A Beautiful Dark ~ Jocelyn Davies review

A Beautiful Dark (#1 in trilogy)
Harper Teen
400 pages
September 27, 2011
Goodreads/Amazon

The night of Skye's seventeenth birthday - during the surprise party she told her friends not to throw yet again - she meets two strangers. Both are mysterious in their own right, yet complete opposites of each other: one is dark haired and reckless, the other fair and controlled. Opposite ends of the spectrum, yet both incredibly appealing to Skye who can't get them out of her head.

Or her life it seems. Both boys, Asher the daring one and Devin the calm one, seem to keep popping up at every moment.

Skye isn't sure what the boys want from her, all she knows is that she finds herself drawn to both of them . . . and that strange things started happening to and around her once they made their appearance in town. Soon, she's not only questioning who these 'cousins' that can't stand each other are, but what it might mean about her present - and her past.


In the beginning - and even into the middle - of A Beautiful Dark there are a lot of hints that something paranormal is afoot. It's not clear what it is or even, necessarily, just who it involves but for at least half of the book, there are a lot of hints dropped that something is eventually going to be revealed - both to Skye and to the reader.

It makes that first part of the book a quick read. The reader can't help but wonder where all these hints are going and what it's all leading to. While that's all happening, we get a nice introduction to the different characters - Skye and her friends Cassie, Dan and Ian as well as Devin and Asher. We learn some of Skye's story - what's happened in her seventeen years of life.

However, once that paranormal 'what' of all those clues was revealed, you're left waiting. Waiting for something a little more emotional, for something with a little more action, just . . . more. Maybe there were too many little hints that something was coming and not enough of the something in this book (its a trilogy)? There just wasn't that emotional connection or that real oomph where you really engage as a reader.

The beginning was much better than the end . . .personally, I'm not even sure how I feel about the end. I am holding out hope for the other two books in this trilogy, though. There was a lot of good setup in this first book and I'm hoping that with more time/room to expand the rest can really grow.


Rating:7/10

thank you to the publisher for my copy of this book for review.