Review: Burn the Night

Reviewed by Jen
 

When I first started this book, I experienced a moment of panic. After five books, I've become deeply invested in the vampire Mira and I was so excited to finally learn the conclusion of her story. Only, instead of reading Mira's story from her first person narrative, I was getting the perspective of the barely-mentioned side character Nyx. A dozen thoughts flashed through my mind as I realized this. Not the least of which was, "How am I going to get any more love scenes with Mira and Danaus if Nyx is telling the story?" Fortunately, a few chapters in, we switch to first person Mira, and the rest of the book bounces back and forth between the two women's perspectives.

Nyx is a princess of the naturi, younger sister to Aurora, the naturi queen who has been trying to extinguish humanity and the nightwalkers. But Nyx wants to help her younger sister Cynnia become queen, so their kind can live in harmony with the races already on Earth. So she goes on a quest to find allies for her sister. Primarily, she wants to enlist Rowe, Aurora's old consort (and longtime enemy of Mira.) Not only is Rowe an incredible warrior, but Nyx has been nursing a major crush on him for centuries.

In the meantime, Mira is still recovering from the events of the last book and the death of (*spoiler*) her beloved friend Tristan. She and Danaus are very much together... and he has left Themis to live in Savannah. Mira hopes to finally get her life back to normal, when members of the Daylight Coalition attack the local werewolves. She gets drawn into that and shortly after, she is also approached to join Cynnia's cause. If all that weren't enough, her father (who is essentially Satan) is back, demanding she continues developing her powers so she can kill her old mentor Jebari.

(I would imagine all of this sounds confusing to a new reader and there's a reason for that. The Dark Days books are not meant to be stand-alone books. You need to read them from the beginning for it all to make sense and for you to truly appreciate the story developments.)

This book has a different feel from the ones before it. Maybe it's the two narratives, though I didn't think it was confusing and actually enjoyed Nyx's story once I realized I would get Mira's too. Maybe it was all the lovin' in the first half. Because Lord knows, it felt like we had to wait through several books for any kind of love scene. Now we get all kinds of groping, nudity, and sex. And let me say, it's done well.

Drake has a lot to resolve to close the series and she does an admirable job. We have closure on Nico, Barrett, Jebari, Our Leige, Nick, the Great Awakening, Rowe, Aurora, Nyx, Cynnia, Amanda and Knox.... as well as, of course, Mira & Danaus. I was satisfied for the most part. But the very last couple of chapters felt rushed and I didn't entirely understand why Drake went the route she did to resolve the Nick storyline. In the grand scheme of things, this is just a very small issue, though. Mira has grown so much and (*spoiler*) she gets the ending she deserves, with the man she loves.

My only other, very small peeve is What happened to Michael's body? I was so sure that something more was going to come out of that. I felt like it was foreshadowed, but maybe that was all in my head.

5 stars. A satisfying conclusion.

*ARC Provided by NetGalley

Burn the Night

by Jocelynn Drake

Release Date: June 28, 2011

Publisher: Harper Voyager