Brightest Kind of Darkness

Nara Collins has spent years knowing exactly what will happen to her the next day until she sees something that she can't let happen and makes the decision to interfere. Then everything starts falling apart. There's only one bright spot in the aftermath - the new transfer student, Ethan Harris.

Ethan Harris just wants a fresh start. Years of torturous dreams has left him withdrawn from the world and he can't see anything that will change that - until he meets Nara and finds his dreams replaced with hers.

I really enjoyed this. Nara is a great character. She's fierce and outspoken and I loved her attitude. Even when her life spins out of her control she remains upbeat and determined to make the best of things. Ethan was dark and show more mysterious and everything you look for in a love interest. And the romance between him and Nara was heart stoppingly perfect. There was no real complications or angst in their relationship, just heat and fluffy and swoony goodness. There is a bit of instalove but no worse than any other YA book and much better than many others. There's a bit of relationship development and deeper feelings by the time they actually kiss so I felt it was a win. And they were just so adorable that it was hard to care anyway. Something about them honestly just clicked and I was rating it.

I loved the supporting characters. Nara's family is hilarious. I loved her Aunt Sage and her Gran. It was hilarious when the Gran turns up at their house having escaped from the nursing home and she gets her drunk to avoid having her pierce her ear.

As I held ice on my right earlobe, I was surprised Gran had been so quiet. Maybe she’d decided to just watch. “My turn,” Gran said, elbowing Lainey aside. Grabbing up the needle, Gran turned to dip it in the alcohol we’d poured into the lid, but the needle dropped in the lid instead. She tried to fish it out, but the needle spun around like a confused compass. “Come here, you little pissant,” she mumbled, digging her fingers into the alcohol. My gaze jerked to Lainey, pleading, Help me, please. She lifted her hands helplessly and mouthed, “What can I do?” “Got it!” Gran bent toward me, her gnarled fingers clasping the needle at a strange angle. When her hand began to shake as she drew near and the needle between her fingers shifted even more, I panicked and blurted, “I just remembered where we have some rum.” Gran immediately straightened, a marionette yanked upright by rum’s sweet lure. The needle slipped from her fingers. “Where?” she asked with bright eyes.

Michelle, P.T.; Patrice Michelle. Brightest Kind of Darkness: Book 1 (pp. 189-190). Limitless Ink Press. Kindle Edition.

Although I was also pretty amused by the fact Nara sends roses from a secret admirer to her Gran, so she can get one over her bitchy friend, Clara. It was brilliant.

After practice, I checked voicemails when I got home and had a message from Gran. “Inara.” She sounded muffled and raspy, like she was talking into the phone with her hand over the mouthpiece so no one would hear. “You’re brilliant! Clara has been hounding me, trying to find out who my secret admirer is.” She snickered, then continued, “I even told her that’s where I was, drinking it up and seeing my man. I feel like such a floozy. Haven’t had this much fun in years! Well, I need to get ready for game night. Just wanted to say thank you. Come see me sooner than a few months, young lady.” And with that final dig, she hung up.

Michelle, P.T.; Patrice Michelle. Brightest Kind of Darkness: Book 1 (p. 218). Limitless Ink Press. Kindle Edition.

I was disappointed that Ethan's brother Samson doesn't really appear much but hopefully in the next books. Lainey was a bit of a fair weather friend but I liked that she seemed to realise her friendship with Nara was a bit more important than boys and popularity - even if she got carried away at times.

The plot is interesting and the world building is fascinating - if not quite as fleshed out as I would've liked. Although there's lots of intriguing elements, I felt like it lacked a few explanations that would've made it more coherent and expansive. I'm not sure I totally followed where the supernatural paranormal elements are going but I'm interested to find out. The writing itself was good and Nara and Ethan's chemistry makes up for whatever flaws the plot has.

An intriguing start to a new paranormal series with a swoonworthy main couple. 4 stars. show less

From the very beginning Brightest Kind of Darkness reminded me of a way better version of Final Destination. They aren't even similar in the beginning, at all. However, just one thing Nara said got the comparison stuck in my head and I was unable to let it go. Nara mentions trying to alter what happened in her dream when she was young, a girl breaking her arms on the monkey bars, by inviting her to play with sidewalk chalk. Instead of the broken arm, the girl ends up with a blood clot from a rogue baseball. Changing fate is a dangerous thing and yet Nara knows she has to risk it again in the opening scenes of the novel. Because of this past horrific experience, I was so proud and endeared to her from this moment on because reporting a show more bomb should be an obvious choice but Nara knows first hand that it isn't. I don't want to say too much, but I was so pleased with myself when Nara made a discovery a little more than halfway into the book. My stupid comparisons are genius.

