Dark Is Her Nature

The School of Necessary Magic, Book 1

By: Judith Berens, Martha Carr, Michael Anderle

Narrated by: Kate Rudd

Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

For hire: teachers for special school in the Virginia countryside. Must be able to handle teenagers with special abilities. Cannot be afraid to discipline werewolves, wizards, elves, and other assorted hormonal teens. Apply at the School of Necessary Magic. 

Alison is a young Drow princess whose power is just beginning to grow inside of her - too bad for the dark forces after her. They won’t see it coming. Even better...Alison’s making a few tween friends who can stand by her side. 

School’s in session - the world’s about to change. 

©2018 Judith Berens, Martha Carr, Michael Anderle (P)2018 LMBPN Publishing

Ok, but nothing new

It’s a nice YA/UpperYA level story of Alison’s first semester at her new magical school; along with another student and friend, Izzie. Having said that, there’s not a lot going on. It’s a pretty tame introduction to a new series.
The story had so many elements of the Potter books that I found it uncomfortable (magical ceiling in dining hall with food that magically appears; Horace the groundskeeper; magical plants; A&co sneaking into magical town that only upper level students can visit; etc).
I’m also not comfortable with the story device that Alison is “blind”, but there’s no good definition of her actual vision and why she isn’t tripping over inanimate objects or mixing up clothes that don’t match. Why does the story have her giving Horace her orange scarf; receiving a blue top or a red umbrella shirt, but she doesn’t know the kemana crystals are ruby? Everything is made up of molecules and atoms, even so-called inanimate objects. Those protons, neutrons and electrons are always moving around and giving off an energy signature. Different colors should also have a different energy signature. Can she read these? Can she actually just “see” the WHOLE world around her differently? I read a book about energy that said regular human vision can only see about two inches of a universe of rays (light rays, xrays, gamma rays, etc) if using the height of the Empire State Building as a reference point. And how can Alison hide address labels, notes & books in Braille? Very visually noticeable to the “sighted”!
As Archie Bell says “Why don’t you Tighten Up?”
I did find the author notes to be very interesting and entertaining.
Rudd does a decent job of narration.

Confusing!!!

To be honest my rating for this book is a 2.5. I wanted to love this story because the details for the book sounded very interesting. But I couldn't get into the story because I had trouble figuring out who the story was about. Alison or Izzy. So with that being said although I love books by this author, I won't be reading the rest of this series.

great beginning to Allison's story

when I read this book for the 1st of several times, I had in my mind a shy sounding A. The narrator almost gives her an EMO sound (to my ear) and it fits.I love hearing someone else's take on the words and how they sound to them. Either the vocal sounds or an internal monologue. Another great story.

tbh it could have been way better

it starts out with a very messed up memory napping yes they stole the poor girls memories and then proceeded to push her life on a path she didn't choose or want. now with that being done the rest of the story is very dry mostly about well going to school and very lame uses of very unskilled magic what's worse they dont even address the memory theift.

Sort of had a comparison to Harry Potter

It did hold my interest but being the first book i had hope for more of a defining moment to capture my imagination.
With that said i couldnt help visualize flashes of Harry Potter scences. I will continue the series and hope for more of an anchor to the plot.

Unfinished

This book felt more like one long prolog once it was finished. It's a lot of beginning story lines with no conclusion to any of them. While I was engrossed throughout, I became very dissappointed in the end, that it was actually the end. Not one single tantalizing beginning had a conclusion for me as the reader, to ruminate over. There isn't any satisfying digestion, only tasty little samples.

Hard to follow and disjointed

This book was very hard to follow and the character development was nearly nonexistent. It jumped around with not a lot of explanation as to who was talking or what was going on. I got to the end of the book with an unclear picture as to who the main character was. I also reached the end with no real attachment to the characters or desire to know what happens to them. I didn’t think it was very well written at all.

Fine Story

This was a rather enjoyable story and highlights the trouble and pain our parents cause some of us in their misguided belief in what's best for us. They are simply human and make mistakes like the rest of us. Onwards to the next one.

Great start to a new series

Alison Brownstone was first introduced to us in the Unbelievable Mr Brownstone series.

This is the first book of Alison's story which runs parallel with the James Brownstone and Shay Carson books. James and Shay's series eventually merge but Alison gets to keep her own series YAY.

Alison is enrolled at the School of Necessary Magic which is run by Mara Berens, Leira Berens's grandmother, who are featured in the Leira Chronicles, the series that kick starts the Oriceran Universe.

This book is a great start to Alison's story and we see how she grows into her powers and makes new friends, and some enemies.

Kate Rudd does a great job with her narration.