There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this, I found the premise intriguing, and I liked the magical aspect. For me I felt a bit lost at times through the book, as if I was dropped into a series and missing something or that the story was cut short, backstories missing. I also didn’t get much dimension from the Liam character, I don’t know if it’s because we didn’t have his POV, or just no backstory. I think if I had more content, background or build it wouldn’t have been as confusing. Yet there was great parts, scenes, moments.

Kind of bummed because this book wasn't really what I had expected. I didn't click with the writing at all and the story was a bit of a bore for me. I am not really interested in writing a longer review about this book because I just... don't want to waste my time writing the review.

This book was nothing that I expected. I loved the witch and coven side of it but omg this book was much more sexier the I was expecting. This book is a friends to lovers m/m romance story that has a witchy twist. i have t admit this book did keep you wanting to read more and more as i wanted to find out how the character would survive the hurdles they had. i really loved the romance we saw between Liam and Ryder as you could really see how much they cared for each other and didn't worry about each others flaws. Ryder was a strong character who had a daily battle with himself throughout the story but Liam was nearly always there t help him conquer his feelings and be true to who he is. Liam was just such a lovable character. the other characters in the coven were like able, i mean at points in the story i did want to push one of the cliff but then that showed me that the author portrayed the character in a good way and made the reader feel for the characters. i also liked the connections we saw between the different characters in a book and how strong they were.

I gave this book 3 stars just because it was a really short book and i felt that it didn't need that much sexual interaction between the characters as it did.

I received this free from #netgalley for free in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very good. It definitely had it share of dark and creepy moments. I enjoy a great creepy book. I love that feeling of anticipation that rises.  

It does involve a paranormal romance. It such a cute novella. 

Now, the one thing I did not like was the death of an animal. I tend to stay away from books with death of animals because I am a huge animal advocate but the animal does come back to life. Had I known before had of the death, I probably would not have requested this book.

Book – Darkling
Series – Port Lewis Witches, 1
Author – Brooklyn Ray
Star rating - ★★★★★
No. of Pages – 101
Cover – Stunning!
POV – 3rd person, one character
Would I read it again – Yes!
Genre – LGBT, Contemporary, Witches, Trans (FTM)
Content Warning – blood-letting, death, necromancy, minor drug-use


** COPY RECEIVED THROUGH NETGALLEY **



I loved this! It fitted perfectly into my demon-kick reading mode of the last month and, after reading the blurb, I just knew I was going to love it. And I did.

The story is set up with a witch circle which means that the series could contain stories about all or just some of the characters: Ryder (the POV MC), Liam, Christy, Tyler, and Donovan. There are also the side characters of Ryder's family: his sister Jordan, who is a hoot, as well as his dad Gerard, and his mother Ellen. Then there are the two matriarchs of the opposing Wolfe (dark magic) and Lewellyn (white magic) clans, Thalia and Margo. Each character has a role to play, their own detailed background that isn't over done or abandoned into nothingness, and a place within the plot. There was a great mix of straight and gay relationships, as well as gender identities: trans and non-binary.

I loved Ryder. As an MC to take over the POV of an entire book, that was really important and a huge boost. He's a trans-MC, FTM, and 21, who has had top surgery but not bottom. He's got all these secrets that he keeps bottled up – his half-blood genes, his FTM transition, and his feelings for his best friend, Liam. All while trying to control magic that is unpredictable and deadly. I loved that we were made part of his internal struggles, that we knew the secrets as and when it was important to the plot, but we could still feel the shock and surprise of everyone else in his circle when they found out. Yet we still got to feel the anticipation and apprehension running through Ryder as he tried to keep his secrets.

Liam was just amazing! I loved his strong, steady support. He's the polar opposite of Ryder, a Water witch while Ryder is fire, but he never let that come between them. His firm friendship and growing acceptance of all that Ryder revealed himself to be was beautiful to watch. He didn't know any of Ryder's secrets, but he worked them out on his own, often by accident and before Ryder had prepared for it, but he never judged. He showed justifiable anger that his best friend had kept such huge secrets to himself and never felt comfortable sharing them, but he didn't criticize or judge Ryder for those secrets or what they could mean.

