A dark story that I struggled through for the 1st half of the book
595213
A dark story that I struggled through for the 1st half of the book and only managed to get into it by the second half; by the end, I liked it.

My biggest PRO for this novel is Melissa's writing style. I really liked the words she used, how beautifully dark she weaves the story..the cadence of the sentences, the expressions.
Her imagination - wow.
To be honest, this is what kept me going after the struggle I've had with the 1st half.

My biggest CON - What I struggled with were the flat characters and the drawn- out storyline in the first half.
I didn't like Alice, I liked Ella even less.
I could not connect with any of them.

I have never read a book where I cared so little about the main characters.
Alice's character gets better near the end, Ella's not so much; despite the story, her story,  my impression of her was of this weak, faded, wash-out woman.
It didn't really help that we don't "see" her talking much, she's always in "the shadows" , Alice always talks of her, but there aren't many dialogs in the book.

I could not shake the "spoiled brat" stamp I had for Alice until the very end.

Overall, what I most liked about this is the world Melissa described and created with this book.
I loved the darkness of it all, the grittiness, the unforgiving Story characters - the strange Hinterland universe.

What I'm really keen for and wanting to read so much...more than the 2nd book from this are the Hinterland tales, that the author stated will be released somewhere in 2020.
That's what I'm excited about!
2756814
This was probably one of the most difficult books I've ever read. I'm not going to go into detail about the story line but rather about how the subject matter is treated. This is dark-bordering on sinister. We are well acquainted with Jesse's character and I understand her initial motivation but the character of Rourke is never fully understood or explained. The reader is left guessing at his ultimate motivation. Although I thought a lot of time went into the process, the story left me cold and unfeeling. It felt more like punishment just for punishment's sake rather than adding to a story line.
4880258
I would say that the first half (at least) of this story moves at a slow pace. And while you get to know the characters, I felt as though there was a spark missing that would have made for a better first half. Perhaps it was the main characters - while it is undeniable that they had chemistry between them - there didn't seem to be many qualities to make them endearing to the reader. Especially when given the fact that Percy has fathered numerous illegitimate children across England - I have a hard time liking him as a hero, much less seeing Eden being ok with that.

Once the story picked up on the mystery side of it (in regards to a missing child) - I felt the story really took off. It was at that point that I was reading to find out what happened next, instead of just reading to finish the book. Although - I have to warn you this side of the book deals with some pretty dark and disturbing topics.

All things considered, I do believe this book will appeal to certain readers. And I would give this author another chance as her writing style was good, even if I found fault with some of the aspects of this particular story.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.
3088657
The book was not what I was expecting at all - much darker and depressing that I was hoping for.
4487823
The world-building got in the way of a very dark story.  It might work, if it were the first volume in a much longer saga.  The author seemed to go out of her way to make everyone unlikeable in the book.
823085
After I finished Dark Song, I had mixed feelings. It was dark and edgy, but not as much as I'd liked. Gail introduced a delightful, rich, and happy family in the first couple of chapters. A bond between parents and children that was respected and envied. Despite that, there is always a crack of imperfection behind closed doors, which proved correct in Ames's household. In a blink of an eye, they went from riches to rags. There super dad sold out his family and caused them to move to Texas. Everything she once knew didn't exist anymore. Her parents continually argued and treated the children like crap. I felt like each person in this novel had something wrong with them, except for Ames's little sister, Chrissy. Ames went from being a flawless daughter to a spoiled, lost girl who sought attention from all the wrong places. The father turned into a belligerent, alcoholic and the mother shut down and became a self-centered person who didn't have time to console her kids. They definitely made my family look like saints.

Ames was an interesting character. I didn't know if I should like or hate her. At times, she was sarcastic and funny while sometimes, I wanted to slap her. On the other hand, Chrissy was the most adorable little girl. She might of been too young to understand, but she was the only sane one. While trying to get their lives straight, Marc a guy from the neighborhood started helping Ames's family out with renovations. This was when my blood started boiling. His aura was shady and dangerous. From carrying guns to violent outbursts, I knew he was bad news. Ames and Marc started hanging out and that's when the story turned for the worst. I didn't really understand Ames anymore and was shocked to see the secrets that unraveled at the end. It left me stunned and horrified. However, I wish Gail would of built their relationship more instead of rushing it. Overall, the plot held my attention throughout and piqued my interest in the characters. I always wanted to know what was going to happen next which was a great quality in Dark Song.
2748343
This was a very hard book for me to read. I didn't like the main character at all. Tori Spring tells the story and it would be hard to find a more pessimistic, self-absorbed character in fiction. She doesn't care about anything and all the people around her are just wallpaper for her boring, depressing life.

We learn that her younger brother Charlie has gone through some mental health issues. He went from being obsessive to being anorexic to hurting himself. He is out of the hospital now but the family still has to force him to eat. I think Tori's parents are so concerned with Charlie's problems that they don't have the energy to notice that Tori is falling into a deep depression.

