The Sweetest Dark

By: Shana Abe

Narrated by: Bianca Amato, Elizabeth Sastre, Rich Orlow

Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Lora Jones has always known that she’s different. On the outside, she appears to be an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl. Yet Lora’s been keeping a heartful of secrets: She hears songs that no one else can hear, dreams vividly of smoke and flight, and lives with a mysterious voice inside her that insists she’s far more than what she seems.

England, 1915. Raised in an orphanage in a rough corner of London, Lora quickly learns to hide her unique abilities and avoid attention. Then, much to her surprise, she is selected as the new charity student at Iverson, an elite boarding school on England’s southern coast. Iverson’s eerie, gothic castle is like nothing Lora has ever seen. And the two boys she meets there will open her eyes and forever change her destiny. Jesse is the school’s groundskeeper—a beautiful boy who recognizes Lora for who and what she truly is. Armand is a darkly handsome and arrogant aristocrat who harbors a few closely guarded secrets of his own. Both hold the answers to her past. One is the key to her future. And both will aim to win her heart. As danger descends upon Iverson, Lora must harness the powers she’s only just begun to understand, or else lose everything she dearly loves.

©2013 By Five Rabbits, Inc. (P)2013 Recorded Books

Enjoy!

Wonderfully fun fantasy take abs good story,
wondering why the rest of Shanna Abe books aren’t on audible m?

I NEED MORE

Seriously....this entire series just gets better and better! I get pulled into the story from the first page. You will not regret reading this book and all the others she has written. The Accent that the narrator has is perfect for the story!

Surprisingly Great!

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Accents! I love listening to books where the characters have any sort of accent; I have a really hard time imagining the accents myself. :)

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The ending. (Don't want to give anything away)

Any additional comments?

I really only bought this book because I'd received it's sequel from the publisher for reviewing purposes. (And I cannot read a second book before the first) I started the Sweetest Dark not knowing what it was about and I have to say that I really enjoyed it.

So many of the YA books out right now are so similar, (don't get me wrong, I still enjoy them!), but this one just pulled me right into the story. I felt like I was there with the characters, and that's what made it stand out to me. That feeling is what keeps me reading!

Smoking sex synesthesia included

YA romance fantasy. Didn’t know the genre, just wanted to hear Elizabeth Sastre. A selfish but likeable pre-dragon Cinderella type experiences atypical adolescence in a girl’s school in WWI England.
There’s a castle on an island but interesting side characters are lacking. Also missing (thru the first 90%) is any overriding existential threat like trolls, aliens or Voldemort. It’s not Hogwarts. Eventually the war gets closer to school, adults flail, and the teenage mutant transformer hominids get their chance.

All together, the plot is minimal and really drags but the mood is not mired by excess angst or bullying as is too common in this genre.
Our protagonist is not abnormally stupid nor clever. She has an orphan’s level of distrust and naivety but lacks much empathy or charity. Lora only selectively shares her feelings. She maintains modesty with only metaphorical description of her sexual experiences and nothing about bodily functions.
Elizabeth Sastre delivers well as always. This audiobook otherwise would lack much attraction or reward.
The other narrator, though professional and not heard often, is painful to experience.