After a last minute vacation, I can proudly say I have at least two weeks of reviews to come. One–but not the only–is this one. I finally got a random reads read! Scroll to the bottom of the post for the next Random Read!
Dark Star (Dark Star #1) by Bethany Frenette
Audrey Whitticomb has nothing to fear. Her mother is the superhero Morning Star, the most deadly crime-fighter in the Twin Cities, so it’s hard for Audrey not to feel safe. That is, until she’s lured into the sweet night air by something human and not human–something with talons and teeth, and a wide, scarlet smile.
Now Audrey knows the truth: her mom doesn’t fight crime at night. She fights Harrowers–livid, merciless beings who were trapped Beneath eons ago. Yet some have managed to escape. And they want Audrey dead, just because of who she is: one of the Kin.
To survive, Audrey will need to sharpen the powers she has always had. When she gets close to someone, dark corners of the person’s memories become her own, and she sometimes even glimpses the future. If Audrey could only get close to Patrick Tigue, a powerful Harrower masquerading as human, she could use her Knowing to discover the Harrowers’ next move. But Leon, her mother’s bossy, infuriatingly attractive sidekick, has other ideas. Lately, he won’t let Audrey out of his sight.
When an unthinkable betrayal puts Minneapolis in terrible danger, Audrey discovers a wild, untamed power within herself. It may be the key to saving her herself, her family, and her city. Or it may be the force that destroys everything–and everyone–she loves.
Four stars
I’ll be completely honest: I wasn’t expecting much from this one. I’d heard mixed things, so that was why I took so long to read it. However, though there were definite iffy parts, I’m totally glad I did. This book rocked way more than I expected.
One of my first nitpicks about this book is that the last paragraph of the synopsis from Goodreads makes the book seriously misleading. You’d expect Audrey learning about the Kin to be a smaller part of the book, and her mission to go after Tigue to be the big part. The reverse is true. In fact, Tigue is barely in the book at all.
Instead, this book is about family and friendships. Audrey knows that her mom is a superhero, but not that she has powers. The mother and daughter pair also have no idea what to do with each other. These two have a great relationship that was one of my favorite parts to read. Audrey also has two best friends: the boy-happy Tink and the too-nice-to-be-real Gideon. Despite the pair of friends being fairly two-dimensional in the beginning, they get better as the book goes on.
Audrey’s love interest, Leon, is honestly fairly cut and dry. In the beginning they hate each other. Then they grow to not so much. Your basic YA romance–without the love triangle, thank God.
Thankfully, the focus isn’t on Audrey and Leon so much. It’s about Audrey and her mom. It’s about Audrey and her long last dad. It’s about Audrey and the Kin family she never knew she had. It’s about Audrey and her friends. It’s about Audrey and her devotion to everyone she loves. And that’s what made it great.
Granted, the middle gets bogged down a little bit after Audrey finds out about the Kin. She gets “Kin lessons” from her grandma as well as multiple flash backs that serve as insane amounts of info dumping. All of that certainly wasn’t necessary.
Still, the action is fairly intense. Audrey loves jumping into situations she isn’t prepared for, believing that there is some way that she can help. Her need to help is almost a death wish, honestly. She needs to be saved from herself a little too often, but the stakes are real. Girls are dying all over the place and even Audrey’s infallible mom gets a few moments of weakness to show how real the danger is.
I certainly didn’t see the ending coming. When it happened, it all came together in an obvious fashion (and there is certainly ways I could have guessed it earlier), but it was still quite shocking. That made me really happy. Although, the ending did feel a bit rushed. The end almost had too many big reveals to do them all justice.
In the end, I can understand many of the points made by the not-so-impressed reviews. There were some clunky parts that made the book slow down. However, I was really impressed with the book overall. I’m a huge superhero fan, but this wasn’t your typical superhero story. I appreciated the family and friends dynamic, and the relationships were written really well. I was so excited by it that I immediately rushed to my phone-Kindle to start reading my e-copy of the next book in the series, Burn Bright.
AND THE NEXT RANDOM READ IS:
The Edge of Falling by Rebecca Serle!
My Life is a Notebook 