Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Darkness Falls by Mia James


Release Date: 1st March, 2012

Publisher: Gollancz

Pages: 352pgs

The Story

April Dunne is having a rough time. There are vampires in her school. Not Goths, or Emos in fancy dress. Dangerous, blood-sucking semi-immortals. They run the school. They pretend to be students at it. And they're using their influence to recruit smart, rich students - aka 'bleeders' - to their own cause. What is that cause? April isn't sure. But she knows they killed a rock star for it, and innocents who got too close to the truth. One of them almost killed her. But that's nothing to what's coming next.

Gabriel, her kinda-boyfriend, is dying and unless April can find a cure then not only is she going to be boyfriendless, she's also going to lose one of her major allies in the school. And she really needs allies. Because it turns out April has an ability of her own, one that could prove leathal to the 'Suckers' who've taken over the school. If any of them figure out what she is, then losing her boyfriend will be the least of her problems . . .

The Review

DARKNESS FALLS is the second installment in the Ravenwood series and the book picks up right after the events of By Midnight. Now for me, I really enjoyed the first book (though I wasn't exactly a 'huge' fan of it but it was still good) but I was very hesitant in starting this sequel because so many sequels lately have fell flat for me, especially in regards to the storylines and its characters. As much as I wanted to love this sequel and have everything prove me wrong, unfortunately I was disappointed in this sequel even though it had some good points as well. Sad but true.

For the majority of the book, I felt like nothing much had happened within the first 200 pages and I wished there was more to get me into the book. Mostly I found the pacing and the romantic relationships were the main problems for the book. When I say problems I mean there was a lot of running around going on, a lot of characters talking to various people that I found were quite unnecessary, and there were others things like figuring out answers and other related events that were in place just to give the story enough amounts of mystery and tension . . . so like I mentioned above, I was quite disappointed. But in saying that, once you reach closer to the final pages, the pacing soon begins to pick up and excite me by delivering such a great finish!

However, while the ending pleased me, but the only other problem I had was in the romance department involving the two main characters, April and Gabriel. I loved them in the first book (I got why people fell in love with them too) but in this sequel . . . not so much. Okay so we have Gabriel who is the typical gorgeous, sexy, brooding, and mysterious young fellow with a lot of hidden spark underneath it all, but as much as you love his looks as described in the book, and even his romantic feelings that he constantly expresses throughout the book, but in the end his overall relationship with April's character was a little 'complicated'. Gabriel . . . I give you praise for being there for April, but I cannot forgive you for always giving April a chance when she has so little trust in you. Personally I felt like April, the main heroine of this story, jumped too many conclusions and rather too quickly too when it came to Gabriel, and considering she's supposed to be in love with the guy . . . I just didn't feel the connection between them as I've previously seen in the first book, By Midnight. There just wasn't enough to make me feel satisfied.

Overall, while the majority of the book had disappointed me on a couple of levels but I still enjoyed that explosive ending of Mia James's which will make all readers happy. If you love a book that's Buffy meets a little bit of Veronica Mars (only with a mystery revolving around the supernatural) or have already started this series, then DARKNESS FALLS is definitely your kind of book!

The Rating

2/5 stars

16 comments:

  1. I've considered reading this series before but I know very little about it and so far you're the only person I know who seems to have read it. While your review was through, honest and brilliant (as always!) it makes me hesitant to pick up this series. Hmmm. Much to think about.

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    1. I recommend borrowing the first book and see how it goes from there. This is a 50/50 kind of book.

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  2. UGH, I HATE when sequels fall flat. It's like everything we know and love in the last one completely evaporates and we have little patience for this new story. Sorry that you didn't enjoy this one as much!

    Asher

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    1. I know! I hate when it happens . . . but what can you do? I hope the next book is better.

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  3. Awww, it's too bad that this book fell flat when the cover looks so beautiful! :( I find that it's so easy for sequels to fall flat too, especially for a series that you enjoy because you can't help but set your expectations high! Gabriel sounds like such a swoon-worthy boy, even if April didn't feel trusting enough of him -- maybe you should get him instead? LOL! x)

    Awesome honest review, Erin! Hopefully book three will redeem this series for you! :)

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    1. The cover is beautiful. It's actually the same cover model used for A Want So Wicked by Suzanne Young. Anyway Gabriel is a great character and YES I should have him instead. Totally agree with you on that one. haha.

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  4. It's a shame this was disappointing! The fact nothing happened for the first 200 pages would definitely put me off, as would the romance. Always sad when a sequel lets you down, but thanks for the honest review! :)

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  5. Damn. It especially sucks when you actually liked the first book and you're expecting something equally great from the sequel, but it's just..... meh. So disappointing =\ But I'm glad it built up to a great ending! Which - go figure - will likely have hooked you in enough to read the third book. Sneaky authors haha. Fab review!

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  6. Haha yes! Very sneaky authors. :)

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  7. ouch! thats pretty low, but I havent read this series, Id still add this and see how it goes. and sorry that it wasnt as good as the first book. but Great review nonetheless. x

    Ƹ̴Ӂ̴ƷFICBOOKREVIEWSƸ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ

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    1. Trust me . . . I didn't want to give it a low star but I wasn't impressed with the majority of the story. Except the ending.

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  8. Aww, it's a shame that you didn't like this one as much, especially considering the fact that the sequel sounds awesome and you really liked the first. Hopefully the 3rd one will make up for this disappointment! :) Maybe Gabriel will finally snap and yell at April LOL. Great review!

    Sonia

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  9. Oh dear, as I look over to my copy sitting tbr on my shelf...it may have to sit there for a bit longer. Thanks for your honesty. It's hard when you have to give low stars, but that is what we do as bloggers. Gotta read and review. I will read this series but it just slid a bit lower, for the mean time:D

    Michelle

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  10. Awwwww. DISSAPOINTED. I actually caught a glimpse of the magic words: 'Veronica Mars' and 'Buffy' before I read the rest of your review, and my reaction was something along the lines of 'OMFG! OMFG! OMFG! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE'... err... then I read the rest of the review. This sounds like exactly the kind of book that'd make me want to murder somone :(
    1 x Heroine jumping to stupid conclusions: check
    1 x Heroine not trusting an obviously decent character she claims to 'love': check
    1 x contrived drama from the above two issues (read: heroine's stupidity): check

    TOTAL: SARAH GOES BATSHIT CRAZY AND WANTS TO START BOOK BURNING.

    Damn. I'm sure it wasn't AWFUL (if it was, I know you would've one starred it), but... all those issues you described are things I despise. Sorry to hear it wasn't as amazing as you hoped :(

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