{Review} The Sweetest Dark by Shana Abe

Series: The Sweetest Dark #1

Publication date: April 02, 2013

Publisher: Bantam

ISNB-13: 9780345531704

Synopsis

Lora Jones has always known that she’s different. On the outside, she appears to be an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl. Yet Lora’s been keeping a heartful of secrets: She hears songs that no one else can hear, dreams vividly of smoke and flight, and lives with a mysterious voice inside her that insists she’s far more than what she seems.

England, 1915. Raised in an orphanage in a rough corner of London, Lora quickly learns to hide her unique abilities and avoid attention. Then, much to her surprise, she is selected as the new charity student at Iverson, an elite boarding school on England’s southern coast. Iverson’s eerie, gothic castle is like nothing Lora has ever seen. And the two boys she meets there will open her eyes and forever change her destiny.

Jesse is the school’s groundskeeper—a beautiful boy who recognizes Lora for who and what she truly is. Armand is a darkly handsome and arrogant aristocrat who harbors a few closely guarded secrets of his own. Both hold the answers to her past. One is the key to her future. And both will aim to win her heart. As danger descends upon Iverson, Lora must harness the powers she’s only just begun to understand, or else lose everything she dearly loves.

Review

At first when I read the description I thought it was going to be just another love story, a story about a girl discovering who she really is through a boys eyes, this was not necessarily the case.

Lora Jones give a unique voice from what I imagine the voice of a young girl in the 1915’s would sound, she is independent, has a sense of humor (maybe not a typical sense of humor, but I like it) and she is a smart young women.

Which is exactly what scared me about this book, the uniqueness of her thoughts and the way she views this world sucked me into the story, but it was the boys involvement that made me afraid that she would become a fool for love, she would lose her independence and her voice all of that just for a boy. Yet after a day or two to brave myself back into the book Lora didn’t disappoint me she found a way to be in love and keep her wits.

This story is an interesting mix of historical fiction, dragons, magic and destiny.  I really recommend the world building is good, it helps that it’s in the eve of WWI so if you paid a bit of attention in class it might be easier to picture it, but even if you didn’t care for the history this book is just set on the WWI but you don’t need to know specific dates or events to enjoy it.

 Now I am parked on the waiting for the second book. I can’t wait to see what happens next especially with all the events that transpired at the end of the book.

*Sorry guys for not doing an original synopsis but I couldn’t find anything that didn’t either spoil the story for you guys or said something that I’ve already mentioned on the review.

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