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Birthright #1
Darkest Fear
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.
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.
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 7, 2014
36 people are currently reading
3183 people want to read
About the author
Cate Tiernan
104 books3,812 followers"was born in New Orleans, LA, in 1961. New Orleans is one of the most interesting American cities, and it has an incredibly rich and exotic culture that had a profound influence on me. Kids in other cities have lemonade stands; we sold voodoo gris-gris and made wax dolls in the likenesses of our enemies. It's a very beautiful city, and the constant heat and humidity make gardens grow out of control. There's an air of lassitude there, a general acceptance of eccentic or flamboyant behavior--the heat simply makes people do crazy things.
I went to school in New York, and after school went back to New Orleans. Then I went back to New York (Manhattan) and got a job in publishing and started writing. My first book, a young, middle-grade chapter book, was published in 1990.
Living in Manhattan was incredible, even though I didn't have a lot of money. There was so much to do and see, and so many interesting people to watch. There was a lot of frenetic energy there, and sometimes that felt very wearing and hard to live with. After eight years I was ready for a change, and my husband and I moved back to New Orleans. (Are you seeing a pattern here?)
(While I was in NY, I helped edit "The Secret Circle" by L.J. Smith. I thought it was great.)
We stayed in New Orleans five years. By the time we had two small children we knew we had to find someplace safer to live. I was glad my children were born in New Orleans--I had been born there, and my father had, and his father had, and his father had and so on. There was something about the connection of generations of blood coming from one place that I found very primal and important.
Now I live in a cohousing community in Durham, NC. This is the most suburban place I've ever lived, and it's very different from living right in the middle of a city. For one thing, there aren't enough coffee shops. However, it's incredibly safe, and the community is very important to me. There are a lot of strong women here, and I find them inspiring.
Am I a witch? Well, no. Even Wicca is too organized a religion for me. I'm much more idiosyncratic and just need to do my own thing, which is kind of new-agey and pantheistic. It's not that I don't work or play well with others, but I need to decide for myself when I do a certain thing, and how I do it. However, I can really relate to Wicca, and I so appreciate its woman-centeredness and its essentially female identity. I love those aspects, among others.
I have several favorite writers. Barbara Hambly has been the biggest influence on how I describe magic. She's an incredibly imaginative and empathetic writer with a gift for creating a rich, sensual world. I love Barbara Pym, an English writer whose books came out mostly in the fifties. She was a master at describing the thousand tiny moments that make up a woman's day; how the seemingly small and inconsequential thing can suddenly take on a huge emotional importance. I greatly admire P.D. James. She's one of the very few writers who makes me actually look up words in the dictionary. She has a beautiful, precise, educated command of the language that leaves me in awe. I love Philip Larkin's poetry. I read a lot of nonfiction and also have some favorite romance writers. Before anyone groans, let me say that these women write really well about women trying to achieve emotional fulfillment, and that's kind of what we're all doing, right? I also just like reading about sex. Anyway, Jennifer Crusie, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and early Linda Howard are my faves.
And then of course there's my dark side, but more on that later.
" -Source
Cate Tiernan is a pseudonym for Gabrielle Charbonnet
I went to school in New York, and after school went back to New Orleans. Then I went back to New York (Manhattan) and got a job in publishing and started writing. My first book, a young, middle-grade chapter book, was published in 1990.
Living in Manhattan was incredible, even though I didn't have a lot of money. There was so much to do and see, and so many interesting people to watch. There was a lot of frenetic energy there, and sometimes that felt very wearing and hard to live with. After eight years I was ready for a change, and my husband and I moved back to New Orleans. (Are you seeing a pattern here?)
(While I was in NY, I helped edit "The Secret Circle" by L.J. Smith. I thought it was great.)
We stayed in New Orleans five years. By the time we had two small children we knew we had to find someplace safer to live. I was glad my children were born in New Orleans--I had been born there, and my father had, and his father had, and his father had and so on. There was something about the connection of generations of blood coming from one place that I found very primal and important.
Now I live in a cohousing community in Durham, NC. This is the most suburban place I've ever lived, and it's very different from living right in the middle of a city. For one thing, there aren't enough coffee shops. However, it's incredibly safe, and the community is very important to me. There are a lot of strong women here, and I find them inspiring.
