Book Review: Dark Promise - Julia Crane & Talia Jager

 Title: Dark Promise (Between Worlds #1)

Author: Julia Crane & Talia Jager

Release Date: July 28th 2012

Publisher: Valknut Press

Goodreads

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.

I wish I could say otherwise, but Dark Promise disappointed me despite my lack of expectations (which often saves a book for me).

The main reason why I didn't like this as much as I wanted to was the main character, Rylie. She was spoiled, stubborn, weak, and helpless. I mean, sure, her life was ruined when she learned she wasn't human, but the way she handled it really irritated me. Dare I say, I think human!Bella Swan was even better than Rylie, human or faery. At least Bella didn't annoy me. 

Now, as to the helpless part. Rylie was captured by dark faeries because of her "strong" powers - which, I found out, wasn't really that mind-blowingly amazing... - and she only tried to escape once, towards the end of the story. All the while she was thinking "I'm gonna find a way out of here", but I think I misunderstood 'here' as 'away from the dark faeries', when really she just meant 'this suffocating room'. And out of the room she got, yes, but only while her captors took her for walks around their beautiful land, pretty much like a dog on a leash. At one point, she thought that dog part herself, but all she did was whine and act like a kid who was kept away from the candy bar.

So now that I've established my hate dislike for Rylie, it's time I talk about the other things I didn't like about this book. First, the story was slow to take off, but I guess it was nice to see what Rylie's life had been like before she learned of her real identity. Second, the romance with the third side of the love triangle (I'm avoiding a spoiler here) progressed way too fast for me to approve of, but by the end, my heart was already aching for Guy #2. Perhaps it was because his character was more fleshed-out than Adam's, Rylie's human boyfriend.

The neat writing offered some consolation to this book, but, after reading all my rants, it's obvious that I can only recommend this book to those who are immune to annoying main characters and shallow plots. There will be a sequel, but I don't think I'd bother to check that out.

MY FAVORITE PART was, well, none.

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