I really enjoyed the occult elements of the book. They were somewhat familiar, but also originally tweaked in a way that made it something I could follow without feeling too out of my depth. And there was still enough originality to keep me eager to learn more. Just as I've had a tarot reading, it doesn't mean I understand how to read a deck, so having it explained in a way that was both natural and familiar to the characters while being a subtle dummies-guide for me, was awesome.

There was some amazing world building done here, in such a natural, subtle way that I really applaud the author for it. Sometimes there's that awful choice between info dumps or holding onto information until it's relevant, but the author had this take place in the contemporary real world, that is already what we live in, so offering familiarity – again – along with the sort of hidden aspect of witches. Concepts that we're familiar with from novels and movies, but done in a new way.

Just as the characterisation and world building were expertly done, so was the chemistry between Liam and Ryder. I loved every minute of their relationship. From Liam discovering and teasing away Ryder's secrets, to watching Ryder navigate this half world he lived in while trying not to hurt Liam in the process of exploring his birth-given gifts.

Overall, I loved it. It made me smile and cry and feel happy all at once. It reminded me of The Secret Circle books, in a good way, and is going to make a great addition to my favourites shelf.

Can I get Donovan's book next, please? Pretty please?

~

And can I just say a huge THANK YOU to the author? I can't say how many times I've picked up a book to read or review and not been aware that it was a series until I already had it in my hands. The wait and expense of buying the previous books before I could delve in was torture, but I didn't have to do that here. The book is, both on the cover, on Netgalley and GR, explicitly labelled as a series book. THANK YOU. There's nothing I hate more than having a book I can't wait to read in my hands and being forced to wait until I've caught up with the series so far.

~

Favourite Quote

““I could hurt you,” Ryder said.
“I'd let you.””

““If you don't...” Liam choked on the rest of what he wanted to say and skipped it. “You better haunt me, assh-le. You understand that, Ry? You come back and you haunt me.”

Sorry but I couldn't get into the book at all. I tried though, I'm so sorry for my ADD brain.

I got a copy of this book from Netgalley. 

What did I just read? Well, actually, I didn’t read the entire book. Had to give up. Unbearable, stilted writing. Really boring characters. So many elements introduced without context. I thought it would get more interesting the more I read but it didn’t. I felt a bit like I was reading The Covenant but worse. 

I’m sure a lot of young readers will enjoy the book but it is not for me. I don’t have the patience for it.

Did I miss something?

While reading Darkling I checked several times if it truly is book 1. It seems to be but I felt like I missed quite a lot of information?

The main pairing was enjoyable to me – especially the lovely way of acting towards each other – but they started out as (best?) friends and in the span of a few seconds they were lovers? Is there a story about them before this book? I felt like I needed to know more about the other characters as well as the whole universe as well.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I really liked Darkling’s take on witches, their familiars and especially necromancers. But have you ever read a fanfiction about a series you know nothing about? That’s the way I felt while reading.

Usually when I’m this confused I dnf because why bother? But I still was so very, very hooked! The writing sucks you right in and like I said before, I really like Ryder and Liam. I like them on their own and I like them together (and together-together, if you know what I mean…)

Maybe Darkling would have profited from way more pages, because the story was over in the blink of an eye and a lot of development seemed to be skipped over. Or maybe that is my confusion speaking, but my liking of the book says ‘gimme the next part now!’.

Last words: That was a short and confusing but kinda fun ride.

This gorgeously written novella feels less like a romance at the center and more like a layered identity/coming out story for the MC, Ryder. There is a central friends to lovers m/m romance arc, but at its core, this is Ryder's story, about him coming to terms with his identities as a witch, about the way magic moves and shapes things for him, and about him coming out about his magical heritage and the shape his magic will take in the future. The romance sort of gets swept along in the blaze of all the angst and confusion and the explosion of Ryder's secrets. 

I loved the way the magical elements of the story flowed and unfolded. This is the kind of thing I often struggle to follow in stories that have unfamiliar magical systems, especially when they begin en media res and expect me to follow along and catch up, like this one did. It worked for me, and I think part of the reason it did is that this is a book about witches written by a witch, and it conceived of magic in ways that resonated for me because of that. It made for something homey for me in the story; other wiccan and pagan reviewers have mentioned having similar reading experiences, so I know I'm not alone there. I loved all the different animal familiars, they made me smile. Darkling is, without a doubt, one of my favorite witch stories that I've ever read.

