Review: The Dark World by Cara Lynn Shultz

The Dark World

Cara Lynn Shultz

(The Dark World #1)

Publication Date: May 27, 2014

Hardcover, 384 pages, Harlequin Teen

Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads

Paige Kelly is used to weird--in fact, she probably corners the market on weird, considering that her best friend, Dottie, has been dead since the 1950s. But when a fire demon attacks Paige in detention, she has to admit that things have gotten out of her league. Luckily, the cute new boy in school, Logan Bradley, is a practiced demon slayer-and he isn't fazed by Paige's propensity to chat with the dead. Suddenly, Paige is smack in the middle of a centuries-old battle between warlocks and demons, learning to fight with a magic sword so that she can defend herself. And if she makes one wrong move, she'll be pulled into the Dark World, an alternate version of our world that's overrun by demons-and she might never make it home.

My Review

A book about a hunky, demon-slaying boy belongs on my bookshelf. Especially when that boy’s name is Logan. The Dark World definitely delivers with its mix of smexy boy and sarcastic humor.

The Dark World immediately gets into the thick of things. There’s no long introduction to Paige’s world. And right off the bat you learn that she can talk to ghosts, but that information isn’t just handed over. It’s revealed in a unique, and somewhat shocking, way. There were a lot of other loopholes and plot developments that weren’t predictable and that, when revealed, were mind-boggling.

Paige as a character is pretty cool. She’s actually a person, unlike some other YA books' main characters out there nowadays. She has an obsession with pink and frilly pens (I loved this!), her parents aren’t just in the book to be there, they actually have roles to play, and she reacts to situations in a fairly normal manner. I can’t for sure know that her reactions would be realistic, simply because I’ve never been attacked by demons and saved by a hawt boy before, but I’ll sign up for that life any day if it means having me someone like Logan to keep me safe. Logan is basically a cuddle-able (totally not a word, but Logan deserves to have many words made up about his awesomeness) razor blade. He’s all soft and gooey and sweet, but sometimes, he can just be plain ol’ deadly. I’ve added another fictional boyfriend to my extremely long list after finishing this book. *sigh*

The relationship between Paige and Logan is so cute. They aren’t your average book couple. They’re awkward. Logan gets extremely flustered around Paige’s overprotective dad, and writes with her pretty pink pens just so he can talk to her. Paige talks in her sleep and awkwardly cries in front of Logan. Plus, they’ve known each other before all of this goes down. Meaning it isn’t a love/lust-at first-sight storyline. AND Paige asks a question that I wanted to jump up and down and clap at! She asks Logan about their relationship, and she even mentions that they’re young and still in high school. Hallelujah! This girl’s got her head firmly planted on her shoulders!

As mentioned earlier, the plotline of this book wasn’t as predictable as I thought it was going to be. Sure, the ending has something that I was hoping would happen, happen, but the way it was spun was different from what I had imagined. I really enjoyed how hard it was to guess what the heck was going on, without getting completely confused.

The bad guys in this book weren’t as bad as I was hoping they’d be. I wasn’t feeling them as much as the main characters. Hopefully they’ll be expanded on in the next book because I would love to explore the Dark World through some of the freaky things that bump their way around over there.

All in all, this was a great read. I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to picking up the sequel, whenever it comes out… I need a date Harlequin Teen! Please?!

*Note: I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. This in no way altered my opinion/review.