Review: Chase the Dark by Annette Marie

Chase the Dark (Steel & Stone #1)
written by Annette Marie
narrated by Melissa Moran and Tim Paige

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy/ Post-Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy
Age Category: Young Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Piper Griffiths wants one thing in life: to become a Consul, a keeper of the peace between humans and daemons. There are three obstacles in her way.

The first is Lyre. Incubus. Hotter than hell and with a wicked streak to match. His greatest mission in life is to annoy the crap out of her, but he isn’t as harmless as he seems. The second is Ash. Draconian. Powerful. Dangerous. He knows too much and reveals nothing. Also, disturbingly attractive—and scary. Did she mention scary?

The third is the Sahar Stone. Top secret magical weapon of mass destruction. Previously hidden in her Consulate until thieves broke in, went on a murder spree, and disappeared with the weapon.

And they left Piper to take the fall for their crimes.

Now she’s on the run, her dreams of becoming a Consul shattered, and every daemon in the city gunning to kill her. She’s dead on her own, but there’s no one she can trust—no one except two entirely untrustworthy daemons. See problems one and two.

My Review

I received a free copy from Tantor and voluntarily reviewed it.

I originally gave this book a try in audio with the previous version that had a different narrator in 2019. I ended up DNF’ing it back then as I didn’t like the narrator. Now I saw there was a new version with new narrators and after enjoying the Spell Weaver series I was excited to give this book another try. Luckily this time I made it through and didn’t DNF it. However I feel like due to reading the Spell Weaver series first I didn’t enjoy this one as much as in my opinion the Spell Weaver series is much better.

Chase the Dark is published first, but is actually set after the Spell Weaver series, which is why I thought reading that series first would work well. It is kinda confusion knowing the author wrote this first, but it is set after the Spell Weaver series. Also a lot of the events from the Spell Weaver series don’t directly influence the events in this book (yet?), it’s just a bit of background for two of the important side characters Ash and Lyre. And I liked having that background, but at the same time I think it removed some of the mystery as I already knew a lot more about them now.

Another thing I struggled with is that I just didn’t find the story as captivating as the Spell Weaver series. The plot was less strong in my opinion and I just wasn’t as interested in the events. I also liked Piper as main character less than Clio. There are some chapters from Lyre and Ash their points of views, which was a nice addition.

I also read this book during a very stressful period in my life and that certainly didn’t help. It took me a long time to get through it and I could only listen in short bursts or sometimes not at all for days. And that with a book that already wasn’t keeping my attention as much, just wasn’t great.

There are parts that made me curious and I liked learning more about the Consuls and the human world. It also was interesting to see daemons from another point of view. And I do wonder what will happens next as this felt like only the start of a much bigger plot. The chemistry between Piper and Ash was interesting to see play out too. So who knows I might give the second book a try if it gets a new version with these new narrators as well.

The narrators are awesome. They are the same narrators that did the Spell Weaver series and I liked listening to them.

To summarize: I struggled a bit with this book as I couldn’t help but compare it to the Spell Weaver series, which I enjoyed more. This series is set before it, but I felt it spoiled some of the mystery knowing the backstory of Ash and Lyre already. I also thought the Spell Weaver series was more enjoyable. I read this during a stressful time which made it even harder to get through. The plot wasn’t as engaging and I didn’t like Piper as a main character as much as Clio. I did like the chemistry between Piper and Ash. It also was interesting learning more about the Consuls and seeing the daemons form another point of view. There also was more about Earth compared to the daemon realms in this one, which was interesting. I liked the narrators and the audio was pleasant to listen to. So who knows I might check out the second book is it gets released with these narrators as well.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.