{Review} Blood Beyond Darkness (Darkness Series, #4) by Stacey Marie Brown

Posted by Melanie 
Release Date: August 28th, 2014
Finished Date: August 28th, 2014

Publishers: Self Published
Genre: New Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Source: For Review
Format: eBook

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US 

After months of searching, Ember and her friends have finally located the Sword of Light, the only weapon capable of destroying Queen Aneira and ending her rule. This is Ember’s destiny. Or so she thought. Now a pact to save the man she loves changes everything.

In this final installment in the Darkness Series, when the truth comes to light, Ember will learn some things are better left in the dark as her world is ripped even further apart. It is no longer a rabbit hole, but a never-ending black void full of endless lies, betrayals, and secrets.

The fight for Earth has begun, and Ember will have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save millions of innocent lives and those she loves.

But this price may be too high—even for her.

The Review: Blood Beyond Darkness is the final book in the Darkness series and what an ending it was, it was just brilliant!!
It has all been leading to the ultimate showdown between the Queen of Light –Aniera- and Ember Brycin – Dae, Dark Dweller, Abomination, Fire starter & prophesised one – in this epic finale. We start this book knowing that Ember and best part of her allies have been betrayed & captured after finally obtaining the only weapon capable of killing the Queen but Ember had been forced to make a deal for the man she loves and that could seriously hinder her quest to save Earth. Now, of course there is a lot more to this book than that but I think I will let you find out for yourself what happens next because I don’t want to give away a thing. Let’s just say that it’s everything you want in a finale, it has action, it has training, it has magic, it has fights, betrayals, alliances, heartbreak, incredible loss, sorrow, determination, sacrifice, violence and epic battles but it also has hope, faith, love and the sense of family, where everyone is willing to pay the ultimate price to be free & safe from tyranny and to keep Earth safe from one who would enslave them all and still has time to give us a ton more secrets that we don’t see coming and plenty of Ember & Eli sexytime too.
I have loved watching Ember grow in character throughout the books from a misunderstood teenager unaware of herself or her power, who finally begins to get answers about who and what she is leading her to acceptance. She had a rough journey when all she wanted was to keep the people in her life safe and everyone else wanted to use her for their own gains. Meeting Eli may have been the start of her journey of self discovery but he never thought he would fall for the enemy, the one kind of person he should hate with all of his being and bringing about one of the best couplings that I have ever read in a series. Even though they shouldn’t have fit, they did and their sexual tension was off the charts, not just hot but scorching, waiting for their stolen moments as they clashed time and time again until finally! They came together in an almost brutal passionate encounter that totally rocked my world. He was a savage, seemingly incapable of love and Ember couldn’t trust or let people in but I have never been more satisfied when they set aside their prejudice, fear & doubt for each other and even if they wouldn’t admit it – loved each other fiercely.
I expected this book to be awesome, I knew after reading the books before that it would be because they are consistently amazing and they have each blown me away each time – this is no exception – except possibly even better. I spelled out above what it has to offer, I was so invested in this series that I was routing for everyone and I refused to believe that Ember would fail. I loved that the book wasn’t just about one battle at the end and it was all about getting there – yes it did head to that – BUT there was a long way to go before we got to the showdown, there was more than one for a start, there were a good few spanners thrown into the works and the fact that I was still being shocked by secrets that were continuing to come out of the closet shows just how good this series had actually been. You may think that Ember is ready after all she had been through – but is she? She has a lot on her shoulders being burdened with a prophecy and everyone's belief in her. I think this series has been brilliant and this book is just the icing on the cake, I went through it all with them, I fought with them, I felt their betrayals, their losses, I felt their love and I believed in it all – I would recommend this series to anyone, Eli Dragen will be on my book boyfriend list for a long time and I can’t wait to see what Stacey Marie Brown comes up with next. 

Thank you to Stacey Marie Brown for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.