Book Review & Giveaway: The Deepest Night by Shana Abe

The Deepest Night by Shana Abe
Publisher: Bantam
Publish Date: August 13, 2013
Hardcover, 320 pages
ISBN: 9780345531735
The Sweetest Dark #2



My Review:
I did not realize this was part of a series when I chose it from Amazon Vine. I just read the blurb and thought that sounds different and I want to read it. Boarding school, dragons, WWI, all sounded intriguing to me and also I haven't read Ms. Abe yet, but I had heard great things about her.

I picked this one up as my fourth book during the Dewey's 24-hour Read-A-Thon this past weekend and yes I started reading it around 11:30 pm and I had been reading most of the time since 8am on Saturday. However this was the perfect book to pick up right then. It didn't bog me down, and I was sucked right into the story. There is definitely some backstory I am missing, but I thought Ms. Abe did a good job getting the reader up-to-speed enough that if they accidentally jump in here with The Deepest Night that they won't feel completely lost. I didn't. However I do want to go back and read The Sweetest Dark. Somethings will be spoiled by reading them out of order but at this point I don't mind.

For characters I really enjoyed getting to know Lora (Eleanor) and Mandy (Armand). They are the only two dragons left (that they know of) and Lora began to learn her powers in the first novel, and Armand is coming into his during this one. Not knowing how much they were developed in the first novel, I can only say I think Ms. Abe did a great job continuing to develop both characters through The Deepest Night while focusing on plot and moving it along at a breakneck speed. Both characters are likeable and both characters have mystery. I loved the dragon angle, especially in a time like WWI. It was a fascinating element.

For the plot, as I mentioned, it moves along rather quickly. It's a fast easy read and I easily read 1/3 of the novel in the wee hours of the morning when I am not usually still up. Then I finished it off on Sunday. It's one of those that you can read with commotion around you, it's just flows and flows fast.

In The Deepest Night the storyline captivates, the characters grab your attention and this is not just your everyday paranormal novel. It's also not your ordinary boarding school novel as most of this novel does not happen at the boarding school, though you do get some of the typical cattiness between the girls involved around Lora such as Chloe and Sophia that fits the time frame of the early 1900s. I think Ms. Abe does a great job incorporating history, paranormal and interesting characters to make The Deepest Night a great read. I cannot wait to go back and read the first book and see what happens in the next book. Keep writing Ms. Abe!

My Rating: 4.5/5.0

About the Book:
A rich portrait of post-Victorian England, The Deepest Night seamlessly blends thrilling romance with riveting history and adventure—perfect for fans of Libba Bray and Lauren Kate.

It’s 1915, and sixteen-year-old Lora Jones is finishing up her first year as a charity student at Iverson, a prestigious, gothic boarding school on England’s southern coast. While she’s always felt different from everyone around her, now she finally knows why: She is a drákon, a rare, enchanted being with astonishing magical abilities.

As war hits Britain’s shores, and Lora reels from an unimaginable loss, she finds that her powers come with grave and dangerous responsibilities. At the request of Armand Louis, the darkly mysterious boy whose father owns Iverson, Lora will spend her summer at his lavish estate. To help the war effort—and to keep Lora by his side—Armand turns his home into a military hospital, where Lora will serve as a nurse. For Armand is inescapably drawn to her—bound to her by heart-deep secrets and a supernatural connection that runs thicker than blood.

Yet while Lora tries to sort out her own feelings toward Armand, fate offers an unexpected surprise. Lora discovers there is another drákon, a prisoner of war being held in Germany. And that only she, with her newly honed Gifts, will be able to rescue him.

With Armand, Lora will cross enemy lines on an incredible mission—one that could bond her to Armand forever, or irrevocably tear them apart.

Beautifully written, deeply romantic, and filled with daring adventure and magic, The Deepest Night is a mesmerizing novel of the enduring pull of destiny, and the eternal strength of love.

The Trailer:




Where to Find the Author:

Website
Twitter
Facebook

Giveaway:
I have one copy of the ARC of The Deepest Night by Shana Abe to giveaway.  US only because of shipping costs.  Enter using the Rafflecopter below, ends 10/21.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***I received this book through Amazon Vine for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***

Book Blitz: Crash Into Me by Tracy Wolff

Crash Into Me by Tracy Wolff

She’s totally off limits, but this rocker wants a taste…

Jamison Matthews has lusted after Ryder Montgomery since she was a preteen. But now that Ryder and her brother’s band, Shaken Dirty, has made it huge, she’s just one of many pining for the brooding lead singer. Too bad Ryder still sees her as a little sister. Not that it matters. Her brother would never allow it, and the last thing Jamison wants is to be another notch on a rock star’s bed post. Even if it’s Ryder’s.

Ryder doesn’t deserve happiness. After his fame destroyed his last girlfriend, he swore he’d never fall in love again. So when Jamison, the girl he’s been in danger of loving for years, joins the band on the road, he’ll do anything to deny the sparks between them—even after one hot night together. But Jamison is determined to show Ryder that he’s worthy of love—her love—and that she’s all grown up…and ready to play.

Connect with Tracy

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Blog

Buy Links for Crash Into Me

 

Excerpt CRASH INTO ME-

            Onstage, the band launched into “Awake,” one of the power ballads that had made them famous. The crowd screamed their approval and so did she. Totally not her typical modus operandi, but she couldn’t help it. Something about listening to Ryder croon the darkly haunting lyrics had her knees trembling and her heart beating much too quickly. If she closed her eyes, she could do what all the other women in the audience were doing and pretend that he was singing straight to her.

            So much better than remembering he’d written these heartfelt words for another woman. For Carrie, who had killed herself and broken his heart so many years before. Her own heart ached at the thought. For him. Always for him. At twenty-nine, Ryder had already been through more darkness and despair than any one person should have to handle.

            “Awake” finally came to a close, the last note hanging in the air for long, tension-fueled seconds. Then the band fell silent and the audience did the same, as if they were all holding their breaths. Ryder lowered his guitar, shuffled, and stamped his feet once, twice. It was a familiar gesture, one years of experience had taught her was his way of shaking off excess emotion. Again her heart twisted. It devastated her that more than ten years after the fact he was still eaten up by what had happened. Still determined to bury it under a bunch of layers that not only insulated him from his pain but also hid the real Ryder so deep inside the public Ryder that she wondered sometimes if he even existed anymore. Or if the boy who had held her while she cried, who had let her whisper her pre-adolescent fears without ever making fun of her, had disappeared forever.

            She searched for him in that one endless moment.

            Looked for him in the obsidian eyes that arrowed to the heart of the crowd even as they barricaded his own emotions.

            Combed through her own memories and expectations in an effort to see Ryder as he really was instead of how he portrayed himself.

            And when his eyes—his crazy, beautiful eyes—met hers, she found him. Seconds passed, long, intense seconds where she lost the ability to hear or breathe or even think. All she could do was look into Ryder’s eyes, at the feral heat boiling up and out of them, and want.

            She smiled at him, waved. He snarled back. But it wasn’t a leave-me-alone snarl. No, definitely not. It was his I-want-to-fuck-you-up-against-a-wall snarl—she knew it well, had seen it directed at a lot of women through the years—and her knees gave way when she realized that this time, finally, it was directed at her. It didn’t matter that there was no sign of recognition in his eyes, no knowledge that the woman he was looking at like that was actually her. Jamison. For one moment, he wanted her the way she’d always wanted him.

            It was more than enough.