Book Review: Dark Spirits (Beyond the Eyes Book #2) by Rebekkah Ford

My Rating: 
Book: Dark Spirits (Beyond the Eyes Book #2)
Author: Rebekkah Ford
Publication date: February 23rd, 2013

Synopsis:
Now immortal, Paige is emotionally and physically stronger than ever. She must find the location of the ancient incantations to prevent mass genocide. But the war against good and evil is spawning another war–a battle between the dark spirits themselves. Paige is saddled in the center of both growing revolutions and is ready to take on the dark forces. But Nathan’s over protectiveness prevents her from taking action, and he’s hiding things.

Paige’s personal life gets more complicated when Brayden arrives back in town and offers the equal partnership she desperately craves from Nathan. Then there’s Carrie and Tree, her two best friends and only family she has left. Unfortunate circumstances thrust them into Paige’s dark world, giving her no choice but to allow Nathan to arm them with combat techniques in hope they’ll be able to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, Paige is having visions and discovering abilities she was unaware of. When Anwar comes to visit, his weird behavior alarms her. Could he be turning to the dark side?

Time is running out. Paige not only needs to find the incantations but also to untangle the bands around her heart and make a decision that could leave her with a life worse than death–a life of betrayal from the ones she trusted most.

My Review:

I received a copy from the author to read and review in return.

Dark Spirits is the second book from the Beyond The Eyes series, written by Rebekkah Ford. I was thankful to receive a kindle version of the Dark Spirits from the author, as I was quite positive about her first book, Beyond the Eyes (read the review here). I enjoyed the nature of the characters and the plot was special, fun, new, and also quite fast-paced. Even though I slightly liked her first book a little better, but in Dark Spirits, Ms Ford included new factors and aspects in which the author truly excelled in which made me want to keep 'turning the pages' in my Kindle. Let's get into the details!

Dark Spirits commences with the now immortal Paige, mourning her mother's sudden death as she scatters her mother's ashes over the Pacific Ocean. She is accompanied by Nathan, her immortal lover, and her best friends Carrie and Tree. As from my review of the first book, Beyond the Eyes, I was always quite drawn to the nature and uniqueness of the characters. Who they were and what they were destined to be has always caught my interest and has become a positive stimulate for me to continue reading Ms. Ford's stories.

As I was reading the first pages of the first chapter I was immediately submerged into the story. Paige and her companions are instantly thrown into the cruel and non forgiving hands of the dark reality they dwell in, which seemed to be forecasting a whole lot more trouble, mystery and adventures heading their way. This definitively did occur throughout the book, but unfortunately these adventurous, thrilling moments and twists came at a slower pace and were mostly shoved towards the middle and end of the book.

I found that throughout the beginning stages of the plot, there was a lack of 'happening' and significance, which made the pace quite slow and tedious. The beginning chapters of the book consisted often of endless back and forth arguments between Paige her co-characters; regularly 'far fetched' speculations and theories summed up by the characters; and infinite hormonal tantrums. I have nothing against a righteous arguments or fights between characters, or dramatic outbursts, however for my liking these were happening too often throughout this book. These aspects were also apparent in Beyond the Eyes (Book #1) and were not kept at bay in the Dark Spirits, and regrettably they had the same negative impact on my ratings for this book.

As in Beyond the Eyes, I enjoyed the piquant romantic relationship between Paige and Nathan, but unfortunately their romantic rendez-vous' were not as prominent in the Dark Spirits. As I hoped, the love triangle between Paige Nathan and Brayden definitely developed and intensified more, and I can't help but have a secret weakness for these types of romances! Luckily, the end of this book gave me the impression that this hot love triangle will not end any time soon and will only continue to develop in the next book of the Beyond the Eyes series.

What I really enjoyed from the Dark Spirits was Paige's change in character. Sure she was still quite the teary emotional girl, but that was a result of being a 'new-born immortal'. I now felt that her outbursts and emotional tantrums did have more of a justification and understanding behind it. I also genuinely enjoyed how Paige embraced the importance of independence and doing things not only for other's sake, but also truly for herself and her development in being an immortal. It is enjoyable to read how the relationship between Nathan and Paige turned from over dependency on each other (and over protectiveness from Nathan), to a more trusting and stronger relationship. I believe this will only flourish more in Ms. Ford's final book of this series, and I can't wait to read it!

What I definitely would like to commend Ms. Ford on is her writing style. I remember I commented on her writing style in my review on her first book to be quite simplistic and informal, and nothing more to it. Even though I did not see this as a complete negative, I did yearn for some more artistic or in depth descriptions, and boy did Ms. Ford come through with this! I really enjoyed how the author applied her background and in-depth knowledge on paranormal theory to the book. I have always been very intrigued in the paranormal, hence this was definitely a pleasant surprise to learn and read more about.

Thanks to the authors vastly improved writing techniques, I found Dark spirits to be a very a very interesting, in-depth, pleasant and easy read!

I would definitely recommend this book to the young adult readers out there who enjoy a saucy romance, many profound paranormal and SciFi descriptions, and unique and mischievous characters! I look forward to where Ms. Ford will take the characters next in her last book.