ARC Review--The Dark World by Cara Lynn Shultz

Paige Kelly is used to weird--in fact, she probably corners the market on weird, considering that her best friend, Dottie, has been dead since the 1950s. But when a fire demon attacks Paige in detention, she has to admit that things have gotten out of her league. Luckily, the cute new boy in school, Logan Bradley, is a practiced demon slayer-and he isn't fazed by Paige's propensity to chat with the dead. Suddenly, Paige is smack in the middle of a centuries-old battle between warlocks and demons, learning to fight with a magic sword so that she can defend herself. And if she makes one wrong move, she'll be pulled into the Dark World, an alternate version of our world that's overrun by demons-and she might never make it home.

I received this ARC from the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.

Note: My apologies for the length of this review! Lately, I've been finding more and more to talk about the books I read and I like to point out why I loved them so! And that usually entails gushing about things like pacing, romance, characters, humor...and all that jazz!


I became intrigued with Cara Lynn Shultz's The Dark World when I saw it on Netgalley. The cover was just so eye-catching that I finally decided that I had to read it! In goes the request and thankfully in comes the acceptance! And I have to say that I am now a fan of Cara! She was a new to me author and now I must go get her previous books because I so, so enjoyed her writing style!

I don't even know where to begin...firstly, Paige is awesome! Three years ago, she rescued a child who was about to get hit by a car. She gets hit instead and died for a minute or two. She wakes up and now she can see ghosts. But the trouble always is telling whose a ghost and who's not. Naturally, talking to a person only you can see will lead people to think you're crazy and that's just the case here. Paige's parents are even worried about her mental stability. She changed schools and even repeated her sophomore year. But her new school isn't exactly better. The crowd there still teases and torments her.

Her only friend also happens to be a ghost. A girl who died in the 50s at the school. That's a hell of its own...being trapped in your high school forever, even after death! Dottie is a delight though! She is your typical giddy girl from the 50s lifestyle. Paige talks to her a lot in the third floor bathroom where Dottie died.

What makes Paige so great is that she doesn't care what people think of her. So everyone thinks her crazy? Big deal. And when Pepper and her droids start to tease her pretty horribly, she fights back with her own words! Yeah, Paige isn't the type to sit quietly and take the heat. And I loooove that about her. Her snarky attitude had me laughing out loud more than a few times! She just says things that I would think of even--granted, I might not be able to think of them as quickly as she does, but that's besides the point. I can't think of a good example, but there are just these random moments where she'll say something, like when she's mentally arguing with herself. We all do it! The voice in our head starts to say things and we'll either agree or disagree. Well, at this point Paige disagreed and and even calls the voice in her head, "voice in my head!"! Paige is simply, a delight!

And then there's Logan! Ohhh how this boy undid me. Why must these teenager boys be able to affect me so? I sooo needed these books like 10 years ago when I was a teen, then I won't feel skeevy for crushing on them (FYI, I'm in my 20s, so it's not totally skeevy!). Logan is a boy filled with mystery and secrets. First of all, he actually talks to Paige where no one else in the school, other than Dottie talks to her. He's always asking to borrow a pen in her class and she always gives him a pink sparkly one! Gotta love that girl!

And slowly, a friendship forms. For Logan isn't your ordinary guy. He knows things. Things that Paige only sort of knows. He's a demonslayer and it turns out Paige's special ability to see and talk to ghosts is very special indeed. And made even more rare once a few other secrets get revealed!

The romance between Logan and Paige was the nice, slow building kind and as you know, I always love that! No insta love here! And these two were just remarkable! There's some problems thrown at them along the way, when they finally get together and even then my heart is racing wondering what's going to happen between these two!

You might be wondering what else happens, since I've been pretty much raving about the book and the characters, humor and romance. Well, Paige's super, special powers make her a hot commodity for the demons in the Dark World. They come to her world looking to kidnap her and use her abilities for their own evil gain. Heavy stuff.

Cara has definitely captured my attention with this novel! So much so, that I am going to be looking for her previous books this weekend! Gotta check the stores before resorting to online ordering after all. The whole instant-satisfaction vs the waiting a few days. Needless to say, Cara's got a fan in me!

The ending was freaking awesome! I was near tears I tell you! I was thinking, how could Cara do this me? Get me soooo hooked with this book and then leave it like this?! But luckily, there was still one more chapter to go! While there is still bit of an intense ending, I wouldn't go saying it's a cliffhanger. There's a definite pause to the action, but there's still danger ahead...and behind and side to side! Yeah, things are still running high and intense, but there's enough of a pause, a moment where you can catch your breath and wait for the next book. And that's what I will be doing now!

Of course, I do need to go and buy Cara's other books. So I'll be waiting and reading those too until the next one comes out! Hopefully tomorrow! ;) (ha! I wish!)...(no, seriously, I wish!)


Overall Rating 5/5 stars


The Dark World releases May 27, 2014