At it's core, this is a book about Ryders journey toward self acceptance of his magical heritage and the direction of his magic, both of which he's been keeping secret, along with his transness and his feelings for his friend Liam, who is also in his circle. Ryder resists claiming his magical identity and heritage, and those kinds of stories are deeply compelling to me. He is conflicted and afraid: of himself, of what it might mean, of how it might ripple out, of being vulnerable, of being seen for who he is, of harming someone by accident. This depiction of struggles in claiming spiritual identity resonated for me; it felt like real and full and nuanced representation. Not just around claiming spiritual identity, either; as someone who has been both in a newly claimed identity that I'd worked hard to mask for years and can no longer mask, and a place of questioning another identity recently, Ryder's struggles around being a darkling felt very familiar as an identity struggle across the board, and I can see them resonating for other readers in similar ways. 

I want to note that I was pretty sure a number of the characters in the story were people of color, but it was not completely clear beyond references to skin color. There was one troubling exception: a clearly marked Asian American secondary character is presented as a prejudiced traditionalist, and is the closest thing the story has to an antagonist. This was discussed in another review, and I wanted to mention it specifically. 

In the story, all of Ryders secrets are wrapped up together, and I want to talk abut that for a bit. The intertwined nature of all these secrets, none of which he actively chooses to reveal to his circle, was complex and fraught for me. Ryder gets warned early in the story, that secrets inevitably come out, and he ignores the warning. Of course then his secrets do come out, from his magical identity, to his transness, to his feelings for Liam. I was uncomfortable with this aspect of the story, in the early chapters of it. Partly because this is one of the ways it's implied that he is trans before the reader is told that he is trans. This is a tremendously common trope around transness; it's almost always framed as a secret that gets out, usually in a surprise reveal to cis characters, without the trans character's consent. The cis characters generally react quite badly and get very upset, reject the trans character.

So, I was worried about this secret thing, as it was clearly both a hint and a foreshadowing. Soon afterwards we get our first clear reference to Ryder's transness, when his top surgery scars are referenced. His trans identity becomes crystal clear when his sister (who he hasn't seen in a long time) asks him about his t shots and discusses his surgery recovery with him. This conversation felt awkward, but not in an unrealistic way. In that way that cis folks who don't know how to talk about transness but want to be supportive sometimes talk to trans people. Two characters in the book find out that he is trans, via him being partially clothed, or during sex. That bugged me some; I wanted Ryder to choose the words to tell people, and both naked and sexual reveals are a longstanding harmful trope in translit. The characters barely react, beyond a bit of curiosity about his top surgery scars; that's not usually how it goes with the surprise reveal trope I'm referring to. 

What is interesting about the surprise reveal aspect of this story, is that it's his magical identity that actually mirrors the usual trope around surprise reveals of transness. That's the one that gets the huge negative reaction. That's the one that he is agonizing over people finding out, and feels helpless and upset and scared when they do. That's the driver of the story, and everyone's actions. The disclosure of his transness, while still having some of those elements going on, gets no fanfare or huge reaction, and really kind of gets washed away in the wake of the magical identity reveal. It barely gets any attention. I'm interested by this choice to play with these tropes in this particular way. I'm not sure its as effective as I'd want it to be, and I was still bugged by the naked and sexual elements of the reveals, but in the end it wasn't nearly as upsetting for me as a trans reader as those things usually are, because of the way the narrative is clearly focused on a different identity reveal and doesn't treat his transness like a big deal.

There is a minor character in the story who is non-binary, and I liked reading Ryder's brief interaction with them. I'm hoping to see more of them in book two. It's lovely when trans and/or non-binary characters are not all alone in a cis world surrounded by cis people, and even this small moment was important to me as a non-binary trans reader, both to see a character who also uses my pronouns, and for Ryder to not be alone, surrounded only by cis people. 

