I was lucky enough to get an ARC for Sarra Cannon's blog tour!
Series: Beautiful Darkness #1
Published: May 11th 2015, Author Self Published
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Goodreads Synopsis:
“Killing a priestess in the most evil organization of witches in the world has its consequences.
Harper Brighton is standing on the precipice of a great and terrible war. The Sapphire demon gates have fallen, but the four remaining priestesses of the Order of Shadows and their ruler--the mysterious High Priestess--continue to enslave demons from the Shadow World to steal their power.
Harper and her friends in the Demon Liberation Movement target the Emerald gates--led by a dangerous and far more cunning enemy than any they have ever faced. No one is safe. Destruction comes in the blink of an eye, and the entire human world finds itself frozen, locked in perpetual darkness.
Now, Harper must battle her darkest fears in order to save those she loves most. Will she lead them to victory or will everything they've fought for be lost forever?”
Author's Note: This is a continuation of the war started in the Peachville High Demons series. You do not need to have read the first series to start here, but you can start the original series for free with the Beautiful Demons box set of books 1-3! Also her other series Sacrifice Me the first part is also free for kindle so go check them out!
My Thoughts
A quick heads up this is the continuation of Sarra's Peachville High Demons series but you don't have to read those before you start this one, it is set up in a way that you will still understand and I have a link HERE to Sarra's post about reading order if you want to get really specific.
This story follows Harper, Lea, Jackson, Aerden and there team of fighters as the war against the order of shadows continues! We now get to not only see through Harper's eyes like in the original PHD series but also Lea, Jackson and Aerden. We follow them as they deal with the aftermath of killing a high priestess of the Order of shadows, they wait worried as to what there next move is going to be and what there enemy is going to do as they go up against the Emerald Priestess, who seems a lot smarter and more power hungry than her sister!. It also follows Lea's story as she deals with the continued pressure to return to her home land and over through her mad king of a father.
I have always loved Harper and she went through such development in the PHD series and now as she is facing a hole new enemy she needs to find that strength that she once had. Its cool to see her growing throughout the book as she has so much more pressure on her now than she ever did before. She is such a sassy character too and I like he comments and narration plus I love how loyal and compassionate she is, she would do anything to protect her family. Harper is complicated with her witch and demon sides but in this book her powers really come into there own and I love that, such a kick butt character.
This creates such great relationships with her friends, I really love her friendship with Zara and Mary Anne. These friendships are so different as Zara is a bubbly happy go lucky yet kick butt warrior and complements Harper in the way she gives her strength and then with Mary Anne they understand each other as they have had similar situations thrown at them.
It was great in this novel to hear from Jackson and get a look into his character more, its beautiful how he has such undying love for Harper and how even though they have secrets they are still there for each other and treat each other as equals. I saw in this novel how much Jackson has grown and how he is the rock that does hold everyone together, in a lot of situations he is the one to encourage Harper to go with her gut plus he is super hot and a kick up warrior demon!
Lea for me was a character that I didn't originally like, she is very stubborn and it took me some time to come around and it helped having her point of view in this novel. It gave you an insight into the shadow world in the northern kingdom where they grew up. She is such an awesome warrior though and very cocky it makes the book balance well with her character and Harper's. Plus I see a new ship in the works for Lea just got to think of a good name now...
Aerden was a character I was always dying to get a point of view from as he went through so much to be where he is today. He is strong willed like his brother Jackson but a lot more arrogant and confident in a completely different way and it is so easy to understand why he was such a strong warrior previously. But having the events of being trapped happen to him you can see that he is broken and I'm really excited to see where he does throughout the story. I so also love is complicated relationships with Lea and Jackson and hope also to see more of there dynamics, even more with Harper would be great too.
I love the quiet peaceful town idea that is the setting yet it so isn't peaceful with epic witch and demon craziness going on. But it does seem like such a cool town and I picture the fields around Brighton Manor as such a beautiful place especially all the flowers. I liked that I got a look into the darker side of the order of shadows, as the places they keep under there houses are creepy!. The shadow world is awesome to me and I love the way its described makes me want to go there if there weren't crazy Order of Shadow minions everywhere trying to kill me...
The villain is obviously the Order of Shadows and I love how they take such a smart edge in this book, The Emerald Priestess is so smart and not easily fooled which creates for a great dynamic and all the feels! But there is so much more to the villains in this book as the main characters are trying to work out if there is more at play than meets the eye, by the end you realize that some thing big is going to go down in the next book!.
I really do like Sarra Cannon's writing and I think its just gotten even better than her PHD series! It flows so well and it has so many action packed sections that it grips you till the end. I love the way she builds characters and relationships this is where a lot of the story comes from but also the setting makes it so easy to picture this. I really wish I could have some of the jewelry she writes in this series though so cool!
I give this 4 Stars! Oh the feels! However I did get some of the story before it happened and that's what makes it not a 5 star book for me. BUT I highly recommend picking up her series they are awesome and you can start anywhere!
Hope your having a great day and are doing well. Thanks again to the amazing Sarra Cannon!
Peace : )
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