THE DARKEST LIGHT by Ashley Earley

After discovering a secret her parents have kept from her all her life, Alyssa’s life begins to unravel, and she’s thrown into a magical world she never knew existed—one that’s both frightening and intriguing to her.

While trying to discover who she really is, and who her father was, she begins to see the darkness this unknown land holds, and fears becoming part of that darkness.

Torn between this new world, and the human world, Alyssa must make the ultimate decision between the possibility of losing herself forever to become part of it, or stay behind and let the world of Föld perish.

As if her life wasn’t complicated enough, she’s falling for two guys—that live in totally different worlds. Wesley and Archer couldn’t be more different, but they both have her captivated.

A battle is coming. Will Alyssa be forced to fight against the people she loves?

Filled with action, adventure, and romance, The Darkest Light captivates from the start. As soon as you meet the protagonist, Alyssa, you fall into her life, and her world. She is fighting depression and still constantly thinking of her father, who died in a car crash, and you can’t help but feel bad for her unfortunate situation. Her mother, in an attempt to help Alyssa regain her equilibrium, brings her to Alyssa’s grandmother’s house.

Which is how Alyssa finds out about Föld.

Föld was a beautifully written world, full of elves, dragons, and other magical beings. If I could relate this to another book that I have read, I would say it resembled fablehaven in a lot of ways (which was a favorite of mine when I was younger). In Föld, Alyssa finds out all about her destiny. Being part elf, she is welcomed into Föld, but in order to be fully accepted she has to go through a choosing, where she can either be chosen by the elves that fight and strive for darkness, or the elves that fight for the light.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Darkest Light. The romance was innocent and adorable, and the action was intense and heart-pounding. I did, however, find the genre to be a little confusing and misleading.

While reading this book, I found that it more closely resembled a middle grade book. There were no swear words. The romance was almost as innocent as it could get (few kisses here and there, but none too intense or descriptive) and it was an easier read. Only until the last one hundred or so pages, where it started to become a little more Young Adult when some swear words started popping up(d-word, s-word, nothing too bad.) So I would say it’s an easier, relaxing YA book, or a Middle Grade for more mature readers who are okay with a few swear words.

The last thing that I would say about The Darkest Light is that it is a good book when you are looking to escape your current reality, but don’t want to invest yourself with something extreme of a book.

***GREAT BIG THANKS TO ASHLEY EARLEY FOR A REVIEW COPY***