A Brush of Darkness

by Allison Pang

When sarcastic but loveable Abby Sinclair finds herself smack in the middle of a series of Otherworld kidnappings, she teams up with a sexy but dangerous incubus to keep the missing Otherfolk - and herself - from disappearing forever. In this hilarious and witty debut novel from Allison Pang, this urban fantasy newcomer will have you laughing out loud and begging for more.

• ISBN10: 1439198322
• ISBN13: 9781439198322
• Publish Date: 17 March 2011 (first published 25 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 17 February 2016
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Pocket Books
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

I will admit that most of my interest in A Brush of Darkness was the unicorn living in Abby's underwear drawer. I mean, how can you read that and not be intrigued?! Sadly, little Phineaus, while awesome, was not enough to make me love this one. Abby is a mostly normal woman, working in a bookstore. She's also the Touchstone for her elf princess boss who has been missing for four months. Then an Incubus shows up, demanding answers from Abby about his also missing sister. Then more people start disappearing, so it's up to Abby and Brystion to save them.

A Brush of Darkness did start off good. I really liked Abby. She's not the typical kick-ass heroine. In fact, she really doesn't know much about the supernatural world at all, being new in town and all. It's also extremely draining for her to be a Touchstone, especially when two more supernaturals link with her, because she suffers from seizures. At times I did find her cluelessness a bit annoying, because her not knowing something meant the reader also doesn't get to know it. But luckily there are others around her willing to fill in the gaps so she doesn't get herself killed along the way. This world ended up being really interesting once we learned more about it. It's pretty much got all of the typical supernaturals: demons, angels, shapeshifters, elves, fae, and of course, a unicorn.

While I liked the world and the characters, it was the plot that really got me down. We don't meet Abby's missing boss, Moira, until the end and we don't get to know much about her at all. How am I suppose to care that she's missing? I didn't. Even when the others disappeared, it's not like I had any attachments or interests in them. They were just names on a page at that point. So of course at the end when the villain gives his big speech, I didn't care, because, hey, I don't know you! It was just weird. Although I do have to say that there's some super interesting stuff that I hadn't read before going on near the end. Very cool.

In the end, A Brush of Darkness was okay. If only the plot had actually been focused on Abby, or any character that we actually got to know, it would have been pretty great. There's a lot of fun and unique stuff happening here, so that might be enough to entice to me read the next two books.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.