Anna DeStefano

Although Dark Legacy's spine lists this as a paranormal romance, I think that including Gothic wouldn't be amiss. There is a certain tenseness to the novel, not quite anticipation, but close to it, as Maddie fights to fit the pieces of a centuries old puzzle together to have a future. As Maddie draws closer to the answer as to why (or what) caused her twin, Sarah, to slowly go mad and cast a dark shadow over the family, the plot only seemed to get more twisted.

And twisted this story becomes as Maddie's reality is slowly leeched away in the wake of her sister's overwhelming madness. There are times when Maddie isn't certain if what she's thinking, feeling or doing are because she wants to or because Sarah has taken control of her. Sarah who's so warped from twenty plus years of having to deal with feeling everything everyone feels, of trying to take drugs to dead out the world enough so that she can be herself and not some random stranger on the street, feeling guilt over the night her father died. I felt the worst for Sarah, even though she's really hard to get along with. Her rage towards Maddie is almost understandable. Maddie also had powers, but she seemed so normal. She didn't have to worry about invading someone's mind and being that person. She wasn't going mad.

The relationship between Maddie and Sarah is hard to describe. Maddie grew up wanting to protect Sarah as much as she could, but also hating her for the madness that she was being driven towards. She could feel that same madness want to leak into her own mind and was terrified of ending up like Sarah. Sarah wanted to latch onto Maddie in order to stay sane, but at the same time wanted to push her away so that she didn't infect her, resenting both the need and the feelings of protection.

The romance between Maddie and Jarred is fraught with problems. Not just that Maddie is anxious over what she feels is her own madness, but also Sarah who doesn't want Jarred to be in Maddie's life (tainted by her own experiences and feelings). The novel itself moves at a quick pace, not dwelling too long before the urgent current beneath the storyline pulls it off once again. I never felt lost, or as if the story was moving too quickly and leaving things behind however.

The surrounding cast of characters--Jarred, Metting, Phyllis (their mother)--represent a rather interesting triangle. Phyllis--who wants to forget and keep secret what the twins do, Jarred--who wants it all over and done with so that Maddie is safe and Metting--who, more or less, started this whole issue and wants it to play out to see the results (at first at least). Their different wants and needs created havoc for the sisters as they struggled to protect, to forgive, to trust.

I'm in hope that because the ending hinted at future possibilities there will be more to tell about the Temple Sisters and more to see as they face a future together.… (more)

Dark Legacy by Anna DeStephano on the other hand was pretty disappointing (Barnes and Noble what are you doing to me!? your free fridays of late are epic fails!) I went for it because BN sold it as “if you liked the movie Inception then you’ll love this book” yea, major lie. The book focuses on twins who have psychic powers and one twin is insane and is being corrupted by the government and being turned into a weapon. A weapon that could kill people via their dreams….

It had potential but it just didn’t work. The characters were too perfect, no one had flaws, everyone could be forgiven of their wrongs…blah blah blah. It was boring and predictable.… (more)