Am I a witch? Well, no. Even Wicca is too organized a religion for me. I'm much more idiosyncratic and just need to do my own thing, which is kind of new-agey and pantheistic. It's not that I don't work or play well with others, but I need to decide for myself when I do a certain thing, and how I do it. However, I can really relate to Wicca, and I so appreciate its woman-centeredness and its essentially female identity. I love those aspects, among others.
I have several favorite writers. Barbara Hambly has been the biggest influence on how I describe magic. She's an incredibly imaginative and empathetic writer with a gift for creating a rich, sensual world. I love Barbara Pym, an English writer whose books came out mostly in the fifties. She was a master at describing the thousand tiny moments that make up a woman's day; how the seemingly small and inconsequential thing can suddenly take on a huge emotional importance. I greatly admire P.D. James. She's one of the very few writers who makes me actually look up words in the dictionary. She has a beautiful, precise, educated command of the language that leaves me in awe. I love Philip Larkin's poetry. I read a lot of nonfiction and also have some favorite romance writers. Before anyone groans, let me say that these women write really well about women trying to achieve emotional fulfillment, and that's kind of what we're all doing, right? I also just like reading about sex. Anyway, Jennifer Crusie, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and early Linda Howard are my faves.
And then of course there's my dark side, but more on that later.
" -Source
Cate Tiernan is a pseudonym for Gabrielle Charbonnet
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 184 reviews
May 9, 2014
From lack of excitement to a protagonist I despised to a very bizarre romantic arc, I was happy to be done with this one. To paint a quick picture: the only interesting part of this book is in the blurb.
Darkest Fear starts with an intriguing Jaguar Shape-shifting lore that, for the most part, is well crafted. The narrative when in Jaguar form is particularly clever. I was certain it was the promising start of an impressive series, especially when only a few chapters in, something monumental happens. Something ominous that proposes an epic mystery to come. However, once this scene passes we get a whole lot of mundane happenings, from Vivi finding a job, to her day to day life, to detailed scenes of her baking various things. How positively dull! Perhaps its purpose was to make us bond with the characters. Unfortunately none of them were made to be compelling.
For one, with such a large secondary cast, these characters needed more personality and distinctive voices to avoid blending together. For another, Vivi herself is not very likeable. She's always hated the Jaguar part of herself; never learning about or accepting her world, basically hoping that by ignoring it it would go away. While this is understandable - I would be freaked out too if I learned I could grow fur - as the story progresses, her constant rejection, even disgust, of it all became too much. For instance, she would get into a dire situation due to her shifting ineptitude, this would push her to decide it was time to learn and finally accept that side of her, only to chicken out and be back at step one. It was very frustrating. There are also other quirks like how she repeatedly commented on her boss's hotness (and I mean, punch-book-in-its-book-mouth excessive), or how she would often say "gosh" - urgh! Obviously I never connected with her in any way.
As for the romance. I don't even understand the point of it being in the book for how bizarre and short of a spotlight it got. In a few words, she got a couple of offers for sex and that was that. No passion, no chemistry, no nothing. It felt incredibly random. The only responses it got from me were cocked eyebrows and flared nostrils. It was very attractive-making.
Now, I have a big pet peeve when it comes to shape shifters and realistic clothing... repercussions. This book did well with shredded clothes and nakedness, except for that one time. One out of the 5+ times she shifted, when it was, of course, hugely inconvenient for her to appear naked, her clothes were magically waiting for her in the bushes unscathed. I read this twice to make sure I didn't miss her removing her clothes beforehand, but the shift was unexpected and unplanned. I'm honestly hoping this is just an editing slip-up that will be fixed in the final copy because it deserves a removal of a star for that alone.
I'm always looking for the next epic paranormal series, and I really had hoped this one would fit the bill so it's unfortunate that it failed to impress me to such degree. In the end, I was just very, very fed up. Also, we get no answers on anything! None! Here's to hoping you have better luck with it!
