Between The Spark and The Burn: Review

Synopsis:

The conclusion to Between the Devil and The Deep Blue Sea, this gothic thriller romance with shades of Stephen King and Daphne du Maurier is a must-read for fans of Beautiful Creatures andAnna Dressed in Blood.
Freddie once told me that the Devil created all the fear in the world.
But then, the Devil once told me that it's easier to forgive someone for scaring you than for making you cry.
The problem with River West Redding was that he'd done both to me.

The crooked-smiling liar River West Redding, who drove into Violet's life one summer day and shook her world to pieces, is gone. Violet and Neely, River's other brother, are left to worry—until they catch a two a.m. radio program about strange events in a distant mountain town. They take off in search of River but are always a step behind, finding instead frenzied towns, witch hunts, and a wind-whipped island with the thrum of something strange and dangerous just under the surface. It isn't long before Violet begins to wonder if Neely, the one Redding brother she thought trustworthy, has been hiding a secret of his own . . .

***

While Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea is mostly about Violet and River, this book mainly focuses on Violet and Neely. I'm really happy and pissed this happened. 

Happy, because I really, really like Neely and I wish he showed up sooner in the first book that Violet will actually see someone that actually cares about her more than himself. Neely is not as selfish as River and has a much better attitude than River as well. He will make a good protagonist and a regular character in this duology.

Pissed, because while I love Neely, we can't erase the fact that the first book is more about River, and there's not enough River in the sequel. The plot is split. So split-up that they can actually be standalones if not for the fact that there's a sort-of cliffhanger ending in Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea. The base plot is ignored for quite some time.

Disregarding the fact that there's a big hole between the two books, the sequel is still slightly better. It wrapped up nicely at the end, and the ending is probably one of the weirdest (not in a bad way though). There's actually hope at the end of the book, which is quite different from the HEA (which can be typical or pure elation depending on the series), or the evil dying ending that rip our hearts out *cough *cough Allegiant *cough. It kind of reminds me of Champion by Marie Lu, where the end is the new beginning.

I can't really say I like the book, but I definitely enjoy it at some point.

Rating: 6.5/10