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A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies
On the night of Skye's seventeenth birthday, she meets two enigmatic strangers. Complete opposites--like fire and ice--Asher is dark and wild, while Devin is fair and aloof. Their sudden appearance sends Skye's life into a tailspin. She has no idea what they want, or why they seem to follow her every move--only that their presence coincides with a flurry of strange events. Soon she begins to doubt not just the identity of the two boys, but also the truth about her own past.
In the dead of a bitingly cold Colorado winter, Skye finds herself coming to terms with the impossible secret that threatens to shatter her world. Torn between Asher, who she can't help falling for, and Devin, who she can't stay away from, the consequences of Skye's choice will reach further than the three of them could ever imagine.
Mini-Review:
A Beautiful Dark was an intriguing debut that took a unique spin on the idea of angels, but it did not completely live up to my expectations. After Skye's seventeenth birthday things begin to get a little weird, especially when two mystery boys show up in town. I liked how normal Skye was, but I never could completely connect with her. Skye had some incredible opportunities, but she never became the person I hoped she would be. She let people make decisions for her and was way too indecisive. Especially when Devin and Asher entered the scene. The love triangle, unfortunately, made certain aspects of the book extremely cliched. It was frustrating to see Skye waffle back and forth between the two of them. Plot wise, I very much enjoyed A Beautiful Dark. Things were very fast-paced and it did keep me reading. I also liked how Davies worked her mythology into the book. There were some intriguing twists in the story and the ending was one hell of a cliffhanger. I will be picking up the sequel because I am interested in seeing what happens next and hopefully A Fractured Light will not be as cliched. Overall, this is worth a read if you can get past some of the obvious comparisons to other works out there and focus instead on the unique take on angels and the variety of mysterious plot twists.
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars
September 27, 2011/HarperTeen/390 Pages/Book One
Source: BEA (ARC)
Other books in this series: A Fractured Light
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Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.
Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.
The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.
Mini-Review:
Wither is one of my all-time favorite books and Fever had a lot to live up to. While I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did Wither, it was still an exciting and well-written sequel that left me eager for book three! Fever picks up soon after Wither left off and we are once again caught up in Rhine and Gabriel's world. I have to say Lauren DeStefano has an amazing imagination and has developed an incredible, but frightening, world in this series. Rhine is such a strong and admirable protagonist and she experienced even more horrible things in this addition to the series. There were so many edge-of-your seat moments in Fever, but some parts were a little slow. I still had a hard time putting this down and felt like I was experiencing everything right alongside Rhine. All of the characters were developed even more in Fever and we got to see a different side of both Gabriel and Rhine. Overall, Fever was a solid sequel to Wither and while I didn't get the same wow spark I did from Wither, I enjoyed this book and am counting down the days until Sever is released.
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
February 21, 2012/Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing/341 Pages/Young Adult/Book Two
Source: Purchased (Hardcover)
Other books in this series: Wither (Book 1), Sever (Book 3- 2013)
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Look for more mini-reviews soon!
I won an advanced reader copy of A Beautiful Dark a while back and I agree, it was quite cliched, but I did enjoy it. I haven't read Wither or any of the others in this series. I have heard mixed things about them so I am a bit nervous about trying them but I might have to just to see what they are all about.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like Wither as much as you did so Fever had the opportunity to improve; the ending was great and now I can't wait for Sever!
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