Things get even more difficult for Tori when two boys enter her life. Lucas was her best friend when they were in primary school but she hadn't seen him for years until he transferred to her school. Michael Holden is also a new transfer to her school who wants to be her friend. He is another awkward, socially maladjusted teen.

Then there is the new blog Solitaire which intrigues people. Solitaire instigates a series of pranks at Tori's school that all seem connected to her in some way. The pranks escalate from the annoying to the dangerous. But it isn't until someone gets hurt that Tori decides that she is going to find out who is behind Solitaire and stop them. She finally gets out of her own head a little bit.

Reading this one was hard but I was encouraged at the changes Tori managed to make through the course of the book.
3189977
The story starts ominously in one place, pivots to another, spins back in time, and then back again, leaving you a little dizzy but still certain youll find your feet, but thats only so it can ruthlessly backhand you into darkness, despair, anguish so terrible you might wonder what the devil is wrong with the author but you're never given a chance to break the spell because this is dark, dark magic that will make you cry for respite. I am NOT exaggerating. Im going to need a fifth of whiskey and a bottle of pills to recover from this book.
394674
It was a little slow starting at first, and I honestly had difficulty trying to decide who I liked and who I disliked. For the first half of the book most of the focus is on Tarron, Secret's husband, and his infidelities with a few hints of Secret's own skeletons peppered in there. However, in the last half of the book the story turns into a complete soap opera. I felt that many of the sex scenes were unnecessary, which is saying something coming from me because I love books that are all about sex. For the genre of book that this is, I had a hard time getting through it. It picked up towards the end, though.
4222556
This book was just too graphic for me.  Yes, there was a good story behind it and I kept reading because I wanted to know what would happen next and if there would be justice for all the crimes committed.  Once I start a book I hate not to finish it.  But with this book, I really had a hard time reading and finishing it.  I went with 2 stars b/c there is an excessive amount of disturbing content, harsh language and graphic descriptions.  Some of it was necessary for the story but much of it was over the top and not needed.  I am an avid reader but it was very dark and not my cup of tea.  That being said, the story is interesting and if you get get through the grittiness of it, there is a plot that keeps you wanting to find out more about Ani and why she is so sought on revenge.  The main character (Ani) is at first, not at all likable or relate-able.  She pretty much hates life and everyone around her, but she is very superficial, fake and acts nice and loving to her fiance, best friend, mom (sort of) and others.  The story switches between her current life as a NYC magazine writer and socialite to her days as a freshman in HS at a private school in NJ.  She is obsessed with money, name brand things, the "Main Line" and anyone who has more wealth, fame and power than she does.  Once I read all the horrific things that happened to her in HS, I felt much more empathetic to her.  She goes through the most awful and tragic events from beginning of the school year to about November.  Then the author tells us very little about the remainder of her high school years.  As a parent, I was shocked that the mother didn't do more to help her only child.  Poor kid, she goes through way more than any child should have to endure and really no one helps her.  At first, I liked the teacher, Mr. Larson, but he should have done more to help Ani as a young girl.  Then he just seems shady hanging out with her once she is an adult.  But we are left in the dark about her life after these events from her freshman year and  for the rest of high school.  What happens to her during the rest of her formative years?  Then there are only snippets of her college life.  Everything comes together at the end, but it is rushed and there were some lose ends.  I do not recommend this book for anyone under 18 and even for adults, unless you like or don't mind super graphic and R rated content.  It was just too much violence and too graphic for a story that ends up with a really just OK ending.
244370
To be honest, I found the first half of the book to be very slow moving and I had to struggle to keep reading it.  At about the 58% mark (according to my Kindle app) it began to keep my interest and from that point I found it much easier to read. I understand that it's the first in a series so I imagine that first half of the book was to set the story and provide background.  I'm sure others have discussed the plot so I won't get into that here.  I will say the identity of the "villain" came as a surprise to me.  All that being said, I'm not sure I'll read the next two books in this series.
4941076
Several days since finishing this book and I am still not sure what to make of it completely. I have not had that in a book for a while but I guess it is a credit to the story that it has this sort of hold on me.
The first part of the book is set in a small Irish village which has is idyll shattered when Dr Vlad Dragan arrives to set up his "alternative therapy" center. He woos the villagers into acceptance, especially Fidelma who he woos in a completely different way and we soon see that the idyll maybe wasn't really fixed at all and that Dragan's appearance works at the cracks that were previously just papered over for appearance.
The second part of the book is set in London and follows Fidelma as she finds her way in the big smoke. This part of the book irked me somewhat - without spoilers it is difficult to explain but I had great difficulty with the comparison between Fidelma's story and those of the other characters, their plights being mostly not of their making at all and thus, in my opinion, making her far less worthy of the help she wanted. Maybe it's just something personal to me as to why this grates. It just made this part quite hard to read.
Maybe I should have been more sympathetic to Fidelma, after all she had been taken in by a dangerous person, but I can't help feeling that the scenario she found herself in with Dragan would have happened with someone at some time and I just didn't really warm to her at all. There were also times during the book that I found the sheer number of characters (most of whom incidental and not really important) confusing and I found myself having to re-read parts several times. This interrupted my flow of reading and made it, at times, hard work.
Why didn't I give up? Basically, despite all of the above, I found the book compelling. To me, it was sort of a lesson in fragility and deceit and how closely these two things can be to each other. Born not of each other but feeding off each other. That life could well be fleeting but, for some people, fleeting does not mean insignificant. How meetings and interactions create shockwaves that can be felt at distance. And that paths can change on a knife edge. And probably many many other things too which I am still trying to process. What I do know is that I think this is a book that will mean different things to different people depending on a whole host of factors. This is just what it meant to me.

