Review: The Deepest Night

The Deepest Night

By Shana Abe

Published: August 13, 2013

A rich portrait of post-Victorian England, The Deepest Nightseamlessly blends thrilling romance with riveting history and adventure—perfect for fans of Libba Bray and Lauren Kate.

It’s 1915, and sixteen-year-old Lora Jones is finishing up her first year as a charity student at Iverson, a prestigious, gothic boarding school on England’s southern coast. While she’s always felt different from everyone around her, now she finally knows why: She is a drákon, a rare, enchanted being with astonishing magical abilities.

As war hits Britain’s shores, and Lora reels from an unimaginable loss, she finds that her powers come with grave and dangerous responsibilities. At the request of Armand Louis, the darkly mysterious boy whose father owns Iverson, Lora will spend her summer at his lavish estate. To help the war effort—and to keep Lora by his side—Armand turns his home into a military hospital, where Lora will serve as a nurse. For Armand is inescapably drawn to her—bound to her by heart-deep secrets and a supernatural connection that runs thicker than blood.

Yet while Lora tries to sort out her own feelings toward Armand, fate offers an unexpected surprise. Lora discovers there is another drákon, a prisoner of war being held in Germany. And that only she, with her newly honed Gifts, will be able to rescue him.

With Armand, Lora will cross enemy lines on an incredible mission—one that could bond her to Armand forever, or irrevocably tear them apart.

Beautifully written, deeply romantic, and filled with daring adventure and magic, The Deepest Night is a mesmerizing novel of the enduring pull of destiny, and the eternal strength of love.

My review:

I thought this sequel to The Sweetest Dark was a little more action packed at least in the last half once they leave England.

Lora has grown as a person since dealing with the tragedies of the last book.  She has overcome a lot during her short life so far and each time she is dealt a blow she seems to come back stronger. I liked her developing relationship with Armand as the two of them kind of heal together. It would be nice to see Lora develop some female friendships too. While they are sort of frenemies working together with a common goal, I hope that Lora and Sophia will eventually become real friends.

I think I liked Armand more this time around. He has had to step up and be more responsible since his father's decline and it is good to see him be a leader. Lora is stronger in her powers than he is but they work together well as a team. There is one scene in particular that made me really feel for him and hope that he gets a happy ending.

I really enjoyed the suspenseful parts of the story although I thought things wrapped up a little too neatly. I was expecting more difficulties in their extraction of the prisoner. There are some mysteries left unsolved and hopefully we will find out more about the drakon in the next book.

The writing style is pretty descriptive which can bog down the pacing at times but the suspense kept me turning the pages. I am intrigued by the world that Shana Abe has created. The alternate history setting of the early 20th century really appealed to me too. Overall I thought this was a good sequel and I will probably read the third book.


Note: I received an ARC for review courtesy of Amazon Vine