It wasn't what I thought it would be.
I was expecting an exciting, question answering sequel to Bkod. But instead what you got was 200 odd pages of random events, without some of the previous main characters. And a load more questions and less answers.

And unfortunately, its not the cliff hanger type of anticipation for the next installment to find out what different aspects mean and to have some explanations. It's the "why was I excited about this, nothing major happened." And its a shame because it was in the works for some time, and I was anticipating this great sequel and fantastic plot and storyline. But it failed to deliver.

This installment felt incomplete and slightly rushed. It was more like one chapter in a bigger and more exciting book.

However, I am still looking forward to next part, as I hope to have some things explained.

See full review here!

I received an ebook copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

I almost felt like this was two different books. There's the beginning while Ethan is gone, which is totally unfortunate because I love Ethan and Nara. This is where she meets some new characters like Drystan and Harper. I was never sure how to feel about Drystan, and something told me not to trust Harper even though she was really sweet. But I liked Drystan anyway, and I hope he sticks around. He helps Nara, and he kind of mixes up the pot. I like it.

Then there's where Ethan comes back. I can't say much because that's like the last 20% of the book, so that's where all the stuff goes down. And this is part of the reason why this isn't a four star book. Unfortunately I can't say much without being spoilery, and I'm not about to do that to anyone. I'm just kind of over the raven stuff now.

Another reason why this isn't four stars: some of it is predictable. Too predictable. I totally saw some stuff coming. Said stuff was fine, but I don't like when I see it coming. Not everything was predictable, of course. The end is REALLY intriguing. I'd like to see where it goes in the next book, which I'll definitely be reading. I just hope it's better edited than this one. There were some editing boo-boos in the ebook.

Let's focus on some positive stuff. I wasn't sure about Drystan at first, but I almost like him more than Ethan. I know, I know. I felt bad even typing that. I haven't said it out loud. But I'm just not sure about Ethan anymore. You'll have to read this in order to see what I mean. I'd like to know if anyone got that feeling too. But I loved Lainey in this one. She was almost off her rocker, but she made up for it in the end, big time!

Overall, I enjoyed this one. I read it pretty quickly. I got up early this morning and couldn't help reading it some more since I was so close to being done. Like I said above, I was getting tired of the raven stuff, but the end really got me. I hope to find out more about what happened to Nara!

loved it!!!! March 2013 please hurry I can't wait for book 3!

I was less crazy about this book because my favorite character, Ethan, was featured a good deal less. However, I loved the way the ravens were incorporated. I wasn't sure how much I liked Drystan, but eventually I came around. The plot seemed to move a little slower in this book to me and I'm not sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. I very much enjoyed Patch and I hope to see more of Ethan (and learn more about him) and Patch in the next book. Still enjoyable, still interesting, just the weaker (in my opinion) of the two books.

Probably 3.5 stars. This is going to be the kind of book that I won't *truly* know how I feel about it until I see how things are resolved in the next books. It could be the turning point where I lose interest in the series. Or it could be a big setup for something spectacular. It has me sitting in my living room having arguments with myself inside my head and even moving my head side to side as each side makes its argument. I think I might look crazy. Since I'm alone. In my living room. Arguing with myself over a book review.

And scene.

OK, so back on track. There were some fun adventures in this one. I'm still enjoying Nara, and the mythos is actually really intriguing. I've always liked Ravens in this "creepy, I think they are smarter than me" kind of way, so having them feature so heavily has been fun for me.

But here's where the qualifications come in... LOVED Drystan, but wasn't sure what to make of his role and what his future role will be. LOVED the parkour stuff, but quite honestly I'm still trying to figure out why he felt it was quite so adamantly necessary training-wise. HATED the complete lack of Ethan. LOVED that he eventually made a nicely timed entrance. HATED that he's so angry and rude and still so cranky about his powers thing, and inevitably takes it out on Nara. HATED that Nara was keeping so many secrets for people....I kind of get the logic, but at the same time it was kind of annoying and felt like a plot device instead of legitimate, but maybe I'm just feeling disillusioned b/c I have so many unanswered questions. HATED the less Aunt Sage time. LOVED Houdini and Patch....seriously, some of my favourite parts of the books. LOVED *everything* we eventually learn about Patch (and Nara and Ethan and the quarters). LOVED everything Raven (wait....wasn't that like a tv show or something?). LOVED Gran. LOVED the Margaret past moments.