Nara was such a refreshing teenager to read about. She was genuinely a good person; it's so rare to read about a character like her especially in YA. She wasn't sickly sweet or full of fake kindness either. I like realistic characters and as someone who is kinda sorta prone to grudge holding, I find those types characters easier to identify with. Nara was effortlessly easy to sympathize with and understand, and she was real. Her volunteering at an animal shelter is what helped me make that special reader-character connection. I volunteer with horses and handicapped kids/adult so I have a special respect for others that donate their time. It's not easy and it's usually thankless; if you only do it for yourself, you won't last more than a few weeks before it burns you out. I don't like saying it because it always annoys me when it is or isn't attributed to a celebrity, but I have to admit that Nara is a great role model. She's certainly someone I admire.

For quite a good portion of Brightest Kind of Darkness I had no idea what to make of Ethan. We're given little snippets of information that all contradict what Nara seems to be feeling. For example we see his drawings of a demon eating flesh and he's described as a troubled loner. All of Nara's first descriptions of him had me feeling pretty blah about him, I'll admit that I can be shallow when it comes to heroes though. However, Nara tells us she feels safe around him etc. I liked having conflicting feelings about Ethan instead of being pulled into an instant love situation where I've either got to love him along with the heroine or else the book isn't nearly as enjoyable.

Brightest Kind of Darkness is an amazing, intense read. Even when it was 6AM and hadn't slept yet, I couldn't seem to put it down.

Review originally posted on my blog, Bitten Books: http://www.bittenbooks.com/2012/02/review-brightest-kind-of-darkness.html show less

If you had the opportunity to change fate would you? Would you change the future, knowing that you’d be saving someone from heartache, pain, even death? Would you do it even if your well-intentioned actions had repercussions you couldn’t have foreseen? These are the questions Inara must ask herself every day – that she’s asked herself every day for the last nine years. When she was seven, Nara began having the dreams, realizing she was gifted, or cursed, with the ability to see her entire day before it even happened. Now she lives her life in a constant state of deja vu, both comforted and unsettled by the fact that she knows what is going to happen before it happens. For years Nara has, for the most part, let life run it’s show more course as intended due to a tragic event that occurred because of her well-meaning interference. But when she dreams of an attack on her high school that results in injury and fatality, she knows she can no longer stand idly by and does her best to change her vision. As a result, Nara becomes embroiled in a deadly and dangerous mystery that she desperately tries to unravel with the help of Ethan, the loner new guy at school.


I loved Inara. She’s so likable, and – despite her obvious abnormalities – just so normal and easy to identify with. Because of her dad’s abandonment when she was just five, her mom’s workaholic-way of coping with his desertion, and the ever-present need to keep her precognitive dreams a secret, Inara is an extremely mature and discreet sixteen-year-old. She’s even-tempered, big-hearted, and a good friend. She’s not accustomed to the dangers she begins to encounter, but she proves to be very tough – especially mentally – and very protective of her friends and family and willing to do the right thing even if there are consequences. Inara doesn’t completely understand her gift, why she is the way she is, and she’s both comforted and extremely bored by the fact that nothing in life surprises her anymore.

Until she changes the future.

Until she meets Ethan, the intriguing loner she never saw coming.

Now her life is a constant source of surprise as she begins to lose her dreams, and therefore her knowledge of what will be. A prospect she simultaneously finds thrilling and frightening.


Mysterious. Aloof. Anti-social. Nara doesn’t know much about the guy whose locker is right next door to hers other than the stories the Blue Ridge High rumor mill is churning out. Reportedly kicked out of his last school for violently beating another boy unconscious, Ethan Harris presents conundrum for Nara. Who is he really? Is he dangerous? Can she trust him? And most troubling, he seems to know things about her. Things she’s purposefully kept hidden. And yet she’s strangely drawn to him.


And she wasn’t the only one. P.T. Michelle, thank you for giving me another favorite book boy. Ethan is a survivor. Because of his past, he’s endured a lot of horror and tragedy and these experiences have given him a unique perspective and a confident maturity. Courageous and kind, he often finds himself defending those who cannot defend themselves. While the reader is given a chance to get to know Ethan, Michelle did a fantastic job of surrounding Ethan in a perpetual air of mystery. The questions encompassing his character and his moving back story provided him a lot of depth.


