The Dark World

Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Summary and cover image from Goodreads:

Paige Kelly is used to weird--in fact, she probably corners the market on weird, considering that her best friend, Dottie, has been dead since the 1950s. But when a fire demon attacks Paige in detention, she has to admit that things have gotten out of her league. Luckily, the cute new boy in school, Logan Bradley, is a practiced demon slayer-and he isn't fazed by Paige's propensity to chat with the dead. Suddenly, Paige is smack in the middle of a centuries-old battle between warlocks and demons, learning to fight with a magic sword so that she can defend herself. And if she makes one wrong move, she'll be pulled into the Dark World, an alternate version of our world that's overrun by demons-and she might never make it home.

I received this book at the Ottawa blogger meet up earlier this year. After reading the synopsis, I was really looking forward to this one, since it sounded right up my alley. The author, Cara Lynn Shultz, ended up speaking at one of the panels I attended at the Teen Author Carnival before BEA this year, and after hearing her talk about the book and read a bit from it, I was even more excited to start reading!

I was so into this book that I finished it in about a day and a half. I loved the concept of a dark, shadowy mirror-world to our own, full of demons and monsters. I also loved the main character, Paige. She was so funny! She was snarky and sarcastic, and definitely not a pushover!

Part of what I really enjoyed about this book was that Paige had known for some time about the paranormal (at least, as far as ghosts go), due to an accident that took place prior to the start of the book. Paige technically died very briefly, and when she came back, was able to see and speak with spirits. I liked being able to mostly skip over the whole ‘OMG ghosts are real’ aspect because it let the story get going right away.

Although it was a bit cliche at times, I also loved the romance. Paige was definitely attracted to Logan, but took her time sorting out her feelings before anything happened between them.

Another plus: Paige’s parents were a big part of her life. They were overprotective but clearly loved her so much, and I appreciated that they were part of the story. Sometimes I read books where the parents are conveniently absent or super uninvolved in the main character’s life, but in this book, they felt like a real and important part of Paige’s life, even if she couldn’t exactly tell them about what was happening to her.

The ending left me eagerly looking forward to the next book in the series! If you are a paranormal fan, I definitely recommend that you pick this book up!