Night’s Darkest Embrace by Jeaniene Frost
My rating: 3 of 5 flames
Mara is a Partial demon (and really? They’re called “partials” or “purebloods” there couldn’t be a better name?) and when we first enter the scene, Mara is ready to dive through a portal to Nocturna, the world where Partials live and purebloods hunt them. Purebloods survive by sucking the life essence out of partials, and the younger, the better. Partials hunt Purebloods if they come into their territory, but it’s the Fallen who really hunt Purebloods. (The Fallen are Fallen Angels).
Mara and her cousin Gloria visited Nocturna as teens and were kidnapped by purebloods. A stranger named Rafael came to her rescue but he couldn’t save Gloria, she had already been taken and eaten.
This is where my complaint lies: Mara is a crappy heroine. I had a hard time liking her, therefore I cared little about her story. Rafael I loved, but not at first.
With the Night Huntress series, it’s no big deal if we don’t get to know Bones for a while, there are going to be many more pages, and more books. But this is a novella and we know nothing about Rafe at all, and I kind of feel that with it being shorter, and PNR rather than UF, it’s a big deal to not have much interaction between Mara and Rafe right off the bat.
Instead it felt like a poor substitute for a Cat and Bones story. But Mara isn’t kick-ass, she’s a brat. She doesn’t think things through and it gets her in trouble. A lot. Oh and the Rafael betrayal thing was cleared up way to easily/quickly for my taste.
Sadly, this Frost fan was disappointed with the novella. I think was good, but it wasn’t fantastic. The price point is good, but I missed the witty sarcasm and snark that I love about Frost’s writing.
***Review copy provided by Simon & Schuster/Pocket Star
Nice review. 😀