Blood Beyond Darkness

Darkness Series, Volume 4

By: Stacey Marie Brown

Narrated by: Michelle Sparks

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

After months of searching, Ember and her friends have finally located the Sword of Light, the only weapon capable of killing Queen Aneira and ending her rule. This is Ember's destiny. Or so she thought. Now a pact to save the man she loves changes everything.

One thing which hasn't changed is Ember's undeniable connection to Eli Dragen, who is sexy, gorgeous, and even more frustrating. But her problems go way beyond him. Even their love might not be able to withstand the truth.

As the war mounts between the Seelie and Unseelie (Light and Dark), deep secrets are finally revealed, ripping Ember's world and heart apart. And what Aneira steals from Ember won't just destroy Ember, but the entire human world.

In this final installment, the fight for Earth has begun. Ember must go beyond anything she could ever imagine and make the ultimate sacrifice to save millions of innocent lives.

But the price may be too high - even for her.

©2014 Stacey Marie Brown (P)2016 Stacey Marie Brown

Great Ending to the Series!

Now that was an epic ending! This book was by far the best in the series, it was everything I had hoped for and more. This book had tons of action, chemistry and twists. Without giving anything away, all I can say is I really liked this entire series for it's world building, characters and the love story too ;)

Great narration!

I want to choke her!!!

Get on with it already! This book just keeps getting worse. The female sorry excuse for a character is so annoying frustrating and just plain dumb!
She is so immature extremely childish and beyond selfish!!
Naive Isn't even the correct word for how ignorant and stupid this little piss ant of a character is.
She continues to allow everyone around her to get captured including herself and its not because of her magic. Its because she is to stupid to realize anything.
I honestly do not know what this writer was thinking when she created this character.
She makes me almost hate her and mot really like her or the light bitch of a queen.
And this narrator is so annoying with her huffing in the mic and breathing so loud and yelling and the dramatics is just to much.
She makes this character so much worse with her snobby bitchy tones and breathy breathing. UGH! ITS WEIRD BECAUSE I AM CAUGHT UP IN THE STORY. IF I WASN'T SO DRAWN INTO THIS I WOULD HAVE STOPPED LISTENING AT BOOK 1.

Slowwwwww moving

I liked the other books in this series but this one was just not good. I had to skip so much because the author took forever to progress the tiniest bit. The main character wanted to think she was some kind of bad*ss yet had to be saved every five minutes. Oh and the ending sucked.

SOOOO GOOD!!!

Would you consider the audio edition of Blood Beyond Darkness to be better than the print version?

Yes..... For me anyway. I love to be read to :)

What was one of the most memorable moments of Blood Beyond Darkness?

I would tell you but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone

Have you listened to any of Michelle Sparks’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Michelle Sparks is a great narrator. I will listen to her again!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed, got pissed off, cried, then laughed again

Any additional comments?

I Love this series! I'm sad its over, but Ill get to listen over and over. Stacy Marie Brown if you ever read this. YOU ARE AN AMAZING WRITER! Please keep up the excellent work. I'm a fan for life!

Wrapped up well

The story ended well and I’ve read other series in this universe so I know it gets a lot better. I think the author has grown a lot since writing this series as her books now are awesome. I still never really liked Ember even by the end. I kept thinking she would mature eventually, but she still made rash decisions and got caught up in a moment with Eli and forgot everything else all the time - even in the middle of battle .. I mean really?
I needed a bit more maturity from the main character to give this 5 stars, but I love the other books in this universe so have kept it at 4. Definitely recommend reading the collector series! Now that’s a great read!!

A good conclusion to this series

I thought this was very good conclusion to this series (with full knowledge that this world will continue to expand through several more series to come).

This book started with a bang! Truths revealed! Magic! Fight! Escape! Wham bam 💥 !

Then the plot slowed down for a bit, which helped tie up the various storylines so we could end on the final battle. And hoo boy! Let me tell you: no one was safe…so just be prepared for that.

Overall I thought it was a great conclusion to Ember’s story. I will say, it didn’t feel like a nice and neat HEA ending, (but really, how could it be after a huge War/Battle with many deaths? 😳) but there is an epilogue that should help most readers feel satisfied.

You can tell that the world of this series will never be the same after that ending, and I’m sure that will come into play over the next several series set in this universe.

I enjoyed Michelle Sparks throughout this series, and thought she did well with the many voices.

Narrator still yelling and screaming, alot.

The story overall is a good one but the writer depends totally on an irrational, immature, impulsive brat to drive it along. After awhile you start wishing that someone would kill her so they can make progress without her tantrums putting them at risk or getting them killed. So much waxing and waning about reminisces and flowery words over scenery that had been expounded upon at length. No one else's thoughts, pain, experience or reasons matter, only hers. Such a selfish heroine. Found myself speeding through this one just to get to the end.

Not for young adults but too young for adults

The sex scene along too graphic for young adults and the foul language as they are sexually engaging is a bit tramps.
I'm not completely finished with this book but I had to rate this at the point I'm in this book. This will be the last book in this series I listen to even though I see there is another.
Ember and Kennedy estrangement is so stupid. Friends wouldn't be upset to the point of not being friends about Ember failure to tell Kennedy that Ryan couldn't come back to the human world because he ate fae food. He is happy to have found a partner and seems really happy with his partner that Kennedy should be happy for him, not having to face the parents who don't like his lifestyle and ignore him. The excuse Ember gave for not telling Kennedy was she couldn't handle it at the time and she and Ryan always protected her. It was said that Kennedy was the leader of the 3 some group, so how could a leader not handle what was going on.
So much controversy in thus story, only writing what is needed to support the incidence not the character of the person. So many holes in this series.
How could Lars bound Ember from telling Eli about the knife and killing Aneria.
My opinion is to find another series....but they are hard to find

Some shocking things to handle

I enjoyed most of this book but at times it seems like it wasn’t long. I will say I was really shocked at some of the decisions for some of the people that were lost . I feel that the book had way too many sex scenes they just felt like fillers. Not gonna lie I do not love the whole Kennedy and Lorcan thing and I found it quite crazy that everyone was supposed to just what forgive him, let’s not forget about what he did to Ember but the worst of it is he gave WEST to the queen which destroyed him and I just can’t get past that easily so I’m not sure how I’m going to like the lightness saga books. I love the pixies, they make the story so lighthearted and at the same time they are so loyal to Ember. I felt the battle was not near as big as was built up, it seems kind of quick and boring. Of course I’m happy that there was a happily ever after for Eli and Ember and I am excited to read West.

Disappointing

This 4th book was definitely disappointing. I get why the other readers were frustrated. The main character Ember did very annoying things and didn’t act like a heroine at all. I was often yelling at her to go and do something like I’m watching a bad scary movie lol. I still love the story and the characters of this storyline, but this last installment could have been so much better.

Love!!!

Edge of your seat tension and drama throughout the entire series! Fabulous characters and phenomenal writing- exactly what I look for in a great book