Dannika Dark

Sigh....What can I say. I love the Cole brothers but I have to say that Austin is my favorite. I have never read a Dannika Dark book so when the book turned out to be paranormal I was pleasantly surprised. I adore paranormal romance novels so this was definitely up my alley. I really felt for Alexia & her family. You could feel the bond they have & it was touching how dedicated she was to them. Austin & Alexia's relationship was so sweet & frustrating all at one. There wer many times I wanted to smack him upside the head & say open your eyes fool. All in all this was a solid story with great characters. I can't wait to read what comes next for Austin, Alexia & the rest of those hot Cole men.… (meer)

This one constantly beat me over the head with pseudo-wisdom.

Furthermore, it's supposed to be "show, don't tell" not "show and tell".
It's really sad because it does the "showing" part pretty well but then redundantly explains everything anyway for good measure in case the showing didn't work.
Everything is spelled out in excruciating detail in a way that made me cringe quite a bit.

Apart from that, there is a bit of personality switcheroo going on.
Trust between protagonists is there and gone constantly for no other reason than to keep the drama going. This is a bit vexing because at its core the trust conflict is a fitting plot device that could've worked much better with a bit more planning and maybe proofreading.

I was eye-rolling a lot because of the thick layers of clicheés the plot is wrapped in.

Let's say it's just not particularly original or interesting in any way.

Even though it is a much better contribution to the Mageriverse than "Sterling" was, I don't think it deserves 3 stars. Let's say Sterling was 2.0 while this one is more like 2.9 (or 1.5 vs 2.4 if you do proper rounding I guess).… (meer)