[Blog Tour] Review | Karolina Dalca, Dark Eyes by M.R. Noble

I have received this review copy for free. My opinions are my own.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. There were certain aspects of the book that usually bother me, but in this book they really worked out well and I ended u enjoying the whole story quite a lot. That said, there were a couple of flaws that are worth pointing out and that made me rate this book three stars instead of four.

Karolina Dalca, Dark Eyes is a young adult paranormal urban fantasy. It has vampires and werewolves, but it also has a great magic system. In the universe of this book supernatural beings, whether they are vampires, werewolves or magic users, live amongst the regular people, but the real stuff happens in the Underground network.
The protagonist of the story is Karolina Dalca, a half-Vampire and is one of the rare Fire magic users. After her house was attacked and her mother killed by enemy magic users, she has to flee Canada before the police accuse her of the murder of her mother and goes on a quest to find out more about her father.

When I started this book I thought the magic system and magical setting would be a bit too much. There are both supernatural races such as vampires and werewolves, but there is also magic involved of six types and people can have several of those AND be a supernatural race with the powers associated to them. Magic can easily be overdone and with the specific combinations, characters can become super overpowered. But in the end it seemed to work out? The protagonist is half-vampire and has several types of magic, including the Fire Charm which is seen as the strongest type. And true, she is really strong, but not overpowered as she is having circumstantial advantages and a good ol’ case of plot armor. Everything was balanced out in the end and good to understand and I am glad for it.

This book is exceptionally high paced; there is no fluff or filler, or anything that would slow down the book for no good reason. Usually, I am bothered by books being too high paced, but in this book it really works with the story. The high pace actually makes it that its easier to sit down with the book for longer periods of time and because so much happens in just a few pages, its hard to put down the book as there something new will always happen on the next page. The book is just 200 pages long, but with the amount of story packed into it, it easily feels like you have read twice that after finishing.
The first time I picked up this book, it was just to check the page number real quick, but then I started reading and suddenly I was a fourth into the book. That barely ever happens to me and I give this book a big plus for that.

There were two things that bothered me quite a lot and were very hard to ignore. A lot of books have flaws or issues, but often the pros outweigh the cons substantially. They still do in this book, but only because there are only two cons, not because these cons are not a big deal.

The first bit is very simple. The main character’s mom was murdered at the very start of the book, her home was completely destroyed and she had to flee her country with nothing, but the ”in case of emergency”-box buried in her backyard. This character barely ever takes a moment to reflect on the fact her mom was brutally murdered and mourn for her. There are some snippets here and there, and she is adamant on taking revenge. But really, she is way more concerned about the fact she is a fugitive, which she was already worried about only moments after her mom passed, and which one of the two hot boys in her life she likes most.
I am not a fan of the trope where the main character’s parent dies to kickstart a plot, as the loss of a loved one is not something I thinks should be used lightly. Though with this trope, characters usually actually mourn their passed loved throughout the books or break down in tears realising they’re really gone. But in this book it just feels like it was added for shock value and to get the plot rolling, and was barely addressed throughout the book, which really bothered me.

The second is the very obvious Twilight-themes that were just too cheesy and obvious, and honestly took away from the great world this story is set in. The biggest parallel is the childhood-friend who turns out to be a werewolf, the 100-something-year old edgy vampire and the love triangle between them and the main character (though Karolina is half-human/half-vampire while Bella from Twilight is a human-turned-vampire) and surprise, ofcourse they can’t stand eachother and are overly protective of the protagonist. It wasn’t subtle; it was actually super on the forefront and I honestly think it’s a waste as it really takes away from the strong story.

Long story short, I really enjoyed this book and it’s story and I am actually really curious to how the series continues! I would recommend it to fans of paranormal and urban fantasies. Though the recommendation comes with the caviat of the two major flaws I mentioned above.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

My reviews of books by this author.

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Content warnings: Blood, drinking of blood (human, animal, vampire), blood being drunk from an individual (consensual and forced; on page and mentioned), captivity/kidnapping, violence, death/killing, burning/fire/arson (from a magical source), loss of a parent, threatening of loved ones, manipulation.