Lord of Eternal Night (Darkmourn Universe)

Zum Anfang brauchte ich wirklich etwas um in die Geschichte rein zu kommen, vorallem da es länger her ist das ich englische Lektüre gelesen habe. Aber ich muss sagen die Story hat mich gecatcht. Es ist wirklich ein sehr schönes retelling des Märchens und mir hat besonders gut das zwschenmenschliche gefallen. Klar durch die kurze Länge, wurde es manchmal etwas abgehackt (deswegen auch nur 4.5 von 5 sternen) aber die story ist gut und das ende war wirklich nicht vorhersehbar, vorallem da es so auf Jacks plan ihn zu töten und zu erlösen hingespielt hat. Echt guter plot, kann ich nur weiterempfehlen.

Fairytale inspired fantasy story that disappointed me greatly. This is the first volume of the Darkmourn series, and I actually already read vol. 2 (which also wasn't that good, but better) cause they are technically stand-alones, but you get spoiled on how the one before turned out, so I'd recommend reading in order (though I wouldn't recommend it in general). Knowing the outcome didn't influence my reading of this one. I just didn't like it. So the story is, as I said, inspired by The Beauty and the Beast, just here the beast is a vampire, who became one through the curse of a witch. Must have been a bad witch, though cause it kinda backfired, and she became cursed herself, losing her power. The beasts curse also sealed him in a castle, and for whatever reason (this isn't really explained) once a year on the blood moon, he has to feed on a victim, which they offer to him (what would happen if they don't?). Then it was prophesied that the 100th claim would be a descendant who can do magic again (why? I guess it's random 🤷🏻‍♂️) and would kill the beast, ending the curse so they can all have magic again (if he doesn't get killed before that). There is just so much that either doesn't make sense, isn't explained, or the explanation is just: magic, innit 🤷🏻‍♂️ Like why must a claim be made, and how did they know? Cause this is apparently the first time this curse has been used (how did that even happen), and why does the claim need to arrive there one month ahead. Why not go on the night of the blood moon? And why can the claim step through the barrier, but others can't? Well, that's not even true. Katherine is somehow special 🤷🏻‍♂️ (guess they needed an explanation of how the food got there, but how does she even manage that, with what money, etc.). I could go on and on. Then, the relationship. I am sorry, but this author seems to not know how to write a slow burn. I had the same problem with volume 2 (though that one was better generally). First, they hate each other, and then after a while, through one interaction, it's suddenly all fine. They talk as if they already have some special relationship, and just start making out 😀 I just couldn't take them serious. There were some cute scenes in there, but with that context, the emotions just didn't feel genuine. Also cause the characters didn't have much depth. All too shallow for any real tension. Also, it was just boring. Besides two very minor side characters, it was just the two of them in that castle, and not much interesting happened. There was this fight at the end, but that was also boring, even though our main character is basically the avatar with his elemental magic. The end didn't make much sense (the curse didn't anyways), though I liked the outcome. There were just so many little weird things (like, why is he sleeping in a coffin? This world doesn't know what vampires are yet. Also, why is his whole body cold except for his 🍆), that annoyed me with their nonsense, and the characters didn't make me feel anything. Well, besides being annoyed (Jak isn't the smartest). So, yeah, didn't like it. Maybe this author just isn't for me. He seems like a cool person on Insta/Tiktok, but this is the second book I didn't like, and I have two more on my tbr 😅 Let's hope it's just this series... I will definitely give the others a chance, but then that's it.