Dark Star Review

Author: Bethany Frenette

Title: Dark Star

GoodReads Summary:

Audrey Whitticomb has nothing to fear. Her mother is the superhero Morning Star, the most deadly crime-fighter in the Twin Cities, so it's hard for Audrey not to feel safe. That is, until she's lured into the sweet night air by something human and not human--something with talons and teeth, and a wide, scarlet smile. 

Now Audrey knows the truth: her mom doesn't fight crime at night. She fights Harrowers--livid, merciless beings who were trapped Beneath eons ago. Yet some have managed to escape. And they want Audrey dead, just because of who she is: one of the Kin. 


To survive, Audrey will need to sharpen the powers she has always had. When she gets close to someone, dark corners of the person's memories become her own, and she sometimes even glimpses the future. If Audrey could only get close to Patrick Tigue, a powerful Harrower masquerading as human, she could use her Knowing to discover the Harrowers' next move. But Leon, her mother's bossy, infuriatingly attractive sidekick, has other ideas. Lately, he won't let Audrey out of his sight. 

When an unthinkable betrayal puts Minneapolis in terrible danger, Audrey discovers a wild, untamed power within herself. It may be the key to saving her herself, her family, and her city. Or it may be the force that destroys everything--and everyone--she loves.

My thoughts:

One word to really describe this book would be Potential. It’s got loads and loads of potential, a great story line, but there were a few things holding it back from being its full potential.  The first thing that bugged me was the characters, they’re hardly devolved and there are so many things I wanted to learn about them that was never mentioned. But before I jump headfirst into that let’s summarize. Dark Star is written in Audrey’s POV. Her mom is basically a super hero known as Morning Star and she’s pretty much lived in Morning Star’s shadow her whole life.  Now keep in mind, its total normal mom during the day, super hero at night so the only person who knows the truth is Audrey’s best friend Gideon.

The story heats up as Audrey discovers the truth about the life her mother kept her away from, all the dangers of what she really is, the ties, and even some dark family secrets(okay, less dark just secrets).  She’s reunited with the family of the father she’s never known. I’m a sucker for a happy family ending so whenever there’s a chance to find the long lost sibling/parent/dog whatever I’m into it. It didn't end off in a cliff hanger but definitely left room for a sequel, while answering all the questions. So all the ends are tied and no frantically searching for what you think is a missing page.

So sadly, now on to the bad. Even though the story has a great plot, some cool characters (I mean a superhero mom- how much better does it get), and a few epic action scenes; it really didn't hit the spot for me. The characters are something that really annoyed me, like I said there was so much room to develop the characters deeper, to give them histories and for the readers to learn about them. But it wasn't there. I mean Audrey is freaking psychic, she uses her powers to read people and we don’t know much about her family. A lot of the time I felt I was reading pointless scenes of her day when I could be finding out about the surrounding characters. Her best friends Tink and Gideon are barely talked about even though they’re present through the entire book. And Tink happens to be connected to that hidden world Audrey is discovering.

Audrey meets her father’s family for the first time and you hardly know a thing about them. Her grandmother Esther plays a very important role in the story, but it only mentions her grandfather twice. Now, I gave the author a LOT of slack because this was one of those rare stories that I couldn't for the life of me figure out who the bad guy was. But then you have to remember being that the characters were hardly there it could’ve been her mother in the end and I wouldn't have been surprised.

Bottom line, the entire book felt like that dreaded first two chapters were all the introductions are made. I kept waiting for a little more information or something extra on the characters. Aside from that the story was pretty good. We’ve got some action scenes and demon battles, a shocker of an ending-at least finding out who was behind it all was shocking to me- and there is a teeny tiny bit of romance. Specifically one little kiss in the end. So if you’re into that crazy drama romance like Rose this really wouldn't be your thing. But the action is there, the story line is super interesting, and it was overall an enjoyable read.

My rating of this book: 3.5 (If the pace was a little faster it would’ve been a 4.)