Title: A Beautiful Dark
Author: Jocelyn Davies
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Source: library
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.
Nancy’s Review:
I started off this book with high hopes. The author was, after all, a young adult book editor. I’m sorry to say that I was disappointed. It wasn’t as great as I hoped it would be. Actually, it wasn’t great at all. I found so many faults with this book that it was actually a bit painful to read. The book didn’t start out so bad though, in the beginning I really liked it. Then it turned sour fast.
First of all, the characters were a big problem. They fell flat. I found that I didn’t understand what they were doing, who they were, and I didn’t really know much about them. Essentially, they were strangers. This created a problem for me, because after a while the book became boring. I thought that if I didn’t like anything else, I could at least like the characters. Nope. Didn’t happen. Also, I hated the love triangle. It was the most annoying thing ever. Not only was the main character, Skye, indecisive, but she was also aggravating beyond belief. She had a frustrating little girl attitude about everything, complaining to, and arguing with her love interests (I had to make it plural there). She had all these “secrets” that she was keeping from her real friends and I would have been able to sympathize with her more, had I learned more about the friends. Some of them were just there throughout the book to move the plot forward and some others seemed to have no purpose at all.
Another problem was the fact that I had no idea what was going on. There was so much being said about the “angel world” in the book, but nothing really made sense. I finished the book, still very lost. There was just too much going on and too many mixed messages about what was actually happening. Even when what happened in the past with the angels was being explained, I was completely lost. I’m sure it all seemed to make sense to the author. However, to the reader, who doesn’t know what she’s trying to say, it’s very difficult to read.
Overall, I was very disappointed with A Beautiful Dark. I was sure that I was going to be reading a great YA novel. I didn’t get that. I liked the concept of it, just not the delivery. It had so much potential. Maybe the next book in the series will be better, though I won’t be reading it.
