For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

From the moment I picked up this book something about it called to me. And yet somehow, I have undoubtably mixed feelings regarding this book. As much as I wish I could dislike it so I could simply toss aside the series, I cannot stop my mind from wandering to this strange and so beautiful future. Even as I considered tossing the book aside and not finishing it, I stayed up reading late into the night, unable to put it down.

For the most part I think I was waiting for something to happen. The entire book feels as if you're teetering on the edge of action, of romance, of anything! That if you just read onto the next chapter the characters will be in love again the anger and strife will end. To my dismay, the suffering of the main character doesn't end until the last ten pages of the book!

The finale to this story is undeniably wonderful, though the proceeding book also plays to that a lot. For the first ninety five percent of the book the main character is sad, treated poorly, and almost everyone is miserable. At one point it got to be so depressing and seemingly hopeless I almost started crying out of frustration (of the book, not the character's struggles)! So why was I unable to put it down? I honestly can't say. Something about the character's personalities appealed to me immensely, and I must say I am very glad that I finished the book, because the ending is wonderful.

Elliot is a lovely heroine, but at times I did become fed up with her. What I really did respect though was her loyalty to those who she loves, even when they were wretched to her. One of my biggest angers with the book's characters was inability for any of them to see how hard she worked for them all.

Kai was amazing, but he also pissed me off to no end. He is so terrible to her. I know it must have been hard because he loved her so much, and I can imagine that feeling like she'd abandoned him must have hurt a lot. Unfortunately, this does not justify his behavior. If he hadn't won my heart with the ending of the book, I believe this review would be going a lot differently.

All in all I feel like the sequel to this will be much better than the first, and I look forward to reading it. This whole book felt like a set up for the next won, and I am curious to see where the storyline goes. It will be nice to watch Elliot and Kai's romance bloom and expand a little more. In this we never see them together. Mostly all you have to go on is the strange letters written by children interjected between every few chapters, and Elliot's miserable internal musings about how much she loves him. Despite that all though, you can tell that they are meant to be together. There is a chemistry between Elliot and Kai that cannot be denied, and I hope that the next book will extrapolate on their relationship some more.

The writing is a bit strange. Although it is good and has some finesse, there's something lacking in it, that I will admit turned me off a bit. It felt a bit like the writer was rather inexperienced, and as I have high hopes for the story and the romance in the next book, as do I hope that Diana's writing will have improved.

Overall I will say that I liked it, but feel as if it set up more for the next book, so I hope it lives up to high expectations that are now being set forth.

Three Stars

Yours Truly,

Rosalie

For Darkness Shows the Stars on Goodreads