Sunday, January 24, 2016

‘The Gathering Darkness’ by Lisa Collicutt

5 stars!

Captivating tale of reincarnated soul-mates as they live normal teenage lives, unaware of the centuries-old threat from an evil demon witch.

Lisa Collicutt’s story begins when 16-year-old high school junior, Brooke Day, is sent to Deadwich, MA to live with her Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin, to begin the new school year at a small-town high school.  The family has also arranged for her to join her cousin, Sammy, working part-time at the creepy Ravenwyck Inn.

At first, Brooke is sad to leave the city and her friends behind in Boston, but Sammy’s group of friends are welcoming and inviting; including gorgeous fraternal twins, Evan and Marcus Knight.  Despite Evan’s persistent attempts to woo Brooke, it is Marcus who captivates her attention and lands a starring role in her dreams. 

As Deadwich and the Ravenwyck Inn slowly reveal their mysterious natures, Marcus and Brooke discover that they share the same dreams at night.  Their connection grows, much to the dismay of Evan, Sammy and the other girls.

Inexplicable and supernatural danger looms; something is definitely ‘off’ about Maggie, the creepy old lady who owns Ravenwyck Inn, and Brooke wakes up with real scratches and bruises from her strange dreams when Marcus is unable to save her. 

Eventually, Knight and Day discover that they are reincarnated soulmates, and Evan, Sammy, and the girls have been reincarnated as well.  Centuries ago, they formed the Coven of Seven, and an evil demon witch has caused their premature deaths twice before.  Determined to live past the age of 16 and share a life together, Brooke and Marcus set out to destroy the evil demon witch, discovering surprises along the way.

‘The Gathering Darkness’ is well written and its plot is well paced.  Brooke and Marcus share an enjoyable and clean teenage romance.  Collicutt utilizes the perfect amount of flashbacks and story building to develop the characters’ past lives and motivations.  Evan’s pursuit of Brooke served as an effective plot device to bypass the usual ‘instalove,’ instead allowing Brooke and Marcus to develop feelings for each other slowly and naturally.

I recommend this fun and easy read for YA supernatural fans.

‘TheGathering Darkness’ is currently available as part of Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program.

3 comments:

  1. Ooh, this sounds good. It kind of reminds me of Witches of East End. It's a show on Netflix, based off of the book The Beauchamp Family by Melissa de la Cruz. Kind of cheesy, but it hooked me. I might go scamper off to Amazon to look for this now. (:

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  3. Hi Belle, hope you enjoy 'The Gathering Darkness'! I was also a fan of the show 'The Witches of East End.' Haven't read the books though, have you? Would you recommend?

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