Happily Ever Endings... Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

Happily Ever Endings... was born out of sheer frustration. You know how when you read a series and you love it but the last book takes a little while to come out and then you sort of forget parts of the novel? That's what these posts are going to serve to remedy. Happily Ever Ending... is a short post about what happened at the ending of each book that is going to be in a series for people who need a quick reminder of what happened in the previous installment. I hope this saves someone else the frustration that I went through!

Darkness Becomes Her (Gods & Monsters #1) by Kelly Keaton

Ari can’t help feeling lost and alone. With teal eyes and freakish silver hair that can’t be changed or destroyed, Ari has always stood out. And after growing up in foster care, she longs for some understanding of where she came from and who she is.

Her search for answers uncovers just one message from her long dead mother: Run. Ari can sense that someone, or something, is getting closer than they should. But it’s impossible to protect herself when she doesn’t know what she’s running from or why she is being pursued.

She knows only one thing: she must return to her birthplace of New 2, the lush rebuilt city of New Orleans. Upon arriving, she discovers that New 2 is very...different. Here, Ari is seemingly normal. But every creature she encounters, no matter how deadly or horrifying, is afraid of her.

Ari won’t stop until she knows why. But some truths are too haunting, too terrifying, to ever be revealed.

Click "Read More" to read the ending of Darkness Becomes Her so you're set for the next installment!

Ari breaks out of prision with a bunch of fellow prisioners after learning that Athena, the Greek Goddess of war is actually her captor. She trues to free all the prisioners but the urge her to leave a Hunter who they say helped trap them to Ari's better judgement. It turns out that one of the prisioners she helped was Sebastian's father, a powerful warlock and head of his family.

Ari overhears a discussion with the Novem about how they want to harbor her, like her mother, and use her as a weapon against Athena when she grows to maturity. Unwilling to be a pawn, Ari decides to leave but gets a note that Josephine has her friends and expects her presence at an annual ball. There she finds Sebastian and confides everything to him. They decide to find out who she is by grinding Alice Cromley's bones at dawn.

In the graveyard, Ari sees the plight of her ancestors, who her first ancestor was raped by a God and how Athena cursed her for it instead of taking pity on her. The family curse is that at maturity, she will turn into Medeusa and as such can kill Athena. All of her friends abandon her except for Violet who thinks she is beautiful. When Athena comes and tries to make a deal, Ari doesn't accept and Athena threatens to kill the parade up ahead. The parade comes into the graveyard, and it is all of Ari's friends and the Novem, there to back her up.

Ari realizes she can wield her power even now and uses it against Athena, suceeding in turning Athena's sword to stone. As Athena goes to attack Ari, Violet jumps on her and sticks a dagger in her heart. Both Athena and Violet disappear but not without first revealing that the Hunter she left in prison was actually her father. Ari moves to New 2 to practice her powers in order to find and kill Athena for her family, for her father, for Violet and for herself.

So that should catch you up! Is there anything I missed that you think is important? If so, let me know in the comments and I'll add it!