I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of supernatural/quasi-religious/horror stories. This is a supernatural story that mixes religious doctrine with old lore.The back drop is turn of the century Salem which helps create a historical yet relatable setting. Even better, these vampires are real vampires, not sparkly romantics.Plus, the main heroine is a strong (for the most part), young, Jewish female which is nice to see in a story of this genre.I did find certain scenes to be somewhat uncomfortable and off-putting though given the age of the characters involved. In fact, I almost decided not to finish the story but in the end I continued with it.And constant POV changes, often unclear and unnecessary, made reading this book a bit of a struggle on occasion. Otherwise, I found it to be a good story that I mostly enjoyed for the first 90% (sorry, Kindle doesn't note page numbers) of the book. I really feel the ending, however, let the story down.*SPOILERS AHEAD*The story felt like it was going to end strongly. That the main character would sacrifice her life for righteousness and not give in to her own temptation. Instead she chooses to become a vampire just like nearly every other vampire story. I had real hopes that this story wouldn't take the same boring, overdone path but it did.Plus, even for a first book in a trilogy/series, it needed to address the Painted Man more. Instead of an intriguing mystery to discover more about in the next book it feels more like he was just forgotten.Having said that, I think many fans of this genre would really enjoy this book and I would recommend it to them. I won this book through a goodreads giveaway (thanks!), and really enjoyed it. Not sure what it was exactly, be it the setting (early 20th century), the character introductions, or something else, but this booked really hooked me from the start. Found the characters to be well defined, not just by descriptions, but their actions. The pacing of the story is great with something constantly going on. I also enjoyed the fact that there was an obvious main character, we got to skip around and see situations from some of the other protagonists, as well as from the antagonists. Sometimes these views would overlap, the story continously progressed.My only complaint for this would be that the very end seemed rushed, though that might have been the author's intent. I don't want to go into to much detail since that would lead to spoilers. Anyways, the ending was still pretty great, and if there was ever a sequal, I would love to read it, and would highly recommend this book to everyone!
What do You think about The Darkening Dream (2012)?
I loved it! was fabulous! I recommend this book. Congratulations to the author!
—lcdancer11
Okay, don't need to read it again. Glad it was free
—shalom
