Reviews

The Dark Lands by Christina Bauer

lyssidee's review

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dark funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

5.0

nemerith's review

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4.0

We all know and love Myla and Lincoln, but Walker... he has a special place in my heart.
So when people dare mess with him, making him leave forever, yeah... no.

For this instalment, we went to explore a whole new and unknown realm, the Dark Lands (dumdumduuuum). I must say, I really love the vibe it had going! :D Dark, misty and with an over the top mansion. If you had a cliché, you'd find it here, but in a totally cool way! As always, all scenes and environments were detailed and well described.

Character development was good... well, actually, there wasn't really any.
But we got to unravel some more of Walkers many (maaaaaaany) secrets, so there is that :D. Oh and little Maxon is a terror and Xavier is so damn clueless it's just too cute.
I am glad though that Myla is back to her kickass ways :) She comes up with the best battleplans!

Pacing and flow were good. The story really does hold your attention for the whole ride, pretty much since we really want to know what will happen with Walker! A very good balance between all the action and conversations.

The book itself was well written with no (noticeable) errors.

All in all, well, I can only say I love this series :) On to The Brutal Time!

thewoollygeek's review

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5.0

Another fabulous addition to the Angelbound series by Christina Bauer, another few hours spent in a fabulous fantasy world full of fun, drama, sexy men, kick ass strong women and just fantastic storylines. These can be read as standalone and you shouldn’t be too lost, but best enjoyed as part of the series.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

spookshow's review

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4.0

You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Monster House Books LLC, and the author via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating of 3.5

Myla is now the Scala Mother, Queen of the Thrax, and has her baby Maxon and her husband Lincoln by her side. While appearing on Good Morning Purgatory, she is ambushed by the host as to what she is planning to do about the Viper attacks that have been reported. Leaving the show rather abruptly, she heads off to find out what exactly is going on, as her honorary brother was the one that gave the tip off of the recent Viper attack. Once she finds Walker, she finds out that he is in a bit of a pickle, the Viper is trying to free Lucifer, they've already found his cage and poisoned the guard, Walker knows how to help so has given Myla a watch, if it shows the time everything is fine, but if a countdown begins, something's gone wrong and he needs her to finish the job. So it's a race against the literal clock as the countdown starts and Myla and Co have no idea what exactly what is going on. Will they be able to beat the countdown, save the guard, Walker and keep Lucifer locked up? Or will Lucifer be free to rain hell on Purgatory?

So when I requested this book, I had no idea it was part of a series. This has happened to me quite a few times now, netgalley really needs to put something into series linked books so that the readers know! I'll admit after it happened twice, I began looking up the books I was requesting on goodreads, 1. to find out if they're part of a series, and if so are they the first book and 2. to find out more about the title itself, the average score out of five as well as the length of the book. I've had the displeasure of accidentally requesting books that are over the 600 page mark, and while the length doesn't bother me, I feel like it'd take me longer than I'd like to be able to get through the story and be prompt at getting the feedback in. So yes, I had no idea this book was part of an already established series, so I haven't actually read any of the other books. This was my first book by Christina Bauer, and my first book in the Angelbound series. While I've obviously missed out on a lot of back story, I didn't feel that this impacted my ability to enjoy and understand what was going on in the story.

The pace was quick, and it made for a light and easy read, which was nice. The writing style I incredibly enjoyed. I love how sarcastic, quick witted and just all around sassy Myla is. Bauer has fun with her characters and you can tell, I find that it really makes a story more personable if the writing isn't 'polished' and proper, I guess you'd say. The banter and sass just added an extra layer to this story that I think was absolutely brilliant and was probably the main reason it dragged me in so easily.

The characters were likable and relatable. Myla is just a chick trying to do her best for her son, herself and her husband (and the rest of her family of course) she's trying to adjust to life as the Scala Mother and Queen, and just get to be herself. I absolutely love the little extra personality that Bauer gave Myla's tail. I can honestly say that the tail was my favourite character. I love that it acts independently of Myla, and actually HAS a personality of it's own. It's like a faithful pet and I absolutely love it, it makes me a little giddy I have to say. Lincoln goes alright, he's her husband, father to her child and her King (see Consort for those that worship her), I found his character to be sort of background to everything else. This is probably because I haven't read any of the other books, so I don't have the feel of him at all, this was my first introduction to all of the characters, so I can understand if I totally have things wrong about them. I found the addition of Happy, Jamie, and Obsidian really cool as well. And who doesn't love an all powerful Archangel who has no idea if nappy rash is fatal. I just honestly can't get enough of how personable Christina has made all her characters and their interactions. Nothings super broody, or drama filled, I mean don't get me wrong, there's a lot of drama happening and shit is absolutely going down, but the characters are all pining and whining over how unfair everything is and how devastated they will be when the thing they fail to stop comes to fruition and blah blah blah, cry me a river. Bauer has not written her characters or story like this at all, she has made you feel for the characters, she has the characters worrying about everything of course, but they're not breaking down and having inner monologues about how terrible everything is. These characters worry while they're getting shit done, and if that doesn't make for strong characters then I don't know what does.

