Review: "Darken the stars," by Amy A. Bartol

I received this ARC from 47North Amazon Publishing Via NG in return for an honest review. "Deep down, however, I fear that I’ve come to love a lie.” Bruised…battered….gutted…in shock. Those are my feelings right now! Amy Bartol I’m breaking up with you You led me astray. You gave me mixed signals. I trusted you! I trusted you with my heart and you smashed it with your words. How could you? If we were married, I’d want a divorce. How could you take away the boys? How could you take Jax, Trey and Wayra away from me? *takes a shuddering breath* Those first two books, were some of the happiest and most glorious books of my life. Why did you do it? Wasn’t my love enough? Didn’t you know how much I loved Kricket? You made her into someone else! I thought you understood where this was going and boy, did I want it to be real! *starts crying* You ruined me! And demolished my soul with a wrecking ball. Thanks a lot! WE’RE OVER! *cough* Sorry about that! I’m going to try to be very objective here and ugh…cast my feelings aside for just a moment though I didn’t exactly do a great job of it at the start Let’s talk about the plot

Kyon finally has Kricket in his grasp, Lies are brought forth. Plots unconcealed. Lives destroyed. Not anyone are who they say they are, and things are not as they seem. Certainty and love are at war. And sometimes the lines are blurred between lover and enemy. An Empress will rise if the land of Ethar, But first we must darken the stars.

Actual rating…2.5 Stars. This is hard for me guys. I battled with not rating it as a 1 star, because, trying to be objective here- the writing was still amazing…the plot was complex. Oh heck, objectivity is over. WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED HERE? *tread careful from this point, potential spoilers below, read at thine own risk!* I had more of a hate than love relationship with this book. Now the first book was near perfect to me I gave it a 4.5 stars, the second was a knock out and I gave it a straight 5 stars, heck I’d give it a 6 star out of 5. This one's rating halves the last book! What happened? Why did you take away Trey? How could you try to make me like Kyon? What did you do with Kricket? Was it demon possession? Was she abducted and replaced by aliens? Why did she do a 180? Why was she so different? Why did the plot change so much!!? Make me understand! Was this all a vision that Kricket was having and all this didn’t actually happen? Tell me that’s what’s happening, please! 61% of this book was like a honeymoon of Kyon and Kricket! Again, what the heck? Warning:- Mother of all love triangles here! Trey! How could you Bartol? I know it’s within your author rights, but I loved the man! (Don’t worry guys, he’s not dead) but Bartol! He made it into my book-boyfriend list and I hardly got any Trey in my life this time! Why? I know this review is full of questions, I feel played, used and cheated. And I’m bitter for it. I felt everything so keenly, which is why I knew I couldn’t just rate it a 1 star. You got me good Bartol. You got me good. You pulverized my soul. Ladies and Gents…this book is nothing like what we expected and while this may work for some, it…wrecked me. It’s a good book. But I thought the story would go a different way. I had hoped it would go a different way. Bartol if you wanted to show the harsh realities of life well played. Be prepared to be shocked everyone! I certainly was! I’m so confused about everything here. So many feelings. Kricket…was one of my favourite characters of all time. This book made me feel murderous…towards her! Is this the last book? Could it just end like that? Surely not…right? I’ll stop right there, I can’t go on. Stay awesome! -The Book Herald Tweet me @thebookherald