 | Title: Beyond the Darkness
Sexual Content: Several sex scenes and an attempted rape scene. Rating:
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying. |
Description
They live ordinary lives, but they are extraordinary. They are the Offspring, children of a mysterious experiment gone awry—and they are in terrible danger.
Cheveyo: a name that stirs Petra like no other, reviving deep feelings of pleasure . . . and pain. Despite her rare psychic gifts, the beautiful half-human Offspring doesn’t know why the magnificent shapeshifter walked out of her life when the bond they shared was powerful . . . and intensely passionate.
But Cheveyo is not gone. From the shadows, he watches over his beloved, determined that the malevolent enemies he hunts with fang and claw will not invade her world. But now, suddenly, the stakes are getting higher—as an insidious evil plots the destruction of Petra’s race. Cheveyo can remain hidden no longer from the lover who completes him but could destroy him . . . if his own inner darkness doesn’t destroy her first.
Review
In BEYOND THE DARKNESS, Rush gives a fresh twist on familiar romance tropes. Her characters deal with danger and an alien threat on the run, all the while dodging gracefully around the “drop everything to sleep with your soul-mate” plot device. Rush's story is at its finest when deftly quipping and prat-falling through what could have been overwrought romantic or suspenseful scenes in the hands of a less original author.
While I intellectually applauded Petra and Cheveyo's story, however, my emotions were largely untouched untouched by the characters themselves. For me, there was some essential spark missing that could elevate them from technically well-crafted to genuinely interesting. That disconnect knocked this particular story down a bat for me, but in no way stunted my interest in reading more offerings from Rush. I loved how when Cheveyo resists his attraction to Petra so as not to put her in danger, she misses him but moves on. Sure she daydreams about the smoking hot kiss they shared, but she still says, “Yes,” when a cute guy asks her out. Over the course of the story, both characters resist opportunities to fall into bed and letting chemistry work things out. They truly try to address the hang ups and dangers that keep them apart. While I wasn’t thrilled with some of the plot devices used to resolve those snags in the end, I really enjoyed the middle portion of the story where they wrestled with them.
While I had no difficulty picking up plot points from earlier books as the story went along, maybe I would have found the resolution of this book more emotionally satisfying if I had started this series with A PERFECT DARKNESS. As it stands, I am interested in reading more books by Rush in the hopes of finding more of those magic scenes where she gives a new spin on a familiar plot device.
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