Book Review - Smoulder

Smoulder/The Space Between
by Brenna Yovanoff

What is it about:
Everything is made of steel, even the flowers. How can you love anything in a place like this?

Daphne is the half-demon, half-fallen angel daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. Life for her is an endless expanse of time, until her brother Obie is kidnapped - and Daphne realizes she may be partially responsible. Determined to find him, Daphne travels from her home in Pandemonium to the vast streets of Earth, where everything is colder and more terrifying. With the help of the human boy she believes was the last person to see her brother alive, Daphne glimpses into his dreams, discovering clues to Obie's whereabouts. As she delves deeper into her demonic powers, she must navigate the jealousies and alliances of the violent archangels who stand in her way. But she also discovers, unexpectedly, what it means to love and be human in a world where human is the hardest thing to be.

What did I think of it:
This book is called The Space Between in the US, and Smoulder in the UK. I got my trotters on the UK edition.

This is... a nice read.

And yes, I'm having a bit of trouble how I should review this book.

To be honest: the fact I think this is a nice read and not more than that, has to do with my personal preferences. At the start of the book the bad guy is mentioned. Now because of the way he is described and defined at that moment, I had dreams of him being not all that bad as people think, and turning out to be the eventual love interest of Daphne. It is how I would have want this story to be told.

Instead the bad guy is of course: THE BAD GUY! And the actual love interest isn't even half as interesting as the bad guy.

So you can understand that with my hopes being crushed, and having to settle for a love interest I didn't even like, this story didn't do much more for me than keeping me entertained.

It certainly has its merits: the world building is intriguing, and I really liked some of the supporting characters. I also liked the main plot idea, but I just couldn't care enough for Daphne and Truman to fall for this story.

All in all I think it's my own expectations and preferences that made this a bit of a disappointing read for me, and I can easily see how other people would enjoy this book much more than I did.

Why should you read it:
It's a nice Paranormal YA read.