In order to enjoy MASTERING DARKNESS, the first novel in the Forest of Darkness series by Kate Wendley, one must first master one's own impatience. The pace and length of the novel proffer a serious obstacle to lovers of the vampire/shifter genre, and so I give it 2 stars.
In the novel, Anthony Foster is a vampire and the Master of Atlanta, as was his father before him. He maintains peace and order in the vampire and shifter community, and that responsibility weighs heavily upon him, so much that he has not been in a relationship for a very long time. One evening, Anthony goes out for some fresh air and a break from the club/residence he oversees, and meets a woman at the local bookstore.
Kaia has been through some seriously difficult times in her life. More than a decade ago, she left her home, changed her name and started over. A friendship with co-worker Ethan has been an anchor in the storm for her, and even though she is sensitive to the supernatural energy around her, she doesn't know that Ethan is a vampire or that most of her neighbors are supernaturals. Meeting Anthony at the bookstore changed her life, and suddenly she feels as though she might have found someone with whom she can share a romantic relationship - if only Ethan and his centuries-old grudge wouldn't interfere.
I am a huge fan of the vampire and shifter genre, and so I read any book that sounds like it has something unique to offer. The concept behind MASTERING DARKNESS intrigued me, despite how simple the plot is. The characters are sympathetic; I want them to find happiness after years of difficulties and loneliness. The illustration of the plot and characters, though, fell flat.
The big issues for me were the pace and length of the novel and the shallowness of the story. The story moves as quickly as molasses, and the plot drowns in minutia. The 158 page novel could have been 100 pages if the minutia had been edited. I'm a huge proponent of using dialogue to move the plot along and tell the story, but sometimes dialogue can be just as cumbersome as over narration. For example, it's enough to state that while out to dinner, two characters engage in small talk as they peruse the menu and eat. The reader doesn't actually need to hear every painful sentence of the small talk. I often felt that the dialogue was contrived and repetitive, which made the romantic relationship seem unrealistic.
The romance was not too graphic, but enough so that the novel is really only appropriate for adults.
There were also some aspects of the story that could have been expanded to make the novel fuller and well-rounded, but they were simply dropped into the novel and left where they lay. Perhaps those parts were meant to set up future novels, but that effect could still be achieved while embellishing on the puzzle piece in this novel. Sadly, the cliffhanger at the end was not quite sudden enough. It was one or two sentences too long and the "jaw-dropping O.M.G." effect was lost.
On the technical side, there were significant grammatical errors that were distracting – the use of object pronouns instead of subject pronouns – and often the sentence construction and word choices were underdeveloped and lacked flair or finesse. There were also some seemingly inconsistent facts about the setting of the novel. It is understood that the novel takes place in Atlanta, but then some of the characters find themselves west of Dallas, Texas and still in Anthony's territory. Atlanta and Dallas are about 800 miles apart, making it unlikely that the characters were still in Anthony's territory, unless Anthony is considered Master of the Gulf Coast instead of just Atlanta. This kind of issue tends to stick in my craw until it is resolved. Here, there was no resolution for me.
As a side note, the categorization of the novel seems a bit broad. I would fit this squarely in the paranormal romance and vampire shifter genres, but I don't see much of the fantasy romance or urban fantasy qualities in the novel.
Overall, I didn't really enjoy the novel, though I seriously want to find out what happens to the characters. Perhaps things will pick up in the second novel in the series, but I'll need some extra patience and fortitude to find out.
