Review for Dark Paradise (Dark Paradise #1) by Angie Sandro
Dark Paradise
Series: Dark Paradise #1
By Angie Sandro
Published by Grand Central Publishing/Forever Yours
On July 1st 2014
Genres: New Adult Paranormal Romance
Format: eARC
Pages: 384
Source: Netgalley
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DARK LEGACY
Mala LaCroix has spent her whole life trying to escape her destiny. As the last in a long line of "witch women," she rejects the notion of spirits and hoodoo and instead does her best to blend in. But when she finds a dead body floating in the bayou behind her house, Mala taps into powers she never knew she had. She's haunted by visions of the dead girl, demanding justice and vengeance.
DEADLY SECRETS
Landry Prince has always had a crush on Mala, but when Mala discovers his sister, murdered and marked in some sort of Satanic ritual, he wonders if all the rumors about the LaCroix family are true. Yet after Mala uses her connection to the spirit world to identify his sister's killer, he starts to form his own bond to her . . . a very physical one. As they move closer to each other and closer to the truth, Mala and Landry must risk everything—their families, their love, and even their lives.
I like when I find a New Adult book that stands out from the rest. There seems to be the same theme most of the time. This is more a witchcraft and voodoo happening type read, yes there is romance mixed in, but the slow building, comes along slowly kind. It follows Mala, who comes across the body of a dead girl, after calling it in to 911, and to make matter worse than it all taking place on her property, the guy that Mala has been crushing on, is the deputy who responds to the call. Mala life beings to become more complicated that she ever imagined, she has powers that she never wanted to use but doesn’t have much of a choice but to use.
Mala was pretty kickass, a little naive at times for her age, but kickass none the less. She has had to deal with everyone in town thinking her and her family are all very strange, but she just goes on with life and doesn’t let it bother her. I liked the fact that she liked who she was and just didn’t care what others really though about her. Like Landry, now he was a mystery to me. He was so back and forth with Mala. One minute he was angry with her, the next he seemed to be trying to make a move on her, and was fascinated with the idea that maybe she was practicing witchcraft, then back again with being angry at her. Kinda made my head spin, but I could see the ups and downs with his emotions due to grief, so I moved on past it. Plus, their families have no love for each other, so there’s that.
The opening scene sucked mt right in, and the setting helped it in all the right way. The Louisiana bayou is the perfect place for a witchcraft/voodoo things to be going on. There were some creepy and terrifying moments, especially some of the encounter with Lainey’s spirit, and I was on edge trying to figure it all out right along with Mala. And with so many characters, all of who had their own secrets to keep it was hard to tell who was telling truth where the murder was concerned and whether or not to question their actions, like George for example. Couldn’t put my finger on what it was about him that didn’t sit right, but it was all suspenseful and I didn’t want to stop reading until it was all revealed. The ending was necessarily a cliffhanger, but I caught myself going back and reading a couple of paragraphs over again, because I caught something that made me question the motives of one person that I was sure what one the good one’s. So I am certainly excited to see what all that means and where is goes.
Dark Paradise is a great blend of creepiness, murder and romance. the second book, Dark Sacrifice will be out in August, and I can’t wait to read it. I think fans of the New Adult genre will like this one!
About Angie Sandro
Angie Sandro was born at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Within six weeks, she began the first of eleven relocations throughout the United States, Spain, and Guam before the age of eighteen.
Friends were left behind. The only constants in her life were her family and the books she shipped wherever she went. Traveling the world inspired her imagination and allowed her to create her own imaginary friends. Visits to her father’s family in Louisiana inspired this story.
Angie now lives in Northern California with her husband, two children, and an overweight Labrador.
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 by Angie Sandro)