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Monday, July 14, 2014

NICOLE'S REVIEW: The Dark World by Cara Lynn Shultz

Title: The Dark World
Author: Cara Lynn Shultz
Format Acquired: eARC
Publication Date: May 27 2014
Publishing House: Harlequin Teen
ISBN: 9780373211203
Source of Copy: NetGalley

Summary:

Paige Kelly is used to weird - in fact, she probably corners the market on weird, considering that her best friend, Dottie, has been dead since the  1950s. But when a fire demon attacks Paige in detention, she has to admit that things have gotten out of her league. Luckily, the cute new boy in school, Logan Bradley, is a practiced demon slayer - and he isn't fazed by Paige's propensity to chat with the dead. Suddenly, Paige is smack in the middle of a centuries-old battle between warlocks and demons, learning to fight with a magic sword so that she can defend herself. And if she makes one wrong move, she'll be pulled into the Dark World, an alternate version of our world that's overrun by demons - and she might never make it home.


(Image and information courtesy of Goodreads; Summary lifted from actual book)

Review:

Color me surprised. After DNFing Spellbound (I barely reached a quarter of the book) I never really though I'd pick up another book by Shultz again. How wrong was I? See, I was drawn in by the cover and the promise of demons so I said yes. Why not? And thank the universe I actually ended up liking this book.

Think parallel dimensions; our world on one side and a darker, more evil version next to it. That side is called The Dark World. Enter Paige - she's an outcast and her penchant for talking to ghosts isn't doing her any favors. Her best friend Dottie is the aforementioned ghost interested in boys and invested in Paige's nonexistent love life. Paige has always known she was stranger than most and she's learned to deal with it. That is until a fire demon attacks her and Logan steps in to save the day. Now she's got demons to face, a cute boy to play with, all the while trying to not get sucked into The Dark World. Sounds like fun.

I have, overall, no complaints about the characters. And the romance was pretty okay. There was a case of insta-love but nothing too cringe-worthy. I also thought I saw a love triangle in there but thankfully it was a false alarm. Thing is I kind of wished there was more story, less romance. But hey, at least Logan gives Paige her own weapon and rather than making her hide behind his back, actually teaches her how to use it.

Shultz has this super creepy alternate New York set up where all different kinds of demons in varying levels of power cluster as they wage war with the warlocks. It's interesting, I wanted more, I wanted to see blood and maybe a little gore (hello, bloodthirsty demons!) but there wasn't much of that. Hopefully we'll get more in book two.

I get though that all those teasing glimpses into the Dark World set us up for the next. With the way it ended, I'm not really surprised. I'm looking forward to the next book and thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for the copy. Looking for your next paranormal read? This could be the one.

Rating:

                        

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