The Dark World (Dark World #1)Author: Cara Lynn Shultz
Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 384 pages
Publication Date: May 27, 2014
From Goodreads:
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.
Review:
I really enjoyed this book about demons and warlocks who mostly live in an alternate world. There are different demons, such as fire demons, rage demons, lust demons, and royal demons. Paige is just a normal girl until she saves a boy and almost dies. After that, she can see and talk with ghosts and because she doesn't exactly always know that they're ghosts, people think she's crazy. Her nickname is "Bellevue Kelly" and she has no friends. At all. Except for Dottie, a ghost who died in the fifties and who Paige can only talk to at school. Then Logan comes along and Paige learns about the Dark World, an alternate world where demons and warlocks are at war and Paige may play an important part in that war so both sides want to use her. So yes, you do have the well-known story of a special girl and the mysterious boy who has to save her (a lot), but it works. And there's no love triangle, not even a hint, and Paige's parents are not absent at all. That's refreshing.
Paige is pretty funny and she doesn't want to be helpless so she gets Logan to train her how to fight. Logan's a great guy, and he's also lonely given he moves around a lot, tasked with killing demons. Once that job is done, he moves on. There's insta-attraction, but not really insta-love, and I thought their relationship was sweet. It's a bit romance heavy, but there's plenty of action and fight scenes to keep things moving. All in all, I liked this one and I'm looking forward to the next one.
Posted by: Pam
This sounds like a pretty interesting read. Great review!
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting and the way it ended makes me really excited for the next one! ~Pam
DeleteI'm so happy you enjoyed this one. I have it on order at the library, but yours is the first review I've read. I was wary of the mysterious boy aspect, but it sounds like it isn't too bad. Yay for no triangles or absent parents! Great review!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the mysterious guy part was fairly typical, but it was still really good…hope you end up liking it! ~Pam
DeleteHmm I think i'm one of those people that you mentioned in your previous (or next?) review that is getting a little tired of romances taking over books so that deters me somewhat from this one. But the daemons sound cool... I'll keep this as a maybe.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't mind if it's romance heavy as long as the plot still moves forward, but this one is more romance heavy so since that bothers you, you may not like this one as much. ~Pam
DeleteI still can't make my mind up about this one. You say it's romance heavy though and I'm getting a little fed up of those kind of books. I miss when romance was just a tiny part of the plot, not where it takes over the plot. I think I may skip this one. Thanks for the honest review :)
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for a book to have the right balance between the romance and the rest of the book. I feel the same way, if I read a book without any romance, I'm like, what?? Where's the romance? But if it completely takes over the book (unless you're reading a romance, obviously) then that can be annoying. This one didn't take over the plot, but it was a big part of the book. ~Pam
DeleteThis one sounds pretty interesting. I'm all for demon fighting. And I love that you say her parents are present. I'm getting really freaking sick of the absentee parents.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know it makes it harder for the author to have the main characters doing the stuff they do if the parents are around (they have to sneak out somehow, etc.) but it is pretty ridiculous to solve that just by having the parents be absent. ~Pam
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