Liam and Ryder have glorious chemistry, and there's this lusciousness about them just being in the same room together, especially after they are tethered. It made for extremely hot magical energy exchanges that felt beautifully kinky to me, and that included some delicious moments of blood exchange that I deeply enjoyed (and I'm someone who loves blood sports so I'm a bit picky about such things). The sex scenes were gorgeous; hot, magical whirlwinds of intensity that were exactly right for the characters and the story, and were also deeply romantic. I loved these aspects of the story, and would name the sex in this book some of the best sex scenes I've read in a romance involving a trans MC. For this aspect of the story alone, this book is worth a read. (Good rep of this sort is difficult to come by, in my experience.) 

As I mentioned before, the romance takes a bit of a back seat to the magical identity plot. There are still some lovely moments of yearning, really sweet awkwardness as they try to figure out what the other feels and wants, beautifully swoony (and very hot) kisses, and gorgeous sex scenes. I was rooting for them as a couple the whole time, and really appreciated the way Liam sees and holds all of Ryder and has his back without question. It's just that the magical whirlwind drives the plot, not the romance arc, which I think made the romance a bit thin in places. In particular, the happy ending felt a bit rushed. I'm glad the next book centers Liam, because we will hopefully get to see them together more as a couple. 

The prose in this story is beautiful, the plot is compelling, the characters are engaging and complex, the sex scenes are intensely hot. The romance got a bit of a short shrift, which made it feel a bit rushed, but I didn't mind that much because I was completely enthralled by the magic-centered plot. I am excited to read the next book in the series and to read more by this author.

This book was interesting. I enjoyed the darkness throughout it. I loved Liam and Ryder's relationship. Instead of a slow burn, this book jumps right into their relationship. The magic elements are very interesting. I like that Ryder is trans and it isn't a big deal. I'm looking forward to the next book.

For me I felt a bit lost at times through the book, as if I was dropped into a series and missing something or that the story was cut short, backstories missing. I also didn’t get much dimension from the Liam character.

Sweet, dark, hardcore-level of sexyness, and characters I fell in love with. One of the best books I could have ever read! I'm eager t see what happens next in the next part, although I think we won't see these boys anymore.

Love this cover.
Ultimately this is a friends to lovers story, just with far more obstacles in the way than you would normally expect. Ryder has secrets, many many secrets, and worry if Liam, his best friend and the person he's been in love with for the last two years, will accept Ryder once he discovers he's trans is probably the least dangerous of the secrets he's keeping. 
The writing is lusciously descriptive, I could almost feel the dark magic swirling around me with every page I read. But that same quality gave the book an edge that meant I could never truly relax while reading. Some of the blood letting and knife play had heart in my stomach. Ryder's not the easiest person to like, but he's the only narrator and I think an unreliable one at that, because he is scared about the development of his magic and tries to cover that fear by distancing himself from the people he loves.
The world building is excellent and I could easily image this world of witches and necromancers.

Why not 5 stars? Well, occasionally I felt like I really didn't know what was going on, that maybe I missed another book that should have explained some things. Oh, and that sense of unease rarely makes for a 5 star read for me, it has me too much on edge.

A dark and gripping story about witches, necromancer and queer love. At the beginning it felt a bit like I must have missed a prequel to this book because I was thrown right into a range of characters that seemed to have a greater backstory. So while the beginning started off a bit of confusing the dark magic and the romance between Ryder and Liam pulled me right in. I also loved the lively description of the elemental magic. Hopefully in the next book we'll get more of the other characters background.

this was fun! i love witches and magic and the confrontation of black and white magic is one of my favorite themes. i enjoyed this. this is most certainly something to read for halloween, it kind of gives halloween vibes.

as for characters, i really loved ryder! he's a trans guy, and while im not trans, but i think that trans rep was done well. the romance between ryder and liam is so steamy, woo!

anyway, i gave it 4/5, it was very good, but i have very little to say about it somehow. i guess it didnt affect me greatly.

I received an ARC of this book via the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I loved it so much.

I fell absolutely in love with the main character, Ryder. My gods, did I ever fall fast for him. Almost everything was perfect about this novella, characterization, pacing, the plot driving the sex… so much is so perfect and I’ll definitely be looking for more work by this author.

Content warning for blood exchange, cutting, and animal death. SPOILER: The last is okay, promise, he comes back.)

