Review: Kiss in the Dark

Title: Kiss in the Dark
Author: Lauren Henderson
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 247
Series: Scarlett Wakefield #3
Rating: 4 stars
From the book jacket:
With Dan McAndrew's murder finally behind her, Scarlett has high hopes for a fresh start at Wakefield Hall Collegiate, the elite English boarding school her grandmother runs. Unfortunately, those hopes are dashed when her nemesis, the infamous Plum Saybourne, is transferred to the school. Plum wastes no time turning Scarlett's impressionable classmates against her.

Scarlett has dealt with Plum's nasty schemes before, and she can handle her archenemy very nicely, thank you -- until Plum sets her sights on Scarlett's best friend, Taylor, and new boyfriend, Jase. Then Scarlett is more than willing to fight for what's rightfully hers.

Fighting doesn't solve everything, though, and things only get worse after Scarlett becomes entangled in a mysterious death on campus. A reluctant sleuth, Scarlett is compelled to investigate because she wants to protect someone close to her. She never imagines that she'll uncover secrets related to her parents' fatal accident so many years ago...

I'm so glad that I had a couple of uninterrupted hours in which to read this book, because I would not have been happy to have to put it down. Kiss in the Dark is a fun, quick read with a perfect blend of boarding school drama and murder mystery. Oh, and Britishness. It gains lots of awesome-points just for the sheer Britishness of the characters and the story.

Kiss in the Dark is the third book in a series (the first two are Kiss Me Kill Me and Kisses and Lies), but it's not really essential to have read the first two to understand and enjoy this one. I still definitely recommend reading them in order as it provides a lot of the characters' backgrounds and explains events that are referenced in this one (plus, who wouldn't enjoy two more books of Scarlett?), but at the start of this book, the major events of the first two books are firmly in the past. Scarlett thinks she's starting over now that she's solved the murder of Dan McAndrew, except now Plum Saybourne, her ultra-popular nemesis, has transferred to her school.

Within a few weeks, Plum has the other girls at Wakefield Hall practically worshiping her, and Scarlett and her best friend Taylor are left to deal with it on their own. The verbal battles and the power struggles between Scarlett and Plum are certainly entertaining to read about. Scarlett's a strong character who knows how to stand up for herself, so the conflict escalates rapidly. In addition to all of the popularity struggles, Plum's out to destroy Scarlett's relationship with the gardener's son, Jase. But it turns out Plum isn't the only one who's not pleased with that relationship: Jase's father and grandmother and Scarlett's aunt have all indicated that the two should not be together. Scarlett's already trying to solve that mystery when she and Taylor stumble onto a dead body.

I felt like the mystery was really well-done - both mysterious situations, the murder and the objections to Scarlett's relationship with Jase, are handled realistically and thoroughly. My only complaints wer that in places it felt like Scarlett was a way better detective than she should have been, so it was a tiny bit inconsistent, and it was a little more predictable than I liked. There's enough of a conclusion to make Kiss in the Dark tell a complete story all on its own, but with enough questions left unanswered that I'll definitely read book four when it comes out.

The characters are great, too; I feel like the character development in this book is a lot stronger than in the first two, which is nice. I especially love that we get to see a new side to Taylor's character, as she's probably my favorite. And I love these books' approach to strong female characters. Kiss in the Dark is a great continuation of the series, and I definitely recommend the entire series to any teenage girl looking for a fun, quick read. Especially if you like Britishness. (They kick bums instead of butts! It's awesome.)

Links:
Lauren Henderson's website

Review: Infinite Days

Title: Infinite Days
Author: Rebecca Maizel
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 308
Series: Vampire Queen Trilogy #1
Rating: 4.5 stars
From the back cover:
"I release you, Lenah Beaudonte.
Believe, and be free.


Those were the last words I could remember. When I awoke, I immediately felt a cold surface on my left cheek. An icy shiver rushed down my spine. 'Rhode!' I screamed. He had to be here. There would be no world without Rhode. A door somewhere near me opened and closed. Rhode loomed over me but he was a blur. Even in the haze of that moment his icy-blue eyes pierced me, down to my soul."


After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah Beaudonte, with the help of the handsome Rhode, has been able to realize the dream of all vampires - to be human again. Now, as a raven-haired, sixteen-year-old, Lenah believes her greatest challenge is fitting in at her new school. But the challenges have only begun. The vicious coven Lenah once ruled is threatening the new-found pleasures of her human life, including the one guy who makes her feel most alive, Justin. Can this ex-vamp survive in an alien time and place or will her past come back to haunt her...forever?


I received an ARC of Infinite Days through LibraryThing Early Reviewers, and while I was excited to read it, I was a little wary of reading yet another vampire novel. I shouldn't have worried. With this one, Rebecca Maizel has completely remade all the rules. It's a completely new take on vampirism and I really, really loved it. It was also great to see vampires portrayed as the "bad guys" for the first time in a long time. I could have enjoyed it just for that. But there was so much more. It was a fantastic book.

Lenah is a wonderful character. Her emotions are so real, and the way she reacts to being in the twenty-first century for the first time is spectacular. It's a lot of fun watching her adjust to the modern world, getting used to the technology and the slang. You can really get inside her head. And the side characters were awesome too. Justin is a popular guy with depth to him, and Lenah's first friend in the human world, Tony, is easy to imagine just stepping off the page and coming to life. I felt like the "Three-Piece," the popular girls who date the most popular guys, could have been developed more than they were, but on the whole, the characters were excellent.

And the plot! Yes, it's a vampire romance novel, but it's so different from anything that's already out there. Lenah's relearning what it means to be human, what it means to have human senses, and that includes falling in love. The developing relationships between Lenah and Tony and Lenah and Justin are beautifully crafted, and the impending danger of the coven is really well-done too. There's a lot of mystery surrounding the ritual used to make Lenah human, and the reader gets really engaged in that.

Most of Lenah's vampire life is revealed through flashbacks, so she's really telling two stories at once: what's happening now, in the present, and how she got to be there. The flashbacks aren't necessarily continuous, which can get a tiny bit confusing, but it tells the story effectively. And almost all of the flashbacks are really well-done. Some of my favorite scenes were in the flashbacks.

So, in short, Infinite Days is a really great novel with an awesome new twist on vampire mythology and characters that you will not want to let go of. Definitely worth reading.

Links: 
Rebecca Maizel's blog