{"id":14072,"date":"2013-06-09T23:15:52","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T03:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=14072"},"modified":"2017-05-08T19:06:46","modified_gmt":"2017-05-08T23:06:46","slug":"review-darkness-before-dawn-darkness-2-by-claire-contreras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=14072","title":{"rendered":"Review: Darkness Before Dawn (Darkness, #2) by Claire Contreras"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy: Kindle Ebook<\/a> | Paperback<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\r\n <\/div><\/div><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

After finishing\u00a0There is No Light in Darkness<\/a>, there was no way I could not go straight onto this sequel! It\u2019s a direct continuation of the last book, except this time around, we get dual POV \u2013 oh yeah! We get the perspective of both Blake and Cole (AKA \u2018Perfect Man\u2019). WIN!<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to be spoilery for the first book, so I\u2019m going to keep this review really vague.<\/p>\n

To me, it sort of felt like two stories\u2026 first there is the mystery of Blake\u2019s past, and its continued impact on her as an adult \u2013 and the continuation of the MASSIVE cliffy from the first book\u2026\u00a0

<\/span>Spoiler <\/div>
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Blake is still being held captive. Terrified and abused, we see her suffer horribly, but she manages to maintain some hope, praying for rescue, and finding some solace with one of her captors who promises to help her.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Cole is an absolute mess. Seeing him in his torment is utterly heartbreaking! He is broken, not knowing what happened to Blake, but refusing to give up hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cFucking hell. That\u2019s what this place feels like without her. There\u2019s not enough oxygen to fill my lungs as I look around our lifeless apartment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt cracks my heart to even fathom what they\u2019ve done to my girl.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

And then there is the romance (and steamy time), which is just as beautiful as it was in the first book. Cole and Blake love each other so deeply, and are absolutely phenomenal together!<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I was not involved with Blake. You are not just involved with the person that causes your world to make sense. You live for that person. You breathe for that person. So no, involved, is not the word I would use to describe my relationship with Blake.
\nBlake is everything to me. She\u2019s not somebody I\u2019m involved with, she is my reason, my everything.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!<\/p>\n

And when the two parts of the story combine into one EPIC moment, I was in floods of tears!\u00a0

<\/span>Spoiler <\/div>
\u00a0Their wonderful yet heartbreaking reunion. <\/div><\/div><\/span>\u00a0I was floored by the emotion that Contreras managed to put into those few scenes. Seriously, it was absolutely perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stare at each other for a long moment with tears in our eyes, before his arms swallow my body in his, shielding me from everything \u2013 the light, the dark, and everything in between. \u201c<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story continues on with Blake and Cole trying desperately to deal with all that has happened. There are some tough situations and some hard times for them to face, but I never once doubted their love and commitment to each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just two broken people in love trying to heal each other.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Cole *sigh*. The man is perfection. Standing strong by Blake\u2019s side, he loves his girl desperately and refuses to give up on her. And he does everything in his power to show her that, and to make her happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour pain is mine, let me carry it with you, for you \u2013 I don\u2019t care as long as you\u2019re with me.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/span>Spoiler <\/div>
\u00a0<\/span>And in return, Blake completely lets go and gives everything of herself over to Cole. And it’s so damn gorgeous!\u00a0 <\/div><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

The mystery aspect is still a big part of the story, and the answers do come, but they come slowly, and, like the first book, they come in pieces. There\u2019s a lot of information to take in, with characters interconnecting all over the place, and it\u2019s not always clear where loyalties lie and how it all fits together, and at times it seemed a bit of an overload, but there is a resolution.\u00a0[ Still not sure how I feel about how everything played out, both in the past, and in the present. Not that I\u2019m an expert on Mob behaviour, by any means, but I thought parts of it seemed a bit unrealistic. [\/su_spoiler]<\/span><\/p>\n

All of the gang from the first book are back, and just as sensational as ever (I love Aubry!). Plus there are a couple of new characters that are introduced \u2013 Dean and Connor. Both of them interesting characters, and both of them fabulous in their own ways. In particular, the dynamic between Dean and Blake \u2013 although a little weird – is fabulous.<\/p>\n

I have really enjoyed these books. The mystery kept me guessing, and the romance is absolutely beautiful, with huge amounts of swoon! And the ending. Just\u2026 wow. I know there\u2019s an epilogue, but the HEA in this book is blissful and left me grinning like an idiot.<\/p>\n

4 \u2018I love Cole\u2019stars \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Darkness series<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"there-is-no-light-in-darkness\"\u00a0\u00a0\"darkness-before-dawn\"<\/p>\n

There is No Light in Darkness (#1)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

Darkness Before Dawn (#2)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy: Kindle Ebook | Paperback Review After finishing\u00a0There is No Light in Darkness, there was no way I could not go straight onto this sequel! It\u2019s a direct continuation of the last book, except this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,9,29],"tags":[46,530,48],"class_list":["post-14072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mystery","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-claire-contreras","tag-darkness","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Darkness-before-dawn.jpg?fit=150%2C234&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-3EY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}