Things I loved:

The author didn’t screw up my faith: I’m a witch, both by bloodline/tradition and by choice of faith, and I can’t tell you the number of books and stories I’ve read/seen that get it wrong, harmfully wrong, sometimes. (Stop and think about it, how many books and shows use a pentacle for a fast an easy way of saying something is evil? When it’s actually the exact opposite?) This book deals heavily in the occult, paganism, magic and the author got it RIGHT! I grinned several times seeing my faith depicted well in the pages of this book.

On page consent: This is a HUGE plus for me, and I often mark a book lower in the stars department if it’s not there. If your characters are having sex, you have to write consent or indicate a conversation has happened that shows consent has been clearly, ideally verbally if physically possible, given. (NO EXCEPTIONS other than dubcon in a first-person PoV when you’re IN the character’s head and you, as the reader, KNOW they want it. Writing consent on the page and demanding it be there in our love stories is how we break down rape culture, you have to have it on the page.) Consent is sexy. It’s there in this book. I loved that.

The writing: By now, if you follow my reviews, you know that I’m extremely picky about writing. I have no issue what-so-ever with DNFing (Do Not Finish) a book. There are millions of books out there, my time is precious and I don’t read what I don’t at least like. Being an editor in my day-job means I’m INCREDIBLY picky about writing skill.

The use of language is rich, but not over the top. The description is AMAZING, I could smell the coffee and feel the mist on my skin, feel the cat’s fur and really get into the sex scenes. (Lolz, they did their job, put it like that.)

Ray has an excellent ability to write evocatively, and that is one of my favorite things in reading. If an author can transport me into their world for a few hours? I’m there. As I’ve come to expect from NineStar Press titles, the editing is top notch. I think I caught one homonym error in 33k plus words. That’s it.

On page representation of a non-binary character who uses they/them pronouns. It’s a secondary character, and there’re only a few lines, but the way the gender-neutral language is presented as a matter of course and automatically accepted is amazing. I loved it.

Trans masc main character: The character’s gender, even with graphic sex, is handled so smoothly and beautifully that YES, YES, YES. I rarely see trans romance written this well. I’m so grateful there’s more and more of it that I can get into my greedy little paws. Mirror books (the books I can see myself in) are so hard to find, and so very precious. I also really enjoyed it that the story wasn’t even remotely ABOUT him being trans. He’s trans, it’s fact, the story is about something else (and wow, what an amazing ride it was)!

On page rep of a bi/pansexual guy: I read the love-interest character, Liam as being bi, which makes him a bi guy with on page rep, another thing that I loved a lot. I can’t pinpoint a line that made me think he is bi, and it’s possible he’s gay instead, but either way, he’s wonderful. (I have a huge crush on Liam, too.)

It’s dark: The younger the characters, the darker the book has to be to rope me in. This book would technically fall under New Adult (the main characters are in their early 20s) and it’s extremely dark and delicious. I adored it.

It’s deliciously sexy: Yes, I’m ace (asexual) but I’m also autochorisexual, so I LOVE to read/write about sex. There’s a lot of hot, plot-driven, slightly kinky sex in Darkling. More please!

This is such a rich story filled with magic and wonderful characters. I didn't really know what to expect coming into this book, but I had already heart wonderful things about this story. Darkling jumps right into the story and we meet Ryder and Liam. Ryder and Liam are in the same circle of witches and are very good friends. Ryder is attracted to Liam, in his own quiet way. He's never told Liam how he feels and doesn't know if Liam would feel the same way about him.

Ryder's power is that he is a fire witch. But what sets him apart from the other witches is that he has a secret running through his blood. He's also half necromancer.

Being a necromancer isn't something he can hide from and that side of him grows more powerful everyday he's ignoring it. In order to be a necromancer, in order to get that side of him to calm, he has to give up a lot. And with no guarantees that he'll ever make it back.

Necromancers are feared and shunned by witches. Ryder is now living in fear that his circle of witches will turn on him when they find out who he truly is and he couldn't bear it if Liam did the same.

I do adore Ryder and Liam's story and how we see them slowly getting together. There's just something really sweet and tender about their relationship and I love reading all their scenes together. One of my favorite parts about this book is how Ryder's identity is written on the page. It's not a big thing and Ryder's identity as a trans man isn't the focus of the story. The focus is the growing power of Ryder's necromancer side warring with his fire witch side.