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
Darkest Fear starts with an intriguing Jaguar Shape-shifting lore that, for the most part, is well crafted. The narrative when in Jaguar form is particularly clever. I was certain it was the promising start of an impressive series, especially when only a few chapters in, something monumental happens. Something ominous that proposes an epic mystery to come. However, once this scene passes we get a whole lot of mundane happenings, from Vivi finding a job, to her day to day life, to detailed scenes of her baking various things. How positively dull! Perhaps its purpose was to make us bond with the characters. Unfortunately none of them were made to be compelling.
For one, with such a large secondary cast, these characters needed more personality and distinctive voices to avoid blending together. For another, Vivi herself is not very likeable. She's always hated the Jaguar part of herself; never learning about or accepting her world, basically hoping that by ignoring it it would go away. While this is understandable - I would be freaked out too if I learned I could grow fur - as the story progresses, her constant rejection, even disgust, of it all became too much. For instance, she would get into a dire situation due to her shifting ineptitude, this would push her to decide it was time to learn and finally accept that side of her, only to chicken out and be back at step one. It was very frustrating. There are also other quirks like how she repeatedly commented on her boss's hotness (and I mean, punch-book-in-its-book-mouth excessive), or how she would often say "gosh" - urgh! Obviously I never connected with her in any way.
As for the romance. I don't even understand the point of it being in the book for how bizarre and short of a spotlight it got. In a few words, she got a couple of offers for sex and that was that. No passion, no chemistry, no nothing. It felt incredibly random. The only responses it got from me were cocked eyebrows and flared nostrils. It was very attractive-making.
Now, I have a big pet peeve when it comes to shape shifters and realistic clothing... repercussions. This book did well with shredded clothes and nakedness, except for that one time. One out of the 5+ times she shifted, when it was, of course, hugely inconvenient for her to appear naked, her clothes were magically waiting for her in the bushes unscathed. I read this twice to make sure I didn't miss her removing her clothes beforehand, but the shift was unexpected and unplanned. I'm honestly hoping this is just an editing slip-up that will be fixed in the final copy because it deserves a removal of a star for that alone.
I'm always looking for the next epic paranormal series, and I really had hoped this one would fit the bill so it's unfortunate that it failed to impress me to such degree. In the end, I was just very, very fed up. Also, we get no answers on anything! None! Here's to hoping you have better luck with it!
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
January 8, 2014
1.5 Stars
How do I even begin this review...It's going to be more of a rant because put simply this book was a mess. I think the only thing going for it was the writing style which made it incredibly easy to actually keep reading because I honestly don't know how I even finished.
The characters ... most of the secondary characters were actually pretty great and about half of them were LGBT couples which was both nice, but at the same time it felt like too much, as if she were compensating for the lack of LGBT characters in every other book. It just felt like she was trying too hard in that aspect. As for the main character Vivi, she can be described in one word: pathetic.
Look I understand she was there when he parents were murdered, but for her to go into hysterics like she did and then crying at the drop of a button every 5 mins for the next few months seemed a bit excessive? Maybe I'm being a cold hearted bitch? I don't know, but I just didn't like her. She was also TSTL. Her parents get murdered and she doesn't start even to think about the implications 'till a month after someone tried to breakin...I mean seriously? Her dad gets his heart ripped out and she doesn' question any of this till a whole month later. I just don't get it.
Then there is her overall attitude. She gets told she is a jaguar shapeshifter at 13 and instead of thinking it's awesome, she freaks out. Fine, whatever, I can maybe see that happening. Her parents didn't really come across as pushing it in your face types, they would occasionally try to get her to at least get interested in her heritage, which I think is perfectly normal. So what does she do? The exact opposite of whatever they say, and I mean that about everything. They want her to attend college somewhere close? She wants Seattle (They live in South Florida). Her mom wants her to dress nicely. She turns into a slob. So on and so forth. You would also think that someone who is so opposed to being a shapeshifter will at least want to know enough to you know, not change right? Wrong! This girl is a Coward with a capital C. Oh, and everyone tells her she is hot, but she doesn't believe it even though she knows she looks exactly like her mom and she thought her mom was a hottie ...
TL;DR - I didn't like Vivi.
