Title: Brightest Kind of Darkness
Author: P.T. Michelle
YA Paranormal Romance
Published June 27th 2011 by Patrice Michelle
Goodreads summary:
Nara Collins is an average sixteen-year-old, with one exception: every night she dreams the events of the following day. Due to an incident in her past, Nara avoids using her special gift to change fate…until she dreams a future she can’t ignore.
After Nara prevents a bombing at Blue Ridge High, her ability to see the future starts to fade, while people at school are suddenly being injured at an unusually high rate.
Grappling with her diminishing powers and the need to prevent another disaster, Nara meets Ethan Harris, a mysterious loner who seems to understand her better than anyone. Ethan and Nara forge an irresistible connection, but as their relationship heats up, so do her questions about his dark past.
Review:
The first pages of Brightest Kind of Darkness drew me in immediately. There was immediate conflict and danger and though I wasn’t yet attached to the characters, I was extremely pulled into the story and what might happen next. Had the danger passed?
Almost the entire first half had me pulled into it, actually. As a reader, I was learning more about the danger that was coming as Nara’s powers failed and about all of her more common perils of high school.
I appreciated Nara’s character for many reasons. I appreciated that she had a different sort of power than we usually see: seeing the future only one day at a time and only as it pertained to her. She’s so used to it that, though she laments the fact that every day is the worst kind of deja vu, when they disappear, she realizes how much she depends on her power for school and life in general.
I liked Nara and the story more before she became so utterly involved with Ethan though. I got to know her and her loved ones a little more that way. That’s not to say that I didn’t find Ethan interesting– his power and the way it interacted with Nara’s fascinated me.
But their relationship isn’t my favorite. Ethan himself becomes overbearing, assuming that he knows what’s best for Nara, doing things that she doesn’t agree to “for her own good.” Together, they grow increasingly codependent and desperate for each other. It’s one of those relationships that is unfortunately ubiquitous in YA lit these days.
But, overall, I’d classify Brightest Kind of Darkness as a fun and speedy read.
Overall rating: 3/5. A really enjoyable novel, but it hit a few of my buttons. I’d highly recommend this to fans of Twilight, The Immortals, and Hush, Hush. Especially since you can get it for the bargain price of $0.99!
