Darkness before Dawn - By: Claire Contreras

therhinofam · Post by **therhinofam** » 29 Sep 2014, 18:54

This is the follow up book to the first in the series, There is no Light in Darkness. I had great hopes that the writer would once again return to her writing from the first half of book one and bring what is a good story concept, to a cohesive conclusion. Sadly that was not to be the case. This book felt more convoluted than the first.

The book opens with Blake in a place of despair; she has been abducted by the men who killed her parents all those years ago. Cole is in his own dark place as he has lost Blake and no one seems to be taking her abduction seriously. The first half of the book, flip between writings from Blake's point of view and Cole's point of view. They are both having to come to terms with their past which has seen it's way into their present and even possibly their future.

This book hosts a whole new set of characters that are difficult to keep straight and really relate to. Once the story does come to a conclusion, it feels unsatisfied. There are lose ends that need to be tied up and just a general look back at the story to figure out how it all comes together. I had great hope in the story concept, but it never came to fruition.

hollirm · Post by **hollirm** » 19 Oct 2014, 18:08

I can understand the frustration of an unsatisfying ending. But, I was wondering what was her writing style for the first half of the first book and what writing style did she ended up using through the rest of the book and through the second book?

therhinofam · Post by **therhinofam** » 21 Oct 2014, 15:30

hollirm wrote:I can understand the frustration of an unsatisfying ending. But, I was wondering what was her writing style for the first half of the first book and what writing style did she ended up using through the rest of the book and through the second book?

I answered a bit of these questions here: http://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewto ... 44&t=22697

But I will add that the story concept was very intriguing at first and the first half of book 1 did follow the concept. Unfortunately, the concept seemed to get lost and fractured for the sake of the racy love scenes. There is a way to have both the original storyline and the romance even possibly fitting both of the books into a singular one. There needed to be some extensive editing and clarity. I hope that helps!