A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies

Source: ARC from Harper Teen in exchange for a fair and honest review.

My summary:

Her friends throw Skye a surprise birthday party to celebrate her seventeenth birthday. The surprises that follow are much more than a birthday party. She meets the bold Asher and the mysterious Devin. A boiler explodes. The boys seem to know her every move and they know things about her. Then there are her eyes, her gray eyes that seem to go molten silver. More strange surprises plague her all traced back to the night of that birthday party. Who are these boys, these cousins? Why do they hate each other so much? Why are they both so interested in Skye’s every move? She can’t help but be drawn to them but which one? And can she trust them? Why can’t everything go back to the way it was before that silly party? Not for Skye, no going back.

 

My thoughts:



4 stars – a great read

I love angel stories. The first one I fell in love with was Hush, Hush. Since then, I’ve read lots of angel stories, some really good and some lacking. This one was a really good one. I really enjoyed the world building. It was slow and peppered with an average seventeen year-olds life. It kept a sense of mystery for quite a while before answers starting falling into place. What I liked was the graying lines between the “angels” and the “fallen angels”. As the story progressed, it wasn’t really clear which side had humanities best interest at heart. That added to the confusion that Skye felt as she tried to decide if she was interested in either of the two boys. Who could she trust came back to her many times as the most important question to be answered. But what was her heart telling her? This is not your classic love triangle either and choosing between them has so much more connected to it than who she may have fallen in love with. It really comes down to the power of choice in and of itself. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book that clearly expressed this idea of choice in quite the same strong way. I enjoyed that a lot.

I loved the Colorado setting (oh wait, I live in Colorado). Yeah, it’s nice to have the Rocky Mountains be included in a story since I love them so much. I will admit that the geography of the story bugged me, though. It was a fictional town but it referenced real ones. I kept trying to place it somewhere in the state. The long drive of the ski trip was what threw me. I’m just not sure where you could be in this lovely state to have to drive all day to a ski resort. But that aside, I loved the setting.

I loved the characters. Skye is strong and she does NOT go all warm and crazy with one site of Asher, though who could blame her when it comes to Asher. My point is that this is not instant love. Skye has a history of being hurt. She is cautious when it comes to the heart. She stands strong against their attention trying to figure out what she feels. I admire that about her. She has certainly had more than her fair share of sadness in her life and she has clearly grown from it. I liked that. As for her friends, I love Cassie and Dan. What a fabulous support group. I felt sorry for Ian but I think I was supposed to. As for Asher and Devin, well who could decide? Skye wasn’t the only one who was struggling to choose. I don’t usually have a lot of trouble choosing in the love triangles but this book took me about half way to decide that I was team Asher. After the ending, I’m still team Asher and I feel sorry for Devin, poor guy.

Speaking of the ending, that was a cruel cliff hanger. And then to make us wait a year to find out what happens next… um… you are rating right up there with Cassandra Clare for evil teasing, Ms. Davies! Of course that is really a high compliment.

Do you like paranormal romance? A fan of gorgeous angels who aren’t telling everything they know? Then pick this one up, cause it’s a great read!

A Beautiful Dark is part of the Dark Days tour. Have you checked out the Dark Days Tour Schedule?

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