Review & Blog Tour: INNOCENT DARKNESS by Suzanne Lazear

Thanks to Mundie Moms for having us participate in the INNOCENT DARKNESS Blog Tour!

Title: Innocent Darkness
Series: The Aether Chronicles #1
Paperback, 408 pages
Author: Suzanne Lazear
Publisher: Flux
Publication: August 8, 2012
Amazon | Goodreads 

Wish. Love. Desire. Live.
Sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock's hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer's eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie rescues her and brings her to the Otherworld, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed, otherwise, the entire Otherworld civilization will perish.

A fantastic beginning that sucked me right in. 

Noli is an awesome heroine, full of spunk, intelligence and independence. She moves to her own funky beat, and is proud and confident about it. Unfortunately, wonderful V is the only one that appreciates her individuality, which is why she’s sent to that God forsaken reform school.

Makes your insides cringe, doesn't it?

The way this torture chamber—I mean, school is written had my stomach twisting tighter than a balled python. It doesn’t get too graphic, but close enough that your imagination doesn’t have to work too hard. 

Noli toughs it out with incredible strength, and you’re absolutely ecstatic when she gets free. Even if she does land in the Realm of Faerie.

Which is where, in comparison to the first half, things start to slow. Still good, but doesn’t hold up to that incredibly suspenseful first half.

In the faerie realm, Noli depends on mystery man Kevighn to get her back home. She loses some independence here which is one of the main characteristics that made me want to be BFFs in the first place. *sigh*

But Kevighn does have that seriously dark and dangerous sexy thing going on which had me, and Noli, kicking ourselves for liking him so much. What is it about tortured bad boys that pluck the  hormone - uh, I mean, heart strings?

The good news is that when Noli’s best friend V shows up to save the day, he turns out to not only be a sweet book nerd, but just as dangerous and even more smokin’ than Kevighn. 

That’s right, you get two bad boys with tortured pasts in one book. I’ll wait while digest that delicious news. 

It's almost like getting 2 Damon Salvatores.
Only not as good because, you know, it's not 2 Damon Salvatores.

However, V is definitely my pick of the two. The main reason being that he and Noli had a terrific history of awesome friendship which made the transition to romantic love sweet and believable. 

The major problem driving the plot seemed to wrap up a little too easily for me, but the final pages do hold an exciting and ghastly twist. Why Noli? Why? It’s so not fair.

There was way less steampunk than I expected, so hardcore steampunk fans, consider yourselves warned. However, faerie fans should be thrilled with the abundance of fae drama.

Secondary characters James and Charlotte were delightful and I'm intrigued as to where their story goes.

Also, just a note, near the end an overly sexy scene blips out of nowhere and had me wondering about the "for 12 and up" rating. It was brief, somewhat vague, but not vague enough for my eyebrows not to shoot up.

Mom isn't reading over my shoulder, right?
That'd be awkward.

Overall, a fun read with plenty of romance, intrigue, and for most of the book, a pretty tough heroine. I'm definitely picking up the next one to see how she makes it out of that craptastic situation at the end. 

If you missed any of stops, be sure to check them all out on the INNOCENT DARKNESS Blog Tour!