I like young adult books, but this one I couldn't get in to it. Not sure if it was the setting of the book or if it's just one that you can't connect with.

The subject matter was not for me. My apologies. I am sure it will be very successful but it appeals to someone like my younger daughter.

*~~*ARC kindly provided from the publisher/author to me for an honest review *~~*

Full review to come

4 stars

This is a difficult book to review, I found the beginning quite promising but lost interest somewhere towards the middle.

I would recommend the book to a younger audience but then are a few discriptions of violence which may be a bit graphic for a teen to read??

The author is very young but I think she shows great promise for the future.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an unbiased review.

The Cost of Living is an urban fantasy/horror novella by Emilie Lucadamo and the second book in the In The Darkness series. Released 25th Feb 2019 by Ninestar, it's 171 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats.

This was a difficult book to review since it seems to be full of contradictions. The characterizations are flat and mostly two dimensional. The dialogue is often clunky and the character motivations are illogical and contradictory. The writing itself is extremely variable with flashes of real brilliance side by side with rough narrative which feels unpolished and would likely be improved by ruthless editing. The romance is tacked on (lots of smoldering looks and sub-vocal lust going on but not much else) along with dialogue driven drama which left me wanting to smack the characters involved with a big stick. However... however....

This is a heck of a premise. The world building is -good- with magic, necromancy, shadow corporations and evil guys, demon possession, white magic wielders, and cookies. The author is quite young and shows an amazing amount of promise. I am impressed that this is her second book (and being 100% honest here, there are -super- well known urban fantasists who have fabulously successful careers at this point whose journeyman efforts weren't as good as this book). Definitely an up and coming author to watch for.

Even though this is ostensibly the second book in this world, it works perfectly well as a standalone. It will likely appeal more to the YA/NA crowd. The language is about par for the paranormal urban fantasy genre (that is to say, lots of snark and 'f'-bombs') . There is a graphic scene of domestic violence between a BF/GF (but he was possessed at the time, if that makes it better(?)).

Three and a half stars, rounded up for the undeniably good world building and creativity.

Unfortunately I could not write a fair review as I DNF this book as I hadn't read the other in the series which gave me a huge disadvantaged. In was unable to read this without the 1st book. I will give 5 stars to not negatively impact the author

This was another good story, I’m really looking forward to seeing where all of this is gonna go. I’m still hoping to see Jack and George again, but we’ll see. I definitely think the next book will be very interesting, with the demons coming to fight their own brethren. This is one of those series that’s going to come together all at once, so I’m really looking forward to that.

Beck wakes up naked, in a rain storm, hung over and sick… only it’s much more complicated than that and his life is about to change completely. Adam Lehexe finds Beck and drags him back to his bookstore, he sees him through the worst of his illness, then has to explain what’s happened.

The problem is that Beck hasn’t been passed out drunk, he’s been dead. He’s been dead for seven months. Something has brought him back to life.

It turns out there’s been some sort of catastrophic dark magical event that is causing havoc. Dead people are coming back to life and demons are possessing people and it all seems to be centering on Beck. After introducing himself back into the life of his friends, Beck has to deal with his best friend being possessed by a demon. Not knowing where to turn, he ends up back at Lehexe’s Bookshop begging for help.

Beck has a mystery to solve. He has n idea how he died, or how he came back to life, his brother Dylan seems different, his friends don’t want to talk about it. Adam… is intriguing but seems reluctant to get involved.

It turns out that Adam has a magical calling that he’s spent a life time trying to avoid. But, his magic may the key to figuring out what’s happening in the supernatural realm.

This story is a fresh take on the supernatural genre, the dialogue was great, witty and amusing. I really wish that this story had been longer. I felt as though the last third of it was a bit rushed.

To be fair, I didn’t read the first part of the “In the Darkness” series, but I think each of these stories stands alone. I enjoyed it! I look forward to reading future books by this author as their style develops.

The Cost of Living is a short paranormal novel, the second of the In the Darkness Trilogy by Emilie Ducadamo. It introduces Beck, a college student that's suddenly come back from the dead, Adam, the mysterious guy who finds him naked on the street, and Beck's friends and younger brother, all of whom find themselves with the indeed very upsetting revelation that their roommate came back to life thanks to a necromancy spell gone wrong. Oh, boy.

The story follows the group as they deal with the fallout: finding out about the supernatural, the consequences of someone coming back from the dead, and the repercussions this has on their group dynamic.

Frankly, I found the novel to be too short for me to truly connect with the characters, other than Beck's very relatable dramatics. I liked their relationships, though, and I found Beck's crush on Adam and their chemistry to be adorable, as was Sophie's too-short friendship with our narrator.

The writing was nice, but not unforgettable, and the world-building needs a little tweaking, although I admit that this is my starting point in the trilogy, so I might be missing things from book one.

All in all, Lucadamo has good potential as a writer, and I look forward to seeing how she develops her craft in future novels. Hopefully, as time passes, they'll gain more of the suspense I found lacking in The Cost of Living, giving the characters higher stakes and making the reader connect and sympathize with them for real.

The second installment in this series didn't make me laugh near as much as the first, but I enjoyed it all the same. It also didn't leave me with the same amount of questions as the first one, but it didn't really answer any of the questions I had either. The brief mention of George got my hopes up for a bit, but ultimately I was left with no answers and a few new questions.

I am not sure what I think about this book. I have read so many paranormal books, but not that many lately. This was a bit different than I am used to but I think it could really be a great series. The ending was a little confusing to me. I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be someone we knew, maybe one of the characters or just someone we should worry about in the next book. I think I give this book a 3.5 star, I was a little frustrated with Dylan and how he reacted to the fact that his brother was back from the dead. I understand how tough it had been for him but you would think that this would make him happy not upset. In all, I will definitely pick up the next book if there is one in the series.

Short and interesting, a little romance but no smut. Contains death, violence and magic. Slower than the first one. Whereas George and Jack were a snowball going downhill, Beck and Adam have it a little more together. I found Beck a little selfish. A nice enjoyable story.

Having enjoyed the first book, I was keen to return to the world of Into the Darkness in this new installment. The Cost of Living picks up after the events in book one but focuses on a different main character (with a few familiar faces appearing too). I didn't take to Beck quite as much as I did to George in book one. However, it was great to get to know Adam more, and overall this was another entertaining tale. The end leads us into book three, so I will be interested to see where the author takes the story in the next volume.