Let's talk about the plot, or lack thereof. First, 5% her parents die. 50% They find out other shapeshifters have died with a missing heart. Last 5% 2 of their friends go missing and while they go on a rescue mission another 2 get captured, Vivi somehow rescues them and the perpetrators might have died in a car chase. End of book. That was it. There was not even the slightlest mention as to why someone might want live hearts, some kind of ritual maybe, for what purpose is anyone's guess. It was ridiculous.
Oh and the romance? Stupid. It's obvious the guy is a shapeshifter as well, but does she at least try having some kind of conversation where she drops hints to get a confirmation that he is a shapeshifter? No. Instead, she bitches and whines that they keep having these steamy makeout sessions, but he won't/can't date her.
This was a train wreck of a book, but I somehow managed to finish it, so it has that going for it at least and that's pretty much it.
How do I even begin this review...It's going to be more of a rant because put simply this book was a mess. I think the only thing going for it was the writing style which made it incredibly easy to actually keep reading because I honestly don't know how I even finished.
The characters ... most of the secondary characters were actually pretty great and about half of them were LGBT couples which was both nice, but at the same time it felt like too much, as if she were compensating for the lack of LGBT characters in every other book. It just felt like she was trying too hard in that aspect. As for the main character Vivi, she can be described in one word: pathetic.
Look I understand she was there when he parents were murdered, but for her to go into hysterics like she did and then crying at the drop of a button every 5 mins for the next few months seemed a bit excessive? Maybe I'm being a cold hearted bitch? I don't know, but I just didn't like her. She was also TSTL. Her parents get murdered and she doesn't start even to think about the implications 'till a month after someone tried to breakin...I mean seriously? Her dad gets his heart ripped out and she doesn' question any of this till a whole month later. I just don't get it.
Then there is her overall attitude. She gets told she is a jaguar shapeshifter at 13 and instead of thinking it's awesome, she freaks out. Fine, whatever, I can maybe see that happening. Her parents didn't really come across as pushing it in your face types, they would occasionally try to get her to at least get interested in her heritage, which I think is perfectly normal. So what does she do? The exact opposite of whatever they say, and I mean that about everything. They want her to attend college somewhere close? She wants Seattle (They live in South Florida). Her mom wants her to dress nicely. She turns into a slob. So on and so forth. You would also think that someone who is so opposed to being a shapeshifter will at least want to know enough to you know, not change right? Wrong! This girl is a Coward with a capital C. Oh, and everyone tells her she is hot, but she doesn't believe it even though she knows she looks exactly like her mom and she thought her mom was a hottie ...
TL;DR - I didn't like Vivi.
Let's talk about the plot, or lack thereof. First, 5% her parents die. 50% They find out other shapeshifters have died with a missing heart. Last 5% 2 of their friends go missing and while they go on a rescue mission another 2 get captured, Vivi somehow rescues them and the perpetrators might have died in a car chase. End of book. That was it. There was not even the slightlest mention as to why someone might want live hearts, some kind of ritual maybe, for what purpose is anyone's guess. It was ridiculous.
Oh and the romance? Stupid. It's obvious the guy is a shapeshifter as well, but does she at least try having some kind of conversation where she drops hints to get a confirmation that he is a shapeshifter? No. Instead, she bitches and whines that they keep having these steamy makeout sessions, but he won't/can't date her.
This was a train wreck of a book, but I somehow managed to finish it, so it has that going for it at least and that's pretty much it.
January 28, 2014
OMG THIS BOOK WAS FREAKING AMAZING!! I LOVE SHAPE SHIFTERS!!
January 3, 2014
A few minutes ago I finished reading The Darkest Fear by Cate Tiernan and after desperately trying to make more pages appear by flicking my thumb across my iPhone I sat back and had two intense thoughts that I wish to share with the world right now:
1. That was an awesome book; I need more.
2. I need more; how can it possibly have ended so soon.
Basically... and I can't iterate this point strongly enough... I need more. Do you understand me??? More!
There are aspects of this book that bridge the gap between young adult and new adult.
Who will like this book??
Fans of Rachel Vincent's Stray, Jennifer Lynn Barnes' Raised by Wolves, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater or Carrie Vaughn's Kitty series. Tiernan is bringing back shape-shifters and I may not have impressed this upon you... but I love it and I need more.
