Death And The Girl Next Door (Darklight #1) by Darynda Jones
Paranormal Romance/YA
October 2, 2012
St. Martin’s press
Reviewed by Tori
Favorite Quote: “Turtles are not the innocent, harmless creatures everyone thinks they are. Mark my words.”
Darynda Jones hooked me solid with her adult Charley Davidson series, so I jumped quickly and trampled a few friends when offered a chance to read her debut YA series-Death And The Girl Next Door. I’m not proud of my actions, but I can live with them.
Lorelei MacAlister is your average high school sophomore. She has lived with her grandparents since her parents mysteriously disappeared ten years ago. She’s always had “visions” but they make no sense until she accidentally brushes against a dark handsome young man. Things turn surreal when antisocial bad boy Cameron Lusk suddenly begins to stalk Lorelei and the dark handsome young man shows up at her school as new student-Jared Kovach. The two boys seem to know each other and the animosity rolls off them, igniting the air, with Lorelei stuck in the middle. As Lorelei learns the reason behind their hatred for one another, she finds herself connected to both of them in ways she never imagined.
Death And The Girl Next Door is a YA paranormal romance, (reminiscent of her adult series), with humor, mystery, suspense, and witty dialogue. Personable characters keeps the story running along as Jones uses a majority of the book to set up the series and build her world. Heavily character driven, the three main protagonists are strong but enhanced by equally formidable secondary characters. Though Lorelei has grave concerns about her parents disappearance and her visions, you’d expect some pity or angst in her voice yet she deals with her issues in a humorous self deprecating way that is both amusing and endearing. I like that Lorelei is a human high school student and continues to act like one. She doesn’t instantly accept what she is told and questions everything. Her two best friends, Brooklyn and Glitch are PERFECT for Lorelei. Smart, funny, and willing to throw down with anyone over her. Brooklyn especially had me rolling.
“I need to ask you something.”
“Shoot.”
“Okay. so I wondering, if Cameron kidnaps you, kills you, then buries your lifeless body in a shallow grave in the desert where your remains lay decomposing for several decades until they’re accidently discovered by some guy on a journey to reawaken his spirit at the Salina Pueblo Missions, can i have you iMac?”
Jared and Cameron have to share the title of resident bad boy. Both are gorgeous, dangerous, and they focus on Lorelei with questionable intentions. We do get their backstories, which explains who and what they are and why they are focusing on Lorelei. I like that fact that the love triangle we think will happen, doesn’t. Or, at least not in the way you might suspect.
What I did have some problems with is Lorelei and Jared, especially her attitude concerning Jared. He’s hot, mega hot, and we are informed of this multiple times throughout the story as they both wax poetic towards one another. They instantly form a connection and I found Lorelei’s “insta-love” disconcerting. They crush hard on each other and it happens fast and plays on the predictable theme of human girl falling for immortal boy. I was also not impressed with Lorelei being kept in the dark concerning everything happening around her. I felt she deserved to know much earlier on what was happening though she was pretty much just ignored until that plan was no longer feasible.
The overall storyline is an interesting mixture of religion; mixing angels, demon, and other supernatural entities. As stated earlier, a majority of the book is spent setting up the series and world building, so I can’t say there is a resolvable main conflict in here. The ending is cute, though we are left with some heavy questions .Unfortunately, the romance lowered my grade.
Rating: C
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*Nods head in agreement* I enjoyed this one, but also had trouble with the romance. I loved all the characters, but something was missing and I still can’t quite put my finger on what it was.
YES! There was something to the whole story that didn’t quite mesh.
Eh, sure I could read it, still I do think I’ll always love her other series more
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