A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies Series: A Beautiful Dark #1
Published by Harper Collins
Published: September 27th 2011
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On the night of Skye’s seventeenth birthday, she meets two enigmatic strangers. Complete opposites—like fire and ice—Asher is dark and wild, while Devin is fair and aloof. Their sudden appearance sends Skye’s life into a tailspin. She has no idea what they want, or why they seem to follow her every move—only that their presence coincides with a flurry of strange events. Soon she begins to doubt not just the identity of the two boys, but also the truth about her own past.
In the dead of a bitingly cold Colorado winter, Skye finds herself coming to terms with the impossible secret that threatens to shatter her world. Torn between Asher, who she can’t help falling for, and Devin, who she can’t stay away from, the consequences of Skye’s choice will reach further than the three of them could ever imagine.
This book is a perfect example of not giving up on a story too soon. I was about 75 pages in, my usual limit for when a book isn’t grabbing me, and on the verge of giving up. I had no idea what was going on and didn’t know if there was a point. I checked the page count and saw the book is close to 400 pages so I kept going, and thank goodness I did. If I had given up and not pushed through for another 50 pages or so I would have completely missed out on a book that was surprisingly great. And that is exactly what A Beautiful Dark turned out to be…a great great story. A story of good and evil, light and dark, choice and no choice. I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but it is a paranormal romance so I have to mention some of the weirdness. 🙂
Basically, the book is about Skye, an orphaned girl living with her mother’s best friend in Colorado. Her parents died when she was small so Skye has been with her “Aunt” Jo ever since. Anyway, on the night of her 17th birthday she meets two mysterious boys and from that moment on nothing is the same for her. Things start happening that Skye can’t seem to explain. The more she tries to brush off what is occurring as coincidence, the stranger things seem. And then there is Asher and Devin who seem to be showing up seemingly out of thin air every place she is and who she is inexplicably drawn to. As the book draws on and Skye’s destiny, along with Asher and Devin’s, are revealed, it is clear that everything Skye thought she knew about her past isn’t as cut and dry as she thought and the battle between darkness and light is just beginning.
Really it is a wonderfully told story about destiny and choosing sides told from the perspective of Skye, the girl caught in the middle of it all who just wants her life to stay normal. But the thing is, Skye is no longer normal. She is something else entirely and yet she is still a teenager. She still has homework and friends and a life. She just wants to enjoy her life in the beautiful scenery of the Colorado mountains and she can’t. The arrival of Devin and Asher take that away from her. Now she is torn between her old life and her new one, what she knew and what she is learning and the two boys that have pulled the rug out from under her with the story of her past. And because of this I really found myself liking Skye. She was stuck in a love triangle with more at stake then someone getting a broken heart, she was all alone unable to confide in anyone and her world was on its axis. She could have thrown in the towel and quit yet she didn’t. Sure she had stubborn temper tantrums and tried to hide, but she was only 17, of course, that would be her reaction at times. But for the most part, she accepted what she was and her destiny to choose the path she wanted to take. She rose to the challenge and figured out that she was the one with all the power both literally and figuratively and tried to use that knowledge in her favor.
What I didn’t like about her was how cavalier she was about this power thing. Her eyes were flashing silver for crying out loud and she acted like that was nothing. That along with the weird heat thing that happened when she was around that she barely batted an eye at really bothered me. But in the long run just a minor complaint. Skye all in all was a great character.
And now on to the boys…Asher and Devin. Obvious enemies from the get-go. One a rule follower and the other a rule breaker. One from light and one from dark. They had nothing in common, well nothing except one thing…they were both crazy about Skye. Sent on a mission for different reasons to watch over Skye they weren’t supposed to get attached to her. For me, I liked Asher almost immediately. There was something charismatic and trustworthy about him that I just didn’t get from Devin. He was more shifty and shady. He had secrets and no free will and I just didn’t trust him. Asher, on the other hand, was there to protect Skye and watch over her. He tried to do the right thing and stay away but he couldn’t. He needed to be with her and damn the consequences. The addition of the two of them added to the story and I appreciated that.
A Beautiful Dark really was an excellent story and the perfect set up for what I can only imagine being an action-packed sequel with many twists and turns. Take a chance and read it. I’m surprisingly glad I did.
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