Review: Really fun YA paranormal with engaging characters and a great story.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 14, 2013
Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales.Quick & Dirty: Really fun YA paranormal with engaging characters and a great story.Opening Sentence: It was hard to piss off my mom, but I’d managed to do just that—piss her off.The Review:Jessie is a not so normal 16 year old girl. She works in the family business which happens to deal with all things paranormal. When someone has a problem with a demon, ghost, werewolf, etc… they call the Darker Agency. The Darker family has been in this business for a very long time and Jessie couldn’t be happier about being a part of it. Her mother on the other hand would like nothing more than for Jessie to live a normal life, but she can’t run the business by herself. Then one day a new client walks in and he has a problem. A box containing the 7 seven deadly sins has been stolen, and someone opened it. Now the sins are on the loose wrecking havoc wherever they go.Once the box is opened the sins are free for five days before the box will reclaim them. The sins are able to possess anyone susceptible to their specific sin, but when they are called back their human bodies will go with them. So in order to save the lives of the possessed Jessie and her mom have to find the sins and put them back themselves. Then another problem arises, turns out there is a spell that can releases the sins from the box forever and they have all the key ingredients they need to perform it. Jessie has a lot at stake like her family, friends and most of all her heart.I loved Jessie, she was a great protagonist. She is full of spunk, wit, and attitude. She is a beautiful girl that hasn’t really had much experience with boys; she has never found anyone that she has been interested in. Mainly because she knows that she can beat the crap out of most boys at her school and who wants to date someone that is weaker than you. She always has a comeback for everything and she doesn’t mind being infuriating if it gets her what she wants. She also has a big heart and she loves her friends and family a lot. While Jessie’s moral compass may not always point north, her mother’s does, and Jessie has always admired her and strives to be more like her. It was fun to be inside her head and hear her snarky thoughts. She was a very engaging character that I connected with easily.Lukas Scott is totally adorable. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about him so I don’t spoil anything but I just have to say that he is so cute and easy to fall for. He is a gentleman that treats Jessie with total respect. But he also doesn’t have a problem speaking his mind and standing up to her when he needs to. Their romance is sweet and they have great chemistry, but it did develop a little faster than I would have liked. Lukas is a very selfless person and he really tries to do the right thing even in his impossible situation. I thought he was very swoon worthy and a wonderful character.I really enjoyed this book. It was a really fun and fast read that left me wanting more. I loved the characters; they were unique, engaging, and easy to connect with. The story piqued my interest right away and kept it the whole way through. The plot had some great twists that I wasn’t expecting, and the flow was perfect. I have read other books by Jus and I have always enjoyed her work. Darker Days is a great addition and I am very excited to read the sequel. I would highly recommend this to anyone that enjoys a light, clean paranormal book.Notable Scene:Dark, shaggy hair that might’ve been in desperate need of a trim—if it didn’t work so damn well for him. Piercing, liquid brown eyes that radiated trouble—and I loved trouble. He wore a leather jacket over a tight black T-shirt and worn jeans that were just a bit too baggy. Oh yeah. Bad-boy-vibe was off the charts.“Holy house of hogs getting blasted by the blue birdie brigade…”“Excuse me?” he said as the door slammed closed behind him. Head tilted sideways, he was staring at me like I had two heads, a forked tongue, and neon spikes growing out of my back.I swallowed and gripped the edge of Mom’s desk, hoping to God that my cheeks weren’t fire engine red. “Um, I mean, can we help you with something?”FTC Advisory: Entangled Publishing provided me with a copy of Darker Days. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.