Review: Jus Accardo - Darker Days - Mythical Cliffhanger

Title: Darker Days
Series: The Darker Agency #1
Author: Jus Accardo
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Length: 332 pages

Publisher: Entangled Publishing

Date of publication: August 26th 2013

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A little sin can be deadly…

Jessie Darker goes to high school during the day, but at night she helps with the family investigation business. Cheating husbands and stolen inheritances? They’re your girls—but their specialty is a bit darker. Zombie in your garage? Pesky Poltergeist living in your pool? They’ll have the problem solved in a magical minute. For a nominal fee, of course…

When gorgeous new client, Lukas Scott, saunters into the office requesting their help to find a stolen box, it sounds like a simple case—until the truth comes out. The box is full of Sin.

Seven deadly ones, in fact.

They’ve got five days to recapture the Sins before they’re recalled by the box, taking seven hijacked human bodies with them. Easy peasy—except for one thing…

There’s a spell that will allow the Sins to remain free, causing chaos forever. When the key ingredient threatens the life of someone she knows, Jessie must make the ultimate choice between love and family—or lose everything.

I'm a big fan of Accardo's writing. She's probably the only YA author I trust completely. I know and love her style, so I didn't even hesitate to jump on her new YA series when I got the chance. And that is saying a lot considering I'm not a big fan of YA books.

What I love about Accardo's books is that her heroines are different than the ones you find in most of YA books. Her characters are always classy and sassy. They're entertaining, rebellious yes, but they're more mature, intelligent and original than the average YA characters. And Jessie is no exception. Now let's throw in a perfect ten kind of guy. Lukas Scott is hotter than the flames of hell, intelligent, snarky, perfect match for Jessie. But he's also kind of... old-fashioned. And he is knee deep into the mess around the Sins.

Darker Days is like when Veronica Mars meets Supernatural. It's a race against time, odds, and powerful creatures. Not just the Sins, but demons and witches. It's full of drama, humor, twists and turns, hundreds of years old, life changing secrets. From the moment Lukas steps into the Darkers's office and they agree to help him, their faith in each other is being tested.

The story itself is quite catching (duh! It's about the 7 Deadly Sins after all...). The strongest aspects of the book are the investigation parts, the tone and the character development. And they are truly great. It was fascinating and exciting to watch all the secrets and plans unfolding. I believed and felt the tone of certain situations like the need for revenge, confusion and desperation. Oh and I also liked the few various jobs Jessie has to solve. She is pretty badass. The weak parts were the conflicts and the Sins. I have to be honest, they were a bit disappointing even though I loved the book overall. I expected a bigger chaos, more bad things happening. I wanted to see more of the Sins and their works. Also the villain's motivation is kind of lost on me. It was more like a teen drama and I wouldn't really say that particular person is a great antagonist. However, the One who's pulling the strings of basically everyone was a surprise and a great one. I liked the ending and the idea behind Jessie's fate. I'd like to see what kind of trouble she'll find herself from now on.

Darker Days doesn't really end with a cliffhanger, and I have no clue what to expect from the sequel, but I can't wait to see it.

Favorite character(s): Jessie, Lukas, "Sloth", Smokey, Valefar
Favorite scene(s): Lukas first appearance (hilarious), Jessie and Lukas visiting the Shadow Realm

Favorite quote(s):

“Why people?”
“Because there’s so much to see. When you paint someone, you have to look at them. Really look at them. You can see it all—everything they keep hidden. It’s all in the eyes. Truly a window to the soul.” He sighed. “It was my peace. My calm. It kept me grounded when all else was in upheaval.”

„I wish the biggest thing I had to worry about with you was teen drinking and pregnancy.”
„Hey, show me a guy who can take down a dirt demon without pissing himself and I'll smack his ass and let him take me to prom.”

„But why would it attack? Did you provoke it?'” Folding her arms, she frowned. „Insult it, perhaps?”
I winked at her. „ Provoke it? Sure. I went and wiggled my ass in front of it yelling lunch just to see what'd happen.”