Eventide

Dark Ink Chronicles, Book #3

By Elle Jasper

ISBN# 9780451236258

Author’s Website:  http://www.ellejasper.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Eventide picks up where book 2, Everdark, left off.  Riley has been bitten by both Arcos brothers and Victorian uses his power of suggestion to abduct her.  His intention is to take her to his father to counteract the effects of his evil brother, Valerian’s bite.  But his plan is foiled when Eli, true to his word, comes for Riley.  He takes her with him as Victorian leaves them with an ominous prediction that Riley is changing, that she will kill, and they will bring her back to him for his help, and of course he will be waiting.

Back home in Savannah, everyone notices that Riley has changed; she’s more mean-spirited and unpredictable.  Everybody watches her every move, they’re worried about her; none more concerned than Eli, who swears to make things right for her.

Riley is finding herself craving human blood and even stalking prey.  She keeps losing time and having vivid dreams of killing, but are they really just dreams?  It ultimately causes those she loves to turn to an unlikely source for help.  But will it be enough?

I really wanted to like this book and it was an improvement over its predecessor, Everdark, but it still wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be.

The book started out extremely slow and sluggish with all of Riley’s internal dialogue telling the reader what has happened.  I expect that a little in the beginning, but it kept continuing even after Eli ‘rescued’ her.  I would much rather live it through her than hear her reflect on it, it kept me at a distance from the story.  But luckily it did eventually stop and I was able to feel what she was going through.

There was a lot going on in this novel, but there were several times I found myself confused.  There were the dreams Riley was having …. was it really happening or was it just a dream?  I was OK with those and understood Jasper wanted the reader just as confused as Riley herself.  But when we got to the part where Riley’s new tendencies were manifesting and WUP was trying to enlist her, I found it a bit much.  When the different people touched her and she saw their memories, several of which would show a memory and then a flashback to an older memory and I had a very hard time understanding it all.  I had to go back and reread parts and still walked away scratching my head, especially where Pax was concerned. Is he friend? Enemy?

I’m glad to see that Eli and Riley’s relationship has improved in this one since Eli can no longer read all her thoughts straight out of her head.

“Rest,” he whispers against my temple, and despite my sleepiness, the feel of his lips moving across my skin makes me shiver. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“Oh, God,” I mumble, sliding my arm over Eli’s chest and snuggling close. “Have we become that old couple that doesn’t have sex anymore?”

Eli’s chuckle rumbles against my ear. “We had sex this morning.”

“Okay,” I say already being pulled into slumber.”

But I’m also starting to grow a little soft spot for Victorian as well.  This book with his pledge to wait forever for her makes me truly wonder who she will end up with by the end of this series.

And, finally we have a conclusion to the Valerian storyline!  Yes, it’s done in a way that he could always reemerge later in the series, but at least it puts an end to their current turmoil concerning him.  And, it looks like the next book, Black Fallen, will have a completely different storyline, one I hope that truly breathes some much needed fresh air into the series.  And, I’m personally hoping to see more Lucian and maybe even some Gabriel (insert eyebrow wiggle here)!