OK, so yeah....you see the confliction? This book was all happy smiles and frowny faces for me. *fingers crossed* that I get more love in the next book.

Wasnt as good as the first one. I hate how Ethan was gone for pretty much all the book. It was still a good book, I just didnt expect Ethan not being in most of the book. I hope the third one has a lot of Ethan to make up for his absents in this book. Can't wait for the third book now.

Find this and other reviews on my blog: Love is not a triangle

Lucid is the second book in P.T. Michelle's Brightest Kind of Darkness series. Be warned of SPOILERS if you haven't read the first book yet.

In Brightest Kind of Darkness (BKoD) we meet Nara Collins. Every night she dreams exactly what is going to happen to her the following day. Nara has been dreaming her future for so long that it is normal for her. She also knows she's not supposed to interfere in the events she sees. But when Nara dreams about a school bombing that will hurt her friends, she decides to take action and change her future. Her decision sets in motion the events on BKoD, which culminate in a battle with fate that she ultimately wins (for now).

We also meet Ethan Harris in BKoD, a boy who for some reason never shows up in Nara's dreams. He has his own powers, absorbing people's dark thoughts and nightmares when he comes into physical contact with anyone. He also has a large raven sword tattoo on his back, which inexplicably showed up one day on its own. Because of the darkness of his "ability," Ethan was loner until he meets Nara (I love that there is a very concrete reason why he originally comes across as a broody bad-boy). Although Ethan and Nara's powers are different they also compliment each other. The two of them make a great team, and Ethan sees Nara as a bright light (Sunshine) in the darkness he is constantly facing. In BKoD they build a friendship that turns romantic, and in Lucid they are a definitely couple.

However, when Lucid begins, Ethan has gone home to Michigan to fix his relationship with his parents, which fell apart when he began to get his powers. An admirable task, if that's what he was actually doing (I'm skeptical - you'll have to read the book to form your own opinion. It's too much of a spoiler to talk about why I think that).

With Ethan gone, Nara meets Drystan an exchange student who is also drawn to Nara. He practices parkour, has a hot accent and an ability of his own. Though I didn't like that Ethan was gone so much of Lucid, I really liked getting to know Drystan. But before you think this is going the way of the dreaded love triangle, it is clear through the book who Nara is in love with, and so far I am not worried. Drystan encourages Nara to learn self defense and seems to be a more open person than either Ethan or Nara. He also provides some great romantic tension.

While I did enjoy Lucid, I had some problems with the story. Also, with Ethan gone for most of the book and with few of the many lingering questions answered, it very much felt like an interlude in the overall story arc. Nara especially got on my nerves in this book. Several bad things happen to her, and it is clear that they are connected. But she just keeps going off on her own and not telling anyone about it. I like that Nara's her own person, but I don't like when characters take unnecessary risks and keep crucial information from each other.

In Lucid we get a lot of similar plot elements as the first book, especially in terms of Nara tempting fate by changing future events. And she spends a great deal of time researching ravens. While some of that was interesting, I honestly didn't understand how researching the bird would help Ethan figure out what was going on with his tattoo. However, I do get that for Nara it was also about staying connected to him.

Too many people were keeping secrets in this story, especially Nara from Ethan and Ethan from Nara. At the end of Lucid we are left with a lot of questions, and several new plot lines, but not many answers. I wish a few more elements had been cleared up before new questions were introduced.

Despite my problems with Lucid, there are some great moments in this story (don't worry, Ethan and Nara's relationship does heat up a notch) and several interesting revelations. I love Ethan and Nara as a pair, and am eager to see how Drystan plays into the mix (as long as that doesn't mean a triangle). I hope the next book features answers, instead of more questions. Also, Ethan and Nara need to be more honest with each other for their relationship to move forward. Hopefully, the secrets they've been keeping (ahem Ethan), don't hurt their relationship in the future. Even with my reservations about Lucid, I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in the series!

Cliffhanger Scale: Mild/Medium, No mortal danger, relationships are settled. But LOTS of questions left unanswered.
Love Triangle Factor: None so far (hope it stays that way!)

GENRE: YA Fantasy
THEME: Romance/Paranormal
RECEIVED: For Tour
BLOG: http://seeingnight.blogspot.com/

REVIEW:
Lucid I felt was just as good or possibly better than The Brightest Kind of Darkness, I didn’t realizes how much I missed this series until I began reading it. Though this book has very little Ethan, it focuses on Nara and her growth into discovering more about whom she is and her connection with Ethan.

