BUGGY

Opening Line: "Oh god, Abby. Don't panic. Just...don't...panic."

Sadly this was a DNF for me. That’s not to say at all that it’s unfinishable because it appears that some reviewers really liked it. It was more like ICBBTFT (I can’t be bothered to finish this) when I have so many other books waiting for me that I know I’ll enjoy more and won’t have to force my way through.

I really hate not finishing a book though (especially when it's been sitting on my shelf for 2+ years and I’ve already bought the second and third ones in the series.) But at 120 pages in I was still struggling to care about the characters and the weak plot, to find something engaging to stop my mind from wandering from the page. Even when I started skimming for the juicy parts I was left under whelmed. (“Youza” really?!) It was then that I realized even if I managed to slog through till the end this was only ever going to be a 2 star read, so I gave up.

WHEN DARKNESS COMES is the first book in the Guardians of Eternity series and a lot happens in the first couple of chapters, maybe too much because I found myself going back several times, thinking I’d missed something.

Abby Barlow is working in a mansion owned by an older woman named Selena. -I never did figure out what her actual job was but she seems to spend her days polishing (breaking) vases and flirting with Dante -I’m not sure his job position was ever identified either? None of that matters though because before long there’s an explosion, Selena is dead and Abby has been infused with the "Phoenix". As the physical holder of the chalice Abby also now has her own personal vampire bodyguard in Dante. He’s willing to protect her at any and all costs, which is a good thing because Abby is clueless (see annoying) and demons are now trying to kill her.

Forced on the run it doesn’t take long for Abby and Dante to start bumping uglies, (minus any form of sexual tension I might add) it does however take ages for Abby to come to terms with paranormal world she’s been thrust into. Honestly by this point (other then the introduction of Viper) I had lost interest completely. Both the hero and heroine remained vague characters and the immature dialogue was driving me crazy.

Dante as the “sexy” vampire just never did it for me, as far as vampires go he was very vanilla. And as I mentioned I had to keep backtracking, there were holes just left open in the story; Abby’s terrible background which was mentioned over and over again but never revealed, why she was working for Selena in the first place. I think at one point Dante even says she was trapped or tied to Selena like he was. I never understood that, Dante was assigned to protect her Abby was what? A maid and she couldn’t leave?

Anyways I hope others have better luck with this then I did. Cheers