A Brush of Darkness by Allison Pang

A Brush of Darkness

by Allison Pang

Dive into A Brush of Darkness, the first book in the Abby Sinclair trilogy.

The man of her dreams might be the cause of her nightmares.

Six months ago, Abby Sinclair was struggling to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. Now, she has an enchanted iPod, a miniature unicorn living in her underwear drawer, and a magical marketplace to manage. But despite her growing knowledge of the OtherWorld, Abby isn't at all prepared for Brystion, the dark, mysterious, and sexy-as- sin incubus searching for his sister, convinced Abby has the key to the succubus's whereabouts. Abby has enough problems without having this seductive shape-shifter literally invade her dreams to get information. But when her Faery boss and some of her friends vanish, as well, Abby and Brystion must form an uneasy alliance.

As she is sucked deeper and deeper into this perilous world of faeries, angels, and daemons, Abby realizes her life is in as much danger as her heart-and there's no one she can trust to save her.

Reviewed by Angie on

2 of 5 stars

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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.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 29 July, 2015: Finished reading
  • 29 July, 2015: Reviewed