Review: Good, but not as good as the other books in The Order series
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 10, 2014
**Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy**While a fun paranormal romance, I’m disappointed to say that BITTERSWEET DARKNESS just didn’t live up to my expectations of The Order series. Sometimes, it just felt like the book was trying too hard – dialogue felt forced, and the action seemed contrived. I enjoyed the book, but this one won’t be one of my favorites of the series.Don’t get me wrong – Ash sounded like sex on a stick, really, and the scenes between him and Faith were hot, but they felt either on or off, there was no in the middle flirtiness, in my opinion. Plus, it squicked me out a little that Ash’s daughter was similar in age to Faith. While I understand, logically, that the vampires are old and obviously there’s a large age difference between Tara and Christian, for example, it’s weird when there is the obvious reminder of a child similar in age to the paramour.As usual, however, I did enjoy delving deeper into the world of The Order – visiting Ash’s home in the Abyss was certainly a new aspect that we hadn’t seen previously, and watching Ash navigate his rocky relationship with his daughter was fun. You get the impression that he’s not frequently at a loss, and with Tara, he definitely is. Seeing Christian, Piers, Tara and Roz was fun, plus cameos by other characters we’ve come to know, like Ryan, from the previous book, and the Walker, the crazy fae assassin.Since I’ve read enough of Croft’s work to know that BITTERSWEET DARKNESS is the exception, not the rule, I am looking forward to the next book in The Order series. Pick this one up for Ash though, because in that respect, he’s totally worth it. ;)