Review: Brightest Kind of Darkness by P.T. Michelle

Brightest Kind of Darkness by P.T. Michelle

publisher: self-published (Patrice Michelle)

release date: June 27th 2011

Ebook (book will be in print this fall!)

intended audience: Young adult

rating:



source: purchased for Nook

description:
Nara Collins is an average sixteen-year-old, with one exception: every night she dreams the events of the following day. Due to an incident in her past, Nara avoids using her special gift to change fate…until she dreams a future she can’t ignore.

After Nara prevents a bombing at Blue Ridge High, her ability to see the future starts to fade, while people at school are suddenly being injured at an unusually high rate.

Grappling with her diminishing powers and the need to prevent another disaster, Nara meets Ethan Harris, a mysterious loner who seems to understand her better than anyone. Ethan and Nara forge an irresistible connection, but as their relationship heats up, so do her questions about his dark past.

Review:
A funny little thing happened with this book that rarely happens to me: I bought this after seeing a good review of it on another blog (typical me, can't remember where exactly) and was furthermore drawn in by that breathtaking cover. Downloaded it, opened it up quickly to read the first few pages, you know, just to get a taste of the story and the voice. Well, after those first pages, I couldn't put it down. It went with me everywhere, got opened up in grocery store lines, at the pharmacy, even snuck in a few pages on the desk at work (shhhhh!). I was engulfed in Inara's story from start to finish.

Inara is a great character---pretty normal teenager except for the fact that she sees the events of her next day in her dreams the night before. She's had this gift for years and has become pretty dependent on her ability to keep on top of everything from homework, to friends, to soccer. She learned the hard way not to intervene---one attempt when she was little ended up with some pretty ugly repercussions, so she just lets the day play out as she foresees it. Until she dreams of a bomb going off at her school and can't stand by to let people die. So she calls in an anonymous tip about the bomb...and suddenly her dreams start to disappear almost completely. Really eerie things start to happen every time she tries to interfere from then on.

The day after the bomb-threat, she meets Ethan, a boy whose life she inadvertently saved by calling in the bomb. He's got a sketchy rumor-riddled past and he's a bit antisocial, but he's drawn to Nara, seems to know whenever she needs anything, and seems to be able to read her every thought almost before she has it. And yet, not the typical jump-in-and-save-the-girl Hero, either; Nara was bright and could hold her own. I fell for their relationship head over heels---it was addictive to watch it unfold and find out the what's and why's of all the bizarre things happening between them, but it was also just a pleasure to read...they had such an ease and comfort with each other. A few emotional moments here and there with Inara's father issues and I will tell you that the quick glimpse we get of Ethan's backstory had me in tears.

Michelle did a fantastic job of giving the reader a satisfying closure on this chapter of the story, but also leaving us wanting more, more, more of Nara & Ethan and Creepy Mr. Fate! I know there is more to come, and I got the feeling that there might be some really epic, ancient origins behind Nara's fight with Fate and Ethan's role in all of it. A fantastic read!

Visit P.T. Michelle's website here!

Purchase Brightest Kind Of Darkness at: Amazon • BN.com • Smashwords

Click to read an excerpt!