The relationship that begins to develop between Nara and Ethan, well… let’s just say I love it. I thought the progression of their friendship to a romance was so sweet and lovely. I particularly loved the balance in their relationship. It’s somewhat typical in young adult paranormal romances for there to be a lopsided balance of power in romantic relationships. One person usually has some kind of special ability or a fundamental difference that gives them an edge over the other, in some way leaving one of them at a distinct disadvantage. While that type of romance can have an appeal, I found Nara and Ethan to be extremely refreshing, because Nara’s not the only one keeping secrets. But they also seem balanced in more basic, “human” terms. While Ethan is protective of Nara, he’s not overprotective. He respects Nara’s independence and her ability to make her own choices. He respects her decisions even if he doesn’t understand or completely agree with them. There’s no jealously, no pettiness, no games. They are two people who have an identity outside of each other, bonded by a shared sense of loneliness and the secrets they are protecting. It’s a refreshing and passionate relationship between two people brought together by fate… or were they?


I don’t want to give anything away about the plot, but I will say that I found it very original and that it raised some interesting questions regarding fate and free will – questions that I’m hoping will be explored more extensively in the second book. Once I finished the book, I found myself extremely satisfied, while realizing that Michelle had left some pretty big questions and plot threads hanging until her next book. I love the fact that she played it so close to the vest, and didn’t show her whole hand in this first book, while still revealing enough to keep me incredibly intrigued and oddly satisfied… while, of course, still desperately needing to know more.


Overall, from the tight character development, to the intriguing, well-done plot, to the compelling paranormal mystery, to the pulse-pounding romance, to the villain I never saw coming… Brightest Kind of Darkness encompasses everything I love in a good story and has earned a place on my favorites shelf. show less

A funny little thing happened with this book that rarely happens to me: I bought this after seeing a good review of it on another blog (typical me, can't remember where exactly) and was furthermore drawn in by that breathtaking cover. Downloaded it, opened it up quickly to read the first few pages, you know, just to get a taste of the story and the voice. Well, after those first pages, I couldn't put it down. It went with me everywhere, got opened up in grocery store lines, at the pharmacy, even snuck in a few pages on the desk at work (shhhhh!). I was engulfed in Inara's story from start to finish.

Inara is a great character---pretty normal teenager except for the fact that she sees the events of her next day in her dreams the night show more before. She's had this gift for years and has become pretty dependent on her ability to keep on top of everything from homework, to friends, to soccer. She learned the hard way not to intervene---one attempt when she was little ended up with some pretty ugly repercussions, so she just lets the day play out as she foresees it. Until she dreams of a bomb going off at her school and can't stand by to let people die. So she calls in an anonymous tip about the bomb...and suddenly her dreams start to disappear almost completely. Really eerie things start to happen every time she tries to interfere from then on.

The day after the bomb-threat, she meets Ethan, a boy whose life she inadvertently saved by calling in the bomb. He's got a sketchy rumor-riddled past and he's a bit antisocial, but he's drawn to Nara, seems to know whenever she needs anything, and seems to be able to read her every thought almost before she has it. And yet, not the typical jump-in-and-save-the-girl Hero, either; Nara was bright and could hold her own. I fell for their relationship head over heels---it was addictive to watch it unfold and find out the what's and why's of all the bizarre things happening between them, but it was also just a pleasure to read...they had such an ease and comfort with each other. A few emotional moments here and there with Inara's father issues and I will tell you that the quick glimpse we get of Ethan's backstory had me in tears.

Michelle did a fantastic job of giving the reader a satisfying closure on this chapter of the story, but also leaving us wanting more, more, more of Nara & Ethan and Creepy Mr. Fate! I know there is more to come, and I got the feeling that there might be some really epic, ancient origins behind Nara's fight with Fate and Ethan's role in all of it. A fantastic read! show less

First of all, I adore the cover of this book! It's what attracted me to it in the first place and made me eager to find out more. I really like the bright colours balancing out the darker colours- it's interesting! Much like this entire book.

[b:Brightest Kind of Darkness|11948797|Brightest Kind of Darkness|P.T. Michelle|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327093449s/11948797.jpg|16331631] has a wonderful premise. I was so excited to see how it would be executed because I just love YA books that are a little different to everything else out there. For me, the start was pretty slow but once I got in to it? I could not put it down. Really, I had to read the rest without leaving my seat as I just had to know what was going to happen. It show more really managed to grip me and keep my interest the whole way through.

