Book Review: Darkest Fear by Cate Tiernan

Image (c) Simon Pulse

Darkest Fear (Birthright #1) by Cate Tiernan
Release Date: January 7th, 2014
Book Format: eBook
Rating: Two stars

Vivi’s animal instincts are her legacy—and maybe her downfall—in this start to a romantic fantasy series that will appeal to fans of The Nine Lives of Chloe King.

Vivi has known the truth about her family—and herself—since she was thirteen. But that doesn’t mean she’s accepted it. Being Haguari isn’t something she feels she’ll ever accept. How can she feel like anything but a freak knowing that it’s in her genes to turn into a jaguar?

Now eighteen, Vivi’s ready to break away from the traditions of her heritage. But all of that changes with the shocking, devastating deaths of her parents and the mysteries left behind. Vivi discovers family she never even knew she had, and a life open with possibility. New friends, new loyalties, and even romance all lay ahead—but so do dangers unlike anything Vivi ever could have imagined.

This book starts off with a bang in the first chapter right away: Vivi's parents die on her birthday (not too long before she graduated from school). Of course she's psychologically in pain from everything because she lost the two people who have been with her for her whole life and now, other than her closest friend, she feels alone. She spends her days moping in her house, doing nothing productive really, until she finds a letter in her parents' room that pointed towards the fact that her mother has a sister that she never talked about to her. Ever. So, rather than doing more research and confirming with more phone calls if this 'aunt' still lived in the same address- considering that the letter itself was dated ten years ago- she drives off into another state to find her.

The above was the only interesting part in the whole book. Pretty much after that point it started to lose its momentum, which probably wouldn't be as bad... if it hadn't died somewhere around 20% into the book. So that's about 80% of the book that feels so unplanned and horrible that it's certainly worth taking another look at with editing the content.

There are many things I feel like can be improved on in this book and that would make this book improve much more than what it is right now.

One of the biggest things that got me the most was the love triangle (at least, that's what I felt like was happening here). Vivi has two guys crushing on her: one of them being her boss (maybe that's why he hired her on the spot? But there's still so much wrong with that statement) and the other being a family friend who visited. The worse offender has to be her boss just simply because he's her boss. Even if he wasn't, there were many circumstances where I felt like he was pushing her to do things he shouldn't have, for example- encouraging her to, oh, sleep with him. He may have liked her but that gave him no excuse to be that way with anyone. With him being her boss, he could have easily taken advantage of what power he has (thank god he didn't) but I winced every time him and Vivi were together alone.

Another one was the lack of conversation about Vivi being a Haguari and the topic in general. There wasn't much of it at all. I didn't get much of a history of them and how they came to be and, if it wasn't for the few scenes that talked about or had others change into a jaguar I would be completely convinced that Vivi transforming into a Haguari was completely irrelevant to this book even though this was marketed to 'appeal to fans of The Nine Lives of Chloe King'.

Vivi was given a book about her history about her family as a Haguari. If I was her, after my parents' death and knowing their hearts had been pulled out, I would've read through said book and learned as much as I could. I wouldn't leave it back home when I decided, without much reassurance that she was still there, to go visit my aunt. Even then, I certainly would have taken advantage of my families' knowledge much more than Vivi had in hopes that there's some sort of link. So many opportunities to learn more about these guys and... nothing.

I have yet to read the book, but I'm certain that The Nine Lives of Chloe King has GOT to be much more better than this. Also, while I'm on topic, I would also like to recommend the Women of the Underworld series by Kelley Armstrong. In fact, the first book- Bitten- is centered around a woman named Elena who just happens to be a shape-shifter and can change into a wolf. Not only do they have strong leading ladies, everything has a reason behind it and just... better than this book. Read those instead of this book. You'll be happier in the end- trust me.

Originally posted and shared on February 17th, 2014