Ember Blog Tour & Review of DARKER DAYS (+ contest)

"Our fires burn brightly for our readers and as a way to say thanks to our readers we've launched our latest division of Entangled Teen and it's name is Ember. We have two exciting launch titles: Darker Days by Jus Accardo and Chaos by Christine O'Neil. Read away!" Entangled Teen Ember is a division of Entangled Teen that specializes in digital-first YAs.

Chaos by Christine O’Neil

My name is Maggie Raynard. After sixteen years being just plain me, suddenly, when I lose my temper, my fingers become weapons of mass destruction. Turns out I'm a semi-god, descended from Aphrodite. Sounds cool in theory, but when I accidentally put my ex-boyfriend in a coma, things go downhill pretty fast.

Now some new guy named Mac Finnegan has made it his mission in life to continually piss me off. I'm stuck learning how to use my new powers while also dealing with regular high school problems, and with this annoying and super-hot—guy all
up in my business, I'm about to flip out.

But it gets worse. I just learned there's this watchdog council of semis who keep an eye out for any bad apples. They think I'm the baddest one in the bunch and want to take me out before I do any more damage. My nemesis Mac might turn out to be my salvation, only he's got secrets of his own...and they may just kill us both.

Darker Days by Jus Accardo 

A little sin can be deadly...

Jessie Darker goes to high school during the day, but at night she helps with the family investigation business. 

Cheating husbands and stolen inheritances? They’re your girls—but their specialty is a bit darker. Zombie in your garage? Pesky Poltergeist living in your pool? They’ll have the problem solved in a magical minute. For a nominal fee, of course...

When gorgeous new client, Lukas Scott, saunters into the office requesting their help to find a stolen box, it sounds like a simple case—until the truth comes out. The box is full of Sin.

Seven deadly ones, in fact.

They’ve got five days to recapture the Sins before they're recalled by the box, taking seven hijacked human bodies with them. Easy peasy—except for one thing...

There’s a spell that will allow the Sins to remain free, causing chaos forever. When the key ingredient threatens the life of someone she knows, Jessie must make the ultimate choice between love and family—or lose everything.

REVIEW

I was given an ARC of Darker Days in exchange for my honest review.  This was my first Jus Accardo novel, but I "knew" her from #yalitchat and was really excited to dive in.  The synopsis sounded awesome!  And I wasn't disappointed.  From line 1, I knew I was going to like Accardo's writing style.

Jessie (awesome name, btw!) Darker takes teen snark to a whole new level.  This girl has a quip for everything and can't manage to keep her mouth shut unless a witch is forcing her to.  But it wasn't annoying at all.  Jessie just had that kick butt personality and when you're a teen, sometimes your only (or best) weapons are words.  Not that Jessie has a shortage of weapons, because when it comes to "monster mashing" (her term), she and her mom are on top of their game.  They take down zombies, possessed dogs, and any sort of Otherworlder that comes their way.

The book sort of reminded me of a teen version of Kim Harrison's The Hallow Series (starting with Dead Witch Walking).  Jessie is tough at nails even if not completely competent.  She's got a bit of a hidden power -- she's not a witch but her abilities are arguably cooler.  And there are a collection of cool paranormal creatures in the mix.

Perhaps the best paranormal creature is Lukas.  Sweet, yummy Lukas.  Lukas is full of Sin himself (at least it's not Lust), but he does a really good job of keeping his inner evil at bay (I can't tell you more than that without spoiling things). But the best part about Lukas is how at peace he is with his fate because just a small amount of time with Jessie has given him peace. Who doesn't want someone to love them like that?  Jessie and Lukas felt so star-crossed, it made me root for them even harder.

The plot was relatively complex, meaning I didn't guess precisely how the ending was going to come down.  That's a good thing!  And it certainly kept me flipping the pages.  It's action-packed and I never once felt bored or wanting the pace to move along more quickly.  But then again, with 7 deadly sins rampaging your town, there's never going to be a dull moment.

In short, if you like snappy dialog and a fast-moving plot with paranormal hotties and baddies, you won't want to miss Darker Days.  I'll be very interested to see where the next book in the series goes.

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