Title: Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear
The Aether Chronicles #1
Release Date: August 7th, 2012
Number of Pages: 408
Publisher: Flux
Source: ARC from BEA
Wish. Love. Desire. Live. Sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock's hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer's eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie rescues her and brings her to the Otherworld, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed, otherwise, the entire Otherworld civilization will perish.
Was I the only one disappointed with this book? I mean, it wasn’t that bad, it just wasn’t what I had expected. The thing is, I was expecting a real Steampunk novel, but instead, I found that it was more a faerie book with a touch of Steampunk (which we mostly see at the beginning. Most of the book is spent in the fairy world…) I would probably have enjoyed it more if I had been sold this book as a fairy book, but I was sold to it because it was Steampunk, and I LOVE a good Steampunk. This probably is the main reason why I was disappointed with Innocent Darkness.
When it comes down to the characters, I have to say that I liked them, but none of them really blew my mind. Noli wasn’t a bad main character. I just couldn’t connect with her at all. She wasn’t the most interesting character in the book. I found Charlotte to be a lot more enjoyable to follow, even if we didn’t her that much in through the book. Noli simply was too much of a contradiction to me. She just seems to be against the way society treats women (like she can’t drive), but seems so shock of a sleeveless dress so shock of her feeling for V. Other than that, the characters didn’t really leave any long lasting memory of them. I just wish we could have seen Charlotte some more.
Now, I’m quite curious to read more from Suzanne Lazear, even if I didn’t love this book. I feel like I could have enjoyed this book a lot more if I had known what it was really about. The feeling I was left with once I finished this book was that I was cheated, since it was so different from what I had been promised (Okay, I hadn’t completely read the summary of the book, since I often skip that NOT to have some kind of opinion on the book already, but, everything pointed to a Steampunk novel. You can’t blame the girl for being disappointed for that. I just didn’t get as much Steampunk elements as I felt I should have been given.
