D.G. ~Shameless Reader~

I’m being very generous with this rating. Rising Darkness was one of those books with an over complicated plot and a pretentious prose that seemed to shout “Look at me! Am I not clever?” The first half was maddening and boring by stages and I was tempted to dnf it many times. The second half was more exciting and clarified many things but I’m not sure it made up for the terrible beginning.

Mary has always felt like something is missing in her life. Lately, something seems to be wrong but she doesn’t know what it is. She’s always had weird recurring dreams that disturb her and they seem to be getting more vivid. Then a chance meeting with a psychic and a cry for help open her up to a world she cannot believe existed.It takes Mary a loooong time to belief what’s going on. A really long time. Even after all sorts of crazy stuff happens to her, she keeps thinking she’s crazy. I think Ms. Harrison wanted the reader to be as confused as Mary and sympathize with her disbelief, which could have worked if the story had been told in the first person and we only knew what Mary knew. However, this book is written in the third person and there are several other POVs including that of Michael, an old woman, the villain plus some confusing dreams with extravagant descriptions that seemed to go on and on. Instead of making the story mysterious, it was annoying to have all these people be so vague for no recognizable purpose.

Once Mary and Michael are together (at around the halfway point) and the reader gets some answers, there were some good parts. I was really touched by Michael’s reaction when he confronted what happened in their previous lifetime. The end was exciting so there’s a big chance the next book in the series will be significantly better.

If you have read Thea Harrison before, please be warned that this book is darker than her Elder Races series. Terrible stuff happens to innocent people and this may make some readers squirm. Things are not completely resolved at the end. The book doesn’t end in a cliffhanger but the story is more of a “Round 1″ where combatants inflict enough damage that they have to retreat to their corners and regroup.

I recommend readers to wait until the next book is out to see if the series is worth the effort (I read somewhere that this will be a duology…not sure if this is true though.) If the second book is sensational, then you can gird your loins to suffer through the first half of Rising Darkness because you’ll be sure to get a big payoff.