dark Ones paranormal-fantasy romance series in 2020. If you want your heart battered, bruised, shattered and skewered, then put back together in the most glorious ways, check out the series below. Every couple gets an HEA, but they fight like hell for it on the way.

Aja is now working on her new series, Dragon Tails, because dragons are her favorite shifters of all!

Visit https://aja-james.blog/ for more information!

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