One small issue I had with this book is that the book is written in third-person from Ryder's POV, but he seems to always remark on the color of his eyes and whether or not they dilate or turn black. He can't really see his own eyes changing colors, so that bit was a little weird to me and comes up a few times in this story.

This is a fun and intense novella. I do hope that there's more to this story and we get to see more of Ryder and Liam! They're so precious and I would just love to read more about them and their witch and necromancer friends.

***Thanks to NineStar Press for providing me an ARC on NetGalley***

This novella blew me away. I was highlighting every third line and had to stop, the prose was pure magic and yet so, so real. It was lyrical and powerful and moving. Dark yet so full of light. Smart and sexy. I will try to articulate better later when - if - I ever recover.

I give this book 4 out of 5 Prideful and Paranormal Stars! I really enjoy this LGBTQ+ romance novel. The main character, Ryder, is trans and his relationships and his emotions bleed through this paranormal romance with an intensity that I won't soon forget. I just was so intrigued and adored Ryder!💖😄💙 This was a great novella and I read it in one sitting. It was the perfect bite sized version of Paranormal Romance a ‘hit it and quit it’ novel. Liam and Ryder have a very intense relationship that really had me on the edge of my seat! The reason I didn’t give this 5 stars was because there is a Trigger Warning in here that is one that can get to me. There is a brief death of an animal but the animal comes back. It was just me because of previous experiences but thought I should mention that. This book was fantastically written and new author Brooklyn Ray is sure to become very sucessful.
Overall, I recommend this book to any readers who love a good LGBT+ novel or a good paranormal romance! I have to add that I love the LGBTQ genre because I am a proud polyamorous pansexual lady!😄
You can find the rest of this review and others @ http://touchmyspinebookreviews.com/2018/01/09/book-review-darkling-by-brooklyn-ray/

There is a small coastal town that from the outside looks like it could be any other town, but inside is magic that inhabits the resident witches. Ryder has lived here his entire life and he knows about secrets. It’s not a secret that he’s a witch, but it is a secret whose blood runs through his veins. Ryder is also in love with his best friend, Liam, and that is most certainly a secret. To top it all off, Ryder has one last secret that he feels if Liam knows, he will certainly have no chance with him at all.

Ryder and Liam are part of the same circle of witches and it’s common practice for them to share tarot card readings. This last reading however, offers up a potential catastrophe the guys know neither of them can stop. Ryder’s magic is also unsettled, for the dark magic that runs through his veins is ready to come out and play.

Ryder finally thinks he may have a chance with Liam, but family obligations and dark magic wait for no man and Ryder has to take the greatest chance of all in the hope he can claim his place with Liam finally by his side.

It was the magic that sold me on this book and the mention of tarot cards and of friends becoming lovers. There is a lot to like here in this book from newer author Brooklyn Ray. We are introduced to Ryder and Liam, two witches, who are the best of friends. Except they don’t know each other as well as they think as Ryder has secrets, so many secrets. The secrets have been in place during the two years of their friendship, but get addressed fairly early on in the book, which helps to move the story along.

There is a lot that happens in a shorter amount of pages here. We have the relationship between Ryder and Liam, the magic that lives in the town, a full cast of characters, and then Ryder ascending to the place he was supposed to be all along.

The relationship between the men is well done, but also had some unrealized potential for me. The longing and chemistry between Ryder and Liam comes off the page and when they finally get together it is an explosive of lust and passion and love and some darker magic. The scene was good but, since Ryder was holding back due to an unexposed secret, it had the potential to be great. It was all right there, but I just would have liked more.

And, that’s how I felt about a good portion of the book—that I just needed more. I needed more world building as there is a lot we are just supposed to go with. From all of the witches and magic in the town, to the witches’ circles and hierarchy, to the place that Ryder needs to be with his magic. It all worked for the most part and while I remained intrigued and could follow along, I kept feeling like I needed more in a lot of areas. Since this is the beginning of a series, there will be more to come, but I felt like parts of the foundation for the larger world were a little shaky for me.

Ray offers up many characters here that make up a magical family of both blood relatives and found family. While the ending left more questions as this will be a continuing series, I am going to cautiously recommend this one as I enjoyed the writing style, the characters, the magical elements, and the hints of stories yet to come.