Lucid follows Nara once again learning about her ability to see each day before it actually happens. Her boyfriend Ethan has a unique ability too, but when a tattoo appears on his back she began to dig dangerously deep into the secrets behind it. While Ethan is away with his family, Nara gets help from a new friend who also understands what she’s going through and opens up more mysteries along the way about her ability and fate.

Nara as always is such a well-rounded character; she has a lot to learn about herself and her family. Lucid shows how hard it is for Nara to be separated from Ethan, their contact is minimal and Nara keeps putting herself in danger. Luckily she meets a new friend named Drystan that understands what Nara is going through. I usually don’t like the hint of a love triangle, but he is just a good guy who really wants to help Nara. I enjoyed more scenes with her best friend Lainey, who added normalcy to Naras hectic life. I felt Nara grew up more, discovering more about her father, her grandmother and Ethan and how they are all connected not only to fate but something more.

Ethan, even though he wasn’t in Lucid much he still made a big impact of the plot. His separating from Nara pushed her deeper into his world. They are connected as light and dark, plus ravens are like their protectors and Nara learns more about their meaning to Ethan and her. The readers will notice some changes to him and hopefully learn what happened to him while he was gone. My favorite part of the book was that Patch, Nara’s raven connected the two together while they were apart. There relationship I felt grew stronger with their distance.

Drystan, he’s going to be an interesting character to have around. Even though it seemed like he would be a temporary character, I think there is much for to him. He teaches Nara how to protect herself, how to open up a bit more and helped her find out more about Ravens and her ability. I though his addition was great and that its going to add some competition for Ethan,, but in the end it will always be Ethan. I think we will be seeing much more of him in the next book.

Overall I really enjoyed this second installment, a lot happens, more mysteries are uncovered and more questions pop up. Nara is still trying to find out about herself but gets some insight from her father and what really happened to him. There is a villain to this story and it’s going to add more questions but in the end it just brings Ethan and Nara that much closer together.

RECOMMENDATION:
This is a young adult novel with a ton of mystery and fantasy elements. Fans of Jennifer Armenrtouts Covenant series and Amy Plums Revenant series will love Lucid by P.T. Michelle.

Brightest Kind of Darkness was the very first self-published book I ever read, and it completely exceeded all my expectations. After I finished it in November last year I started stalking the author on Twitter to make sure I knew when the next one was coming out. Originally Lucid was planned to be a novella to bridge the gap between two books, but it ended up being a full length novel which could not have made me happier.

Lucid starts off only a couple of weeks after where Brightest Kind of Darkness ended, but it is clear that things have changed a bit since we last saw Nara and Ethan. Ethan has gone to visit his parents to try to work out their family issues, leaving Nara alone to research the mystical tattoo that appeared on his back. On one side I loved that Ethan was out of the picture for much of the story as it left Nara alone to do her own thing without constant kissing distractions, but at the same time I missed the scorching hot chemistry between the two of them.

One of the things I loved about Lucid is that we meet a new male character, Drystan, who starts hanging out with Nara, helping her with her research, even contributing on his own, and yet he never really came across as a love interest. It would have been so easy to turn this into a traditional YA love triangle, but I applaud P.T. Michelle for avoiding that, and I enjoyed Drystan all the more for it. There are other new characters as well, some good and some bad, but my favorite side character is still Nara’s best friend Lainey. She provides such a great distraction from all the paranormal drama, allowing Nara to hang out and be normal every now and then.

Through Nara’s research of Ethan’s raven tattoo she learns some surprising things about him, but more interesting was the things she learned about herself and her own gift. The presence of ravens around her added to the intrigue, as did the constant threat of knowing that someone out there wanted her out of the way. There were a couple of scenes where I was literally clenching my fists in excitement, and I was so into the story that the last 30% of the book flew by during my lunch break one day. The ending ties things up well, but also leaves enough questions open that I am dying to read the next book to see how it all will end. Highly recommended!

5 of 5 stars

Again, as i have written in many reviews, which happen to have sagas, I wasn't diasspointed from "Lucid" the 2nd book of P.T. Michelle's series.
Should I write about the mystery, the nerve breaking dreams and the funny moments? Or about the (ehmm) steamy scenes of the ending? :P
Nope I would say that the author threads a well made web of plot, emotion and action. I can't wait for the third book!

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