Barnes and Noble
Rating: 4
Synopsis:
Wish. Love. Desire. Live.
Sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock's hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer's eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie rescues her and brings her to the Otherworld, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed, otherwise, the entire Otherworld civilization will perish.
My Review:
Innocent Darkness was an excellent start to my summer reading. Sometimes I will read a book, and think, wow, this is exactly what I have been looking for. This is one of those cases. I devoured Innocent Darkness, and I am very excited to see more of this series in the near future.
The way that the novel is set-up, the plot is told in three different parts, all of which are connected and referenced. The first part involves the majority of the steampunk, a genre that I recently discovered and fell in love with, and it is done well. A steampunk Los Angeles and San Francisco with hoverboards, flying automobiles and something called air pilots? You had me at steampunk. A great beginning to the story. The second part is more of a Victorian asylum-style finishing school. The positive aspects of this change involve the absolutely brilliant writing of this portion, the darker style that I could not get enough of, and the fact that it is more of a Victorian asylum-style finishing school. How awesome is that? (Not that waterboarding and torturing is awesome, but when you are reading about it...) The third plot portion brings in the faerie world, which also assured excellent writing, steamy romance, and constant page-turning events. The three separate styled plot parts worked well in the way that all three are some of my favorite styles, and the writing was excellent in all of them. The only thing that I did not enjoy as much as that certain aspects that I loved of the book were forgotten. I would have liked to see more steampunk throughout the novel, or even more of the air pilots, since I quite like that idea. Although beautiful, I think the cover can be a bit misleading in this case.
Still, I can't complain too much, since aside from that, I absolutely loved Innocent Darkness. Noli is a great protagonist, you can really see the spark in her, and that makes her all the more connectable. Kevighn is actually a great character, and Lazear does a good job in making the reader like him even when feeling they shouldn't. I did enjoy V in the beginning, and toward the end I still do, although I feel that some of the decisions that he made did not really match how he is described and shown in the start.
I was a little disappointed at the ending, as I felt that it led to one of those of-course moments, but I was still satisfied, and I feel that upon continuing the series, good can be made out of those plot decisions. All in all, I feel that Innocent Darkness had a lot of potential from the start, and is a very enjoyable read. The novel kept my interest the entire way through, and I will definitely continue with the series. Would recommend to those who like fantasy, romance, and some steampunk.
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