A Beautiful Dark

December 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-After her parents' deaths, Skye strives to outrun sadness with success. She is a competitive skier and is on the fast track to Columbia. At her 17th birthday party, though, she meets two boys who defy the normality Skye desires. Dark and teasing Asher encourages her to embrace her feelings for him and the powers she is beginning to display. Controlled Devin also calls to Skye, who longs for peace in a way only he seems to understand. While she is slowly falling for one boy, and unable to stay away from the other, both are drawn to her-a complication that none of them can afford when the reason for their coming to Skye's small town is revealed. A daughter of Prophecy, Skye has powers that could potentially mean the end of the world. She must decide where she stands and which celestial force to join, and she must do it before her powers reach their peak. Davies introduces a unique new twist on angelic mythology. Though this book has the now-familiar paranormal romantic triangle, the characters are fleshed out and steeped so deeply in the world that their shared passion is eminently believable. Fans of Lauren Kate's Fallen (Delacorte, 2009) and Cynthia Hand's Unearthly (HarperTeen, 2010) will devour this new offering. A well-done debut.-Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2011

Here's a paranormal romance that doesn't follow all the conventions of the genre but relies at least in part on imagination to feed the needs of readers seeking supernatural fun.

In this novel, the heroine has no difficulty with vampires, werewolves, mermen or ghosts. Instead, Skye appears to live within reality in the normal world, until strange things start happening to her on her 17th birthday. Of course, two handsome new boys have coincidentally appeared, both with the ability to make girls weak in the knees at a glance, but it's Skye herself who seems to have some kind of supernatural ability. Her eyes turn from gray to shiny silver, and machinery explodes around her. Eventually readers learn that the boys—golden Devin and dark Asher—are angels, one a "guardian" and the other a rebel. Skye can't avoid her strong attraction to Asher, but Devin pulls at her heart as well. Little does she know that she's a very special girl, in great danger, with a life-changing choice to make. Davies layers on the suspense, delving ever further into the supernatural but keeping some realism in the story until the final confrontation (which may or may not set up a sequel). While angels are almost as thick on the ground these days as vampires, Devin and Asher achieve a modicum of originality, and Skye has enough spunk to please her audience.

A cut above the genre average. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 1, 2011
Grades 9-12 Skye's seventeenth year is not starting out well. She is attracted to two new guyscousins who obviously don't get alongbut both send such mixed messages that she ends up feeling more used than desired. Adding to her confusion is a sense that she's changing in powerful yet bizarre ways. First-time author Davies taps into the paranormal romance craze and gets many things just right. While the absence of adults is disconcerting, all of the young characters speak in voices that ring true, from Skye and her friends to the two new guys, who ultimately reveal themselves to be angels sent to protect her. Throughout, the repartee is clever, the friendships supportive, and the high-school lives authentic, albeit privileged. More romance than paranormal, A Beautiful Dark will serve as a light introduction to more complex books in the genre, such as Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone (2011).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2012
On Skye's seventeenth birthday her eyes turn silver and she attracts the attention of two very different boys. Or are they actually angels competing for her allegiance? There are some engaging elements to this paranormal romance (complete with a cliffhanger twist), though it doesn't rise very far above the many others like it.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)