Book Review: Darker Days by Jus Accardo
Series: The Darker Agency #1
By: Jus Accardo
Author Info: Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre Type: Paranormal, Romance
Publication Date: August 19th 2013
Pages: 332 pages
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Summary:
Jessie Darker goes to
high school during the day, but at night she helps with the family
investigation business. Cheating husbands and stolen inheritances?
They’re your girls—but their specialty is a bit darker. Zombie in your
garage? Pesky Poltergeist living in your pool? They’ll have the problem
solved in a magical minute. For a nominal fee, of course...
When gorgeous new client, Lukas Scott, saunters into the office requesting their help to find a stolen box, it sounds like a simple case—until the truth comes out. The box is full of Sin.
Seven deadly ones, in fact.
They’ve got five days to recapture the Sins before they're recalled by the box, taking seven hijacked human bodies with them. Easy peasy—except for one thing...
There’s a spell that will allow the Sins to remain free, causing chaos forever. When the key ingredient threatens the life of someone she knows, Jessie must make the ultimate choice between love and family—or lose everything.
DARKER DAYS by Jus Accardo has all the right elements to make a paranormal-romance fan happy, including a sassy, kick butt heroine, a dark and dangerous hero, some scary things that go bump-in-the-night and an unique plot. One of the best features of Darker Days was the fantastic characterization! Jessie, as the main character, really was fabulous and stole the show. What surprised me the most was just how many great secondary characters there were in Darker Days. I could not help but turn the pages to find out what next with some of these fantastic characters.
SETTING AND SUMMARY: Jessie goes to high school every day just like any other normal teenager, but by night she helps her mom run the Darker Agency, one that specializes in the darker things...things that go bump in the night. Suddenly things are about to get down right strange for the Darker family when Lukas, a gorgeous stranger, burst through their door requesting help retrieving a stolen box. There's one catch-this is no ordinary box, but one that houses the Seven Deadly Sins. Now Jessie must join forces with Lukas in order to find the box and trap the Seven Deadly Sins before it is too late.
"We were like the A-Team of the Otherworld, only with a permanent address and laminated business cards."
CHARACTERS: Darker Days has a great cast of characters, including the human and not-so-human variety. Jessie Darker literally jumps off the page with her witty sarcasm and charm. She is one delightful heroine who is not afraid to kick some pesky-paranormal butt. Full of fun quirks and often impulsive, Jessie often manages to get herself in hilarious situations. Being accident prone leads to some serious fun, especially when dealing with Zombies, possessed pets, and things of the paranormal variety. For all her bravery and snark, Jessie fears emotional attachment and avoids dating like the plague. Try as she might, there is something about Lukas Scott that attracts Jessie like no other.
"Hey, show me a guy who can take down a dirt demon without pissing himself and I'll smack his ass and let him take me to the prom."
Lukas Scott may seem gorgeous and dangerous on the outside, but on the inside he’s really sweet and romantic, and is often teased by Jessie for his old-fashion ways. What made Lukas's character so compelling in the story was the constant struggle he has against the sin Wraith, who is part of Lukas due to a curse put on him by a witch. Would Lukas give in to the sin Wraith? Could he win the inner battle he fought to protect those he cared about, including Jessie? This constant struggle made it easy to sympathize with him, and was one of the reasons Jessie found him so compelling.
There are so many other fantastic secondary characters in Darker Days I would love to tell you more about. Some of these characters are human, and some definitely not so human. There’s characters that I ended up admiring, and swooning for, bad guys I booed for, and even a few that made me laugh and giggle. Jus Accardo made sure that there's no shortage of great characters in Darker Days.
SWOON LEVEL: Crush.
THE ROMANCE: Lukas and Jessie definitely have this attraction going on between them. It was fun watching them try to find romantic moments in between kicking paranormal butt and trying to collecting the Seven Deadly Sins.
SWOON QUOTE: The First time Lukas and Jessie meet.
"Holly house of hogs getting blasted by the blue birdie brigade..." [says Jessie]
"Excuse me?" he said as the door slammed closed behind him. Head tilted sideways, he was staring at me like I had two heads, a forked tongue, and neon spikes growing out my back."
I swallowed and gripped the edge of mom's desk, hoping to God that my cheeks weren't fire engine red.
FAVORITE BOOK FEATURE: The unique and exciting plot involving the Seven Deadly Sins and the fantastic characterization.
THE ENDING: Jus Accardo gives us a great ending with plenty of action, and some surprise twists leaving us eagerly waiting for more. I can't wait to see what happens next with Jessie, Lukas, and the Darker family.
RATING: 4.5 stars
RECOMMENDED TO: Fans of humorous, paranormal-romance who love a kick-butt heroine full of sass.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: Big Thank You to Entangled Publishing, I won a ARC copy of Darker Days in a raffle lottery!
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