Into The Darkness - Book Review

The book was a joy to read, and I found myself thinking about the characters when I wasn't reading it, which is always a good sign it has me hooked.

Into the Darkness by Brenna Bustamante

Genre: Dark fantasy | Fantasy

 

Blurb:

He kills for a living. She kills to survive.

When Aza is sent to kill a rival assassin, her mission was simple.

But before she can finish the job, the Stars arrive—an extremist faction determined to wipe out every shadow-wielder in the district.

With her life on the line and the city descending into chaos, Aza is forced into an alliance. To stop the Stars and save her sister and best friend, she has to trust the person she was sent to kill.

Fighting side-by-side sparks something she never expected—an attraction that cuts as sharply as her blades.

But revenge is a powerful thing.

And when the time comes, she’ll have to decide what matters more: settling the score… or saving the district.

She was hired to kill him.

Now she might die saving him instead.

Perfect for fans of enemies-to-lovers, morally grey assassins, forced alliances, and dangerous attraction.

My Review:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It comes with a trigger warning, so please do check this before reading it.

Aza and Theo are assassins, and we follow their world, where he gives off golden retriever energy (for Aza alone), and she gives off black cat vibes. Needless to say, by chapter six we are fully into four chilli spices!

The book was a joy to read, and I found myself thinking about the characters when I wasn't reading it, which is always a good sign it has me hooked.

Due to Aza's upbringing, she is a very hard, cold character. She struggles with love and fitting in and only has her sister and best friend to ground her. I, personally, found her too hard to love. I wanted to, I wanted to root for her, but she was just too cold and standoffish for me. But that's just me, and for reference, I wasn't a big fan of Feyre in ACOTAR as I read further into the books.

Theo is easy to adore; he is absolutely besotted with Aza. You can tell this early on, so no great spoiler there. He has charm, but he also sees Aza, so he doesn't allow her coldness to deter him.

There are a lot of separate fighting scenes as the rebels try to resist the invasion, and this I actually really liked! There is spice and bonding and an absolute OMG Brenna did NOT just write that scene, and this is what makes Into the Darkness a solid 4 out of 5 gold star book.