The story itself was good, I love that there was the added stress of the countdown to think about, as well as Myla never actually having a gameplan before something happens, she just wings it (a woman after my own heart). I hadn't a clue who the Viper was so that reveal was great, as well as how it was done. I almost feel like the ending was a bit too easy, but as I said previously, I haven't read any of the other books in this series, so I don't know if the characters are OP or that's just how powerful they really are. I also love that the world it's set in is purgatory, not surface Earth, that was a nice change.

All in all, a satisfying urban fantasy read which likable characters and a decent enough story line. I'll be interested to check out other books in this series for sure.

jessicareadsit's review

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3.0

This was my first book by Christina Bauer and the Dark Lands series and it was quite enjoyable!

Christina Bauer has such a quirky style of writing that I could not help but laugh. Despite jumping in at book #5 I found Christina to be a considerate writer that appressed previous events without being exhaustive (I like that). The book read very much like a cinematic script which I didn’t mind at all.

I imagine Myla is the female Deadpool, as her inner thoughts pivot between outrageously genius to manically insane. She is unapologetically blunt with a take-charge attitude that is befitting of the Scala.

Her extreme analytical skills for problem-solving and strategizing pulls her out of a variety of sticky situations which her smack talk usually gets her in. Myla is so hilarious and for fans of the beloved “Immortals After Dark” series, she and our favorite supernatural NYX could be sisters!

In Dark Lands, we get some insight into Walker and his past. His cryptic messages lead to goose chase for the mysterious villain- Viper and Lucifers artifacts. Dark Lands was extremely fast-paced, full of kick-ass fighting scenes, quirky anecdotes, lots of family love, insanely cute babies, snooty reporters, and a sinfully sexy husband.

Thank you to Monster House Books, the author and NetGalley for providing me with an arc.

Review also posted on my blog: https://jessicareadsit.wordpress.com/

theestherhadassah's review

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5.0

DISCLAIMER i WAS SENT AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN PARTICIPATION OF A BLOG TOUR. THIS IS MY HONEST REVIEW.

This is probably going to be the most direct review I'll ever share.
The adventure continues. Oh Mylanta. Y'all are in for a treat! There was so much going on, but it all held together. Myla is ever the greatest. Walker was definitely one of my favorite characters throughout the series. His disappearance just had my totally like "Wait, what?" I mean, sure. It's in the description, but I totally was not expecting it to impact me as much as it did. And can I just point out Myla is the freaking best?! Lincoln's pretty great too. ;)
Bring Myla's father into the mix. Goodness. If I wasn't already a fan of this series, I would be falling even more in love with it and the characters now. It's so amazing.

*****************************************************

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW:

The Dark Lands - Firstly, I wish to point out that I am very familiar with this book already. I have the privilege of reading it prior to the books original publication.

I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again: Listening to the audio version of a book that you're already familiar with gives the story a whole new experience. Since I already have a review for this book, I'll just share what I think of the audio.

Christina Bauer is amazing. This is her book so she knows how she wants the story told. Knows how she wants the characters to sound. She gives Myla the perfect amount of sarcasm tones, which I feel no other narrator could do that. I've listened to many narrators at this point, and I have my favorites. Christina Bauer, though she only narrates her own books, is high up in that favorites list.

liz_lyles's review

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3.0

This book just was not as good as the previous ones.

ania_star's review

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5.0

Received from Xpresso Book Tours

I haven't read the entire series until recently and for a someone who almost never finished a series, I was very surprised. I love jumping back to the amazing world, that Angelbound set up. I just love the magical world and the people residing in it. :)

I love Myla and Lincoln so much, and also Mason. :) On one hand it was nice to read about Myla with family, being a mother, a Queen & Scala (talk about multitasking :)) and on the other hand I LOVED that she has the same spunk and personality I fall in love it. :)

She is loyal tot he people she loves and when Walker disappears, she doesn't give up.

Great book in one of my all time favourite series. Highly recommend it!!
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