Inara Collins is a teenager with a unique gift. Every night, she dreams what's going to happen the following day. As you can imagine, that's probably not the most exciting way to go through life but when it's ripped away from Nara, she finds herself rather lost. Suddenly, she doesn't know what lies ahead of her each day, what's going to be in her exams or who's going to get hurt. I found it fascinating watching her trying to deal with this. Then of course, along comes they mysterious, tortured Ethan, who both complicates and helps things.

[b:Brightest Kind of Darkness|11948797|Brightest Kind of Darkness|P.T. Michelle|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327093449s/11948797.jpg|16331631] explores the idea of Fate and whether we should be messing with it. Nara and Ethan have a lot of important decisions to make throughout the book and it really makes you question things yourself. The romance was also believable and not overly cheesy or clichéd which is always a bonus. In short: I want the next book! Now! show less

I'll be honest. Sometimes I'm a bit leery when heading into a self-published novel. In my defense though, they can be a mixed bag. Some might not be a great story or they might not have very good (or any) editing. But this one was fantastic. I'm so happy that Patrice provided me with a review copy for this because I enjoyed it a lot!

I'm going to try to not give too much away in this review because part of what I enjoyed the most about reading this was the mystery and the discovery of pieces of the story along the way.

Brightest Kind of Darkness most reminds me of a mix between a toned down (not really horror) Final Destination and The Butterfly Effect. Nara is in the difficult situation where she can see certain things that are going to show more happen in her future. I can imagine it would be a really hard position to be in because you would feel like you're seeing future events for a reason, but at the same time should you mess with fate? Or if you can see the future, is that part of fate and should you help to change the bad things?

So this book was a journey for Nara (and the reader) into these psychic powers she has, why, and how interfering can affect the future as a whole. It was really pretty interesting. The one down side would be that I felt like there were some times where we would hear the same internal questions being asked over and over again on the page. I totally get that if I were in that situation I would be asking myself certain questions time and time again. But at the same time, it got to be a little monotonous within the dialog.

But what I loved MOST about this book was Ethan, Ethan, Ethan! I could say his name a thousand times and it wouldn't be enough. I absolutely adored Ethan. This boy is seriously the sweetest, most genuine, yet at the same time sexy and strong guy. I loved him. He's so perfect (yet with his own problems too, so not TOO perfect if you know what I mean) and he quickly made it to my exclusive favorite males list. :)

Along with Ethan, I loved the relationship between him and Nara. It was so well done and sweet and gradual. I can't tell you how many times I "awwed" at them as a couple. They're definitely that couple that will make you a little bit jealous because they're just so darn cute together.

But you know what I hated absolutely most about this book? It ended too soon! Seriously, the ending was such a cliffhanger. There's so many more questions and so much more story that it will be impossible for me NOT to read the next one. I can't wait though, that's for sure.

Overall, this was a really good book. Downsides would be a little bit repetitive dialog at times and the ending was tear-your-hair out evil with it's abruptness. I kept hitting the next page button on my Kindle hoping for more. lol But aside from those few things, I'd definitely recommend it if you're a fan of young adult urban fantasy that's a little bit different, has some pretty interesting and a little bit chilling mystery to it, and of course a sexy boy toy you will love to pieces.

P.S. Did I mention this is just $0.99? That's seriously a steal for such a good book.

More of my reviews at I'm Loving ♥ Books. show less

If you're a YA PNR lover but your bored with the mediocrity of the genre's recent additions this will restore your faith. Brightest Kind of darkness is a well crafted paranormal romance with a refreshing and original plot, I couldn't get enough.
Throughout the book there is a deep sense of mystery and otherworldliness, there were parts of the book that gave me chills and it wasn't from something in your face scary, just wrong. The story unraveled at a steady pace, with new surprises and developments around every corner. I kept thinking I had all the info but more crazy would happen. Ethan and Nara kept their wits about them pretty well considering, I'd have run screaming for the hills.
Nara has a lot of beleivability to her character, she show more is very "teen". A lot of times you get 30 year old mind in a 16 year olds body. It was great to see the value Nara puts on her family and her ties to them. She has a close relationship with her Aunt and actively tries to strengthen the bond with her mom through the entire story. No parents getting axed in the first chapter. Ethan is absolutely drool-worthy. He seems the typical tall, dark and broody boy with a shady past and I was pleasantly surprised by his sensitive streak,. He's very supportive of Nara and encourages her to take control of her life.
I was consumed by this book and hungry for more, I can't wait to see what happens in the next installment Lucid. 5 out of 5. show less