The Soul Sisters: Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway: Dark Promise by Julia Crane and Talia Jager

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Title: Dark Promise (Between Worlds #1)
Authors: Julia Crane and Talia Jager
Pages: 176 pages
Format acquired: ePub
Publisher: Valknut Press, LLC
Published on: July 28th 2012
Source: Received from AToMR Book Blog Tours (Thanks!)
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

Rylie has it all - great friends, dream boy, loving family. But on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, her perfect little world shatters. A stranger claiming to be her real mother appears with a secret: Rylie is a faery whose powers will be unleashed on her birthday. Captured and forced into a new life, Rylie struggles to keep everything she loves and discovers a terrifying truth: some promises cannot be broken.

(Summary taken from Goodreads)

Review:

Dark Promise held a lot of potential, it could've been an amazing novel but it turned out just good instead. It wasn't that the writing wasn't very good, because it was good. And it also wasn't because the idea wasn't very creative, because it was creative. What I found lacking was the way the story evolved. I felt that the story moved a bit too fast for my liking, in more ways than one. The way the protagonist told her story seemed a bit rushed and the way the scenes progressed were also kind of fast, as well. When you read a book like this, you want things to be savored so that you can feel its maximum effect. Though there were honestly parts that I just felt were put there to make the book longer than it was. There were details that weren't needed and that's the problem, the important details weren't really kept while the minor details were the ones added in.

Rylie was a pretty okay protagonist for me. She's like every other normal teenager but with a slightly better life. Unlike more protags you'll read about, Rylie is actually pretty confident about herself. Which I found was a pretty good thing since most girls are insecure about their looks, it's good to see heroines that know who they are and are confident with how they look. I honestly felt bad for Rylie when her biological mother just barged into her life without warning and blurts out "HEY. You're a faerie and people are going to come after you once you turn sixteen. Did you notice the wings yet?" I think it's understandable if a person does get a little kooky after hearing that your entire life has been a lie. I actually thought that she handled it pretty well. I think that the only time I had a problem with her was during the second half of the book, when she was taken by the Dark Fey. Rylie was pretty sad and quite frankly, a little pathetic when she was kidnapped. She didn't really do anything drastic, she only allowed them to take her away and lock her up in a room. I expected to do something spectacular since she's this powerful faerie but I guess nothing's really going to happen yet since she's still new to the whole fey business.

There was a lot of pushing and pulling that happened during the parts where Rylie was taken and I felt that most of the important bits of the book happened there. To cut to the important part, Rylie is basically forced to marry to Dark Fey "prince", Kallan. (Ladies, he's very good looking.) This became an issue because Rylie's still hung up on her human boyfriend, Adam, even though she's insanely attracted to the other guy. Just to clarify, Rylie is a Light Fey so her and Kallan's union is going to be pretty iffy. This is the part where Rylie turns into the emotional-angsty-teenaged girl who just can't pick who she wants to be with. I pretty much made up my mind on who I wanted to be with as soon as Kallan came in and trust me, I didn't pick the human. The two guys were swoon-worthy in their own ways, but Kallan still took the cake for me.

This being a book about good vs. evil, I felt that it needed a little more action. Like maybe some sword-fighting or fey-slaying because I realized that the fey are actually pretty normal people. They play sports and do normal human stuff (except maybe touch iron...) There needed to be a more clear distinction between what a human is and what a faerie is. Maybe add a twist the faerie mythology? I really like that each faerie had their own gifts in the book and how they differed from fey to fey. Rylie has a really cool gift. Hehe

Dark Promise really was a promising book and I actually really did enjoy it. I just feel like it could've been executed better and the detailing could have been written more explicitly. I'm honestly really curious as to what happens next, so I'll be eagerly awaiting the next book because the ending was just *headdesk* in a good way. Next book, please!

Rating: