Just in time for Halloween – check out Lisa Collicutt’s paranormal-romance “The Gathering Darkness”. Rating: 3/5

*This is book #26/28 for my 2014 book challenge. You can take a look at the reading challenge here.

They say “third time’s the charm,” and for sixteen-year-old Brooke Day, they had better be right. She’s been here before, twice in fact, and so has the darkness awaiting her return.

When Brooke is forced to leave Boston for the village of Deadwich, she thinks her life is over. New friends become estranged—downright evil. But worse, recurring nightmares become reality.

Enter Marcus Knight; he’s popular, hot, and the only person Brooke can trust.

Not to mention, they’ve shared the same nightmares.

With the discovery of an ancient Celtic amulet, Brooke and Marcus unravel the secrets of her past, revealing the path to her future.

As the equinox approaches, darkness and light merge for the first time in a century. Soul-mates reunite. Magic awakens.

Purchase: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Just in time for Halloween, I was able to read The Gathering Darkness by Lisa Collicutt. The story had a lot of potential, but it ultimately fell flat for me. The story surrounds two teenagers that meet when one is the new girl at school. They have an unnatural connection to either, and things get creepy very fast. The two are forced to deal with some super-supernatural elements that rock their otherwise normal lives. It’s then that they realize they aren’t as normal as they think. There is a strange mix of natural skepticism among the characters for some major events, and not nearly enough for others (like finding bones in a well.. gross).

Really, the main problem I had with this book was that it was too cliche. Sure, there are a lot of elements that pop up in young adult novels time and time again, but this was overkill. The author is obviously a great writer – there was a lot of attention to detail and some of the paranormal aspects were interesting. It just seemed as if she was trying to stuff every possible “typical YA book” cliche into the story as if it would appeal to people more. The love triangle was unnecessary and complicated the story. There were some parts that were so incredibly eye-roll inducing and on the verge of soap opera-y (like a love child? why?) that I wanted to give up. There were a lot of plot points that were great, but ended up being ridiculous when mixed with all of the other plot points. I think when writing a paranormal romance the rules should always be less is more. I felt like the middle of the book dragged on for too long, while the actual ending was wonderfully put (until they got their magic back).

I read almost exclusively young-adult books, but I felt like this was below that level and actually read more like middle-grade. There were parts of it that were enjoyable, but I wasn’t all that impressed.

Rating: 

About The Author:

Lisa likes to write dark and twisted tales of magic and romance. She has a passion for Young Adult and New Adult Paranormal Romance. When she’s not conjuring tales about witches, demons, and other magical beings, she can be found leathered and bound to the back of her husband’s Harley, touring her homeland of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Enter Lisa’s imagination where realism ends and fantasy begins. But heed these warnings … it’s dark, it’s magical, you may experience tingles.

Connect With Lisa: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

If you’re interested in reading my GoodReads updates from this book you can do so here. I must say, they’re quite entertaining. It will tell you exactly what I was thinking on certain pages.

PLEASE NOTE: I received a free copy of this book from Curiosity Quills Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions held within this review are my own thoughts and feelings and do not reflect upon anyone else.

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