House of Darken
Author: Jaymin Eve
Series: Secret Keepers #1
Genre: Fantasy, paranormal, YA, romance
Length: 338 pages
Publication date: May 30th, 2018
______________________________________________________________________
When Emma moves to Astoria, Oregon, she is given two rules: #1 – Don’t cross to “their” side of the street. #2 – Don’t mess with the elites, especially Lexen Darken, top elite and resident bad boy. While she finds this both weird and insulting, Emma has no actual intention of breaking these rules - until her guardians go missing. Now all bets are off. Only a single line separates her side of the street from the elites', and she's crossing it. Captured and held by Lexen and his brothers, she learns the rules are in place for a very good reason. There's a secret world hidden in this small town which goes far beyond the one she knows and understands. A world not for humans.
MY REVIEW
The trick to enjoying this book is to not expect it to be anything other than what it is trying to be: an easily forgettable book that is just here to swoon you for a temporary period of time while you recover from some other OTP hangover. Or if you're just craving a decent hate-love relationship. The House of Darken would be perfect for anyone trying to get their hands on books that are more...easily read. Books with your favorite tropes (such as hate-love relationship, alpha-male-kinda, etc). Fun, enjoyable, but also predictable storyline (but nevertheless extremely enjoyable). This book would be an amazing book to read on a trip, or on the airplane, and just a good distraction in general (imagine yourself a plane, swooning while eating your airplane food). You will hate this book if you expect it to be even to anything other than an enjoyable and shippable indie book. House of Darken was exactly what I needed right now, with me still suffering over the book hangover over Warcross. This book was a perfect distraction and a good read that does not require much brain-power thanks to its quite standardized and unoriginal story-line structure, and if anyone is just looking for a ship to ship, this is the book for you. This book is also basically a stand-alone because the Secret Keepers series are made out of individual novels that revolve in the same universe, rather than all following one single protagonist (which is not a bad idea, if you ask me). I can't deny how standardized this book's story-line format is, but to me, it is more of a pro than a con. I like this standardized story-line. I wanted it to be like this because this gives me a decent enough hate-love relationship and enjoyable enough storyline for it to become the perfect distraction and swoon me off my feet, even if it's just temporarily. Emma to me is a likable enough narrative because (thank god) she was not too overly impulsive, especially compared to some other characters I have on my mind right now *cough* America Singer *cough*. However, one thing I noticed about the world building was how...wide-varied it is. I mean, you have alien, dragons, magic, paranormal, you name it. It's kind of all over the place to be honest, to the extent that this world is almost a bit unbelievable. If you're suffering from a book hangover (or specifically, an OTP hangover), this is definitely one of the books that can (at least temporarily) ease of your pain and distract you with enjoyment. I strongly recommend this to people who:
are suffering from a book hangover
are suffering from an OPT hangover
is desperately craving a decent hate-love relationship
just want a really, really fun read that does not requri3e too much brain power
gives a ship that is really ship-able, but (maybe a little bit) kind of throw-away-able
You will like this book if you like:
a love interest that people all find unapproachable and scary (and powerful)
gang of guys
aliens
The aliens in here kind of reminded me of the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, so that's something for consideration to everyone out there
Academy
Magic
Shippable ship
Hate- love relationship (duh)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jaymin Eve is the USA Today Bestselling author of YA and NA fantasy/romance series. She lives in Australia with her husband, two beautiful daughters, and a couple of crazy pets. Since 2013 she has sold over a million ebooks, and has no plans to stop writing anytime in the next 30-50 years. For action, adventure, romance, and a guaranteed HEA, start one of her series today.