Review: The Dark Ones by Rachel Van Dyken

Synopsis:

To touch a Dark One is death. 

To talk to an immortal is suicide. 

Yet, I've been marked by both. 

A Vampire. 

And the King of the immortals. 

My life is no longer my own. 

And now I know the truth, my life was never mine to begin with. 

It was theirs. 

It's always been theirs.

Review:  4.75 of 5 stars

Words can't express how much we love a good paranormal book!  We love most of the typical vampire, werewolf books, but they are not easy to write.  A lot of authors tend to use a lot of the same elements and not do original things.  Rachel Van Dyken is not a typical author and she does't do anything generic!

The Dark Ones is the story of Genesis.  She is a human that has trained her entire life to serve immortals.  When she is summoned by The Dark One, Cassius, her world is about to change!  I really love Genesis, even though she is the human surrounded by an entire cast of immortals, she is perhaps the strongest of them all.  I love her character and can't wait to see her more in the other books in the series.

Ethan is the vampire in the cast of immortals.  He is an elder and reminds me a lot of Ian Somerholder's character, Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries.  He tends to run his mouth, piss a lot of people off and act without thinking at times.  But he does all these things as a defense mechanism because of his past, and he is scared.  He is one of my all-time fave vampire characters.

The remaining characters are a mix of immortal characters.  Mason is a vegetarian werewolf and I am hoping the next book focuses on him.  I foresee his story is one that will be heartbreaking but full of redemption.  Alex is a siren that seems to be after one thing-sex.  I suspect there is a big heart hiding beneath his beautiful exterior.  His sister, Stephanie also will have quite an amazing story with her issues. I love that Rachel can take serious issues but always provide some great comic relief with her characters!  They are so much fun and I did not want the story to end.

This book kept my attention from the first page.  I could not put it down!  Rachel expertly weaves a paranormal story and doesn't make it feel cheesy at all!  And did I mention, she can write the best twists to story lines around?!

Rachel is a rare author.  She can take a historical book and transform it into something I love.  She can turn a fairy tale into something I can't put down.  Comtemporary Romance?  She can always rock it!  And don't get me started on her Mafia series-perfection.  Everytime I think to myself, "Can she pull that off?", Rachel always does it flawless!