Sunday, November 5, 2017

DARKNESS UNBOUND by Keri Arthur

A Dark Angels Novel, Book 1
Bantam Dell
September 11th, 2011
978-0-440-24572-8
Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Dawn (love2read28@gmail.com)

Obtained by Publisher

3 Hearts

 

Risa Jones is unique in that she is half werewolf and half Aedh. She can enter the twilight realms such as the grey world and see the reapers that collect the souls of the dead. But when she is asked to help a client of her mother’s, she finds a terrifying thing- something is ripping the souls from people, preventing them from moving on their final journey to the afterlife. Now she has a smoking hot reaper following her in hope she meets up with her father, a man who was once an Aedh priest and has had no interest in Risa since she was conceived so long ago. But as danger stalks Risa and her friends, she teams up with her aunt Riley Jensen and an Aedh named Lucian to figure out just who is using the blood magic to seize the souls and figure out just what her mysterious father wants from her.

I adored this author’s Riley Jensen series and was hesitant to try the spin-off featuring Risa, a secondary character from the series. DARKNESS UNBOUND starts slow as it sets up all the players and the storyline. There were times I just wanted to yell ‘get on with it’ as I flipped through yet another page of rehash of past plot points. Finally, it got moving more than half way through the book but there are twists that had me wondering if they were red herrings or not. The author does a good job in capturing the characters within the pages though I could have done more of Risa being a badass then one who questions everything under the sun. There were hints of Risa being the warrior the reader knows she can be (how can’t she with Riley and Quinn helping her train??) but the countless ‘I can’t do this, I need to avoid that’ aspects wore me down to the point where I just wanted to tell Risa ‘enough already’ and move along. I am sure the author tried to make this introduction more about how different Risa was from Riley but it just comes across as whiny at times from her. Plus, the cryptic passages of something that happened in her past that had her avoiding the werewolf clubs, etc. left me feeling it was all a plot point to keep the reader sympathetic to Risa.

Don’t get me wrong, DARKNESS UNBOUND is a solid story set in the Riley Jensen universe but it wobbles at times as it tries to stand on its two feet. I liked the mystery surrounding her unknown father and the powers she has kept me intrigued about Risa’s abilities. The secondary characters are equally interesting and I was eager to know more about them as the story continued. DARKNESS UNBOUND is a good if not great paranormal/urban fantasy story that leaves more questions than answers for the reader. What is up with the reapers? How do the Aedh figure in all this? Will Risa find the answers she is searching for? All those plus several more questions are posed by the end of the book. I love this author and the world building she creates just blows me away each time I pick up one of her books. I am going to continue with book two, Darkness Rising, to see if those questions are answered and if the series gets better. The combination of reapers and other supernatural creatures is what draws me to the series plus I love revisiting Riley and the gang.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement


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