I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
1005424
This book was between a 3 or 4 for me.  I bought it not really getting a picture of what the actual story was about.  I do feel that a warning should be in place for those purchasing.  For some the child sexual abuse could be a bit much.  For me I like a dark read, but I like a dark read with some light to it this book had none.  I had a really hard time with Nina I basically thought she was a crazy sociopath.  I also had a hard time with her whole revenge plan against her husband Bennet.  I spent the whole book feeling very sorry for him. He was the only one I somewhat liked.  She blamed him for her father going to prison but he was a criminal that was his fault not her husbands.  She also had Pike who stuck with her through everything.  You didn't really no how deranged he was until the very end.  And last but not least you have Declan who I just really didn't get a feel for even though he was in the book most of all.  At one point they are in bed having sex and while he is inside her he proceeds to pee on her.  I am sorry but how utterly gross is that.  I also find it funny she is sleeping with 3 men  while using no protection and even though she tells you she cant get pregnant, all I could think was STD's.  I liked some aspects of this book and then some things I did not like.  I think this is going to be a book that you love or hate.  I guess for me I am on the fence.
688184
The second half of the book is filled with these really rough make-out sessions with biting and clawing and bleeding...I'm actually embarrassed that I finished the book.  I would have steered clear if I had caught that ahead of time.  Not my style.  Throughout the first part of the book I debated setting it down for another reason.  The book is filled with sentences so long and/or convoluted that it was difficult to follow the trail.  Most of it was not grammatical violations or typos, it was more just a long-winded and confusing way of writing.  At times I would study a sentence in a passage only to find that I really couldn't find enough information to decide who or what it was talking about.  I got used to lots of indecipherable sentences.  I think I kept reading to see the protagonist blossom...she was so weak and frustrating.  But at the end, I was disappointed with her metamorphosis.  I felt like she just got kind of scary.  All that said, I appreciated the creativity and humor in the book.  I think readers who are into more strange, masochistic, vampire-type books [though this is not a vampire book] would enjoy it more than I did.
3342903
I found myself struggling in the middle of this book to continue moving forward with it.  The story started out well with the mysterious "Alice" not having any knowledge of her past.  As the story progressed and the setting switched to the nursing home, I felt that there were a lot more characters referred to than necessary and I struggled to connect with Alice.  Her relationships with those around her were very strained, which does make sense due to her amnesia, but I kept waiting to like her more, or to become more invested in her story.  As more people died, I found myself drawn into the muster of the story, but I never really felt a connection or empathy for Alice and her plight.  As I reached the last quarter of the story I found myself drawn into the mystery even more and I very much enjoyed where the book went.  I think that the ending is unpredictable and I enjoyed it.  Overall, this book was lacking for me in my connection to the character, but as a mystery I did find it intriguing.
4353436
It was a tad more dark than I prefer. I did read it all the way through but I had to skip some parts.
273486
It took me awhile to get into this book. It was a slow start for me. At first, I found the main character, Raegith, to be irritating and juvenile. Which, in a way, makes sense because he is a teenage boy who has spent much of his life locked away from the world. Still, I didn't like him most of the time. But the reason why he was taken from his solitude and sent on a mission to an enemy land intrigued me. And the story wasn't terrible, it simply rang sort of flat with me.

But I stuck it out for what I expected to be a three star read. However, things gradually improved, especially after Raegith crossed over the Hell Cliffs, until by the end I had to bump it to a four star.

Through hardship and deprivation, Raegith is transformed from an inexperienced and smart mouthed kid, to a man who can survive anything the world throws at him. I don't know as I ever grew to actually like him, but rather to respect his fierce determination to survive and to be somewhat in awe of his incredible fighting skills.

For me, this is a sort of tragic story. Everything comes about because of greed, both for material possessions and for power. Deception and blind intolerance, cruelty and misunderstandings, drive the narrative forward and a lot of good people die because of it.

This is an intense book. A book some people might find to be an uncomfortable read. But if you enjoy dark fantasy and a main character who is as much villain as he is hero, then you should definitely give this one a try.