Also, special thanks to Simon Pulse for the advance copy... of course this means I'll have to wait almost twice as long for the sequel.
1. That was an awesome book; I need more.
2. I need more; how can it possibly have ended so soon.
Basically... and I can't iterate this point strongly enough... I need more. Do you understand me??? More!
There are aspects of this book that bridge the gap between young adult and new adult.
Who will like this book??
Fans of Rachel Vincent's Stray, Jennifer Lynn Barnes' Raised by Wolves, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater or Carrie Vaughn's Kitty series. Tiernan is bringing back shape-shifters and I may not have impressed this upon you... but I love it and I need more.
Also, special thanks to Simon Pulse for the advance copy... of course this means I'll have to wait almost twice as long for the sequel.
Want to read
November 14, 2012I don't know what this is but of she writes it I will read it!
11/14/13
11/14/13
January 28, 2014
Cheers cate, fucking cheers!! Once again..an awesome read!
Ive missed cate's writing style so much.
It felt so good and familiar.
Im excited for these series, and I cant wait to see what vivi has in store for us! ;)
And by the way, I want to be a haguara too u know.
like holy shit how freeking mental! Its way to awesome..
I LOVE U CATE TIERNAN!!!!!♥♥♥
Ive missed cate's writing style so much.
It felt so good and familiar.
Im excited for these series, and I cant wait to see what vivi has in store for us! ;)
And by the way, I want to be a haguara too u know.
like holy shit how freeking mental! Its way to awesome..
I LOVE U CATE TIERNAN!!!!!♥♥♥
May 18, 2015
This book had tons of problems. The writing was crap, there were too many characters, and the story seemed all over the place. I get that books end on cliffhangers sometimes (well, a lot), but this book wasn't even a complete story. And the cliffhanger was dumb. Oh, and Vivi's thoughts while she was a jaguar? I couldn't even read those. Those passages were SO AWFUL—uninteresting and poorly written.
I've enjoyed Tiernan's other work, but I definitely won't continue with this series.
I've enjoyed Tiernan's other work, but I definitely won't continue with this series.
February 7, 2014
I loved this book. Like I loved all other books by Cate Tiernan.
I Have to say it is more undefined than Cate's previous novels; the direction in which the story is going is unclear. This makes the storyline unfold a bit harphazardly and sometimes it seems like the pieces aren't comming together very well. On the other hand, it does make the story more interesting and held my attention.
Other than this, I loved Cate's writing-style. This particulary makes me love all her books so much, regardless of the topic. She can describe situations like you've been there yourself. Also, she is very good at conjuring up particular feelings.
I'm very exite for the next book!
I Have to say it is more undefined than Cate's previous novels; the direction in which the story is going is unclear. This makes the storyline unfold a bit harphazardly and sometimes it seems like the pieces aren't comming together very well. On the other hand, it does make the story more interesting and held my attention.
Other than this, I loved Cate's writing-style. This particulary makes me love all her books so much, regardless of the topic. She can describe situations like you've been there yourself. Also, she is very good at conjuring up particular feelings.
I'm very exite for the next book!
April 1, 2014
3.5
Overall, the book is quite good, almost contemporary NA-and yes, this is exactly what I thought NA should be like-the MC faces the same struggles a new adult would, getting out of school, facing the world, fitting in, finding her place, being overwhelmed, mending her childish ways, old friends growing apart, except, to some ahem... extraordinary capacities. So yeah, there are jaguars and family history and murders to be dealt with, but for the most part, her fears and insecurities are endemic to people almost grown up. However, due to all this, there was quite a lull in the book, especially if one is expecting a paranormal/fantasy story.
Yet with that ending, I'm so hooked.
Overall, the book is quite good, almost contemporary NA-and yes, this is exactly what I thought NA should be like-the MC faces the same struggles a new adult would, getting out of school, facing the world, fitting in, finding her place, being overwhelmed, mending her childish ways, old friends growing apart, except, to some ahem... extraordinary capacities. So yeah, there are jaguars and family history and murders to be dealt with, but for the most part, her fears and insecurities are endemic to people almost grown up. However, due to all this, there was quite a lull in the book, especially if one is expecting a paranormal/fantasy story.
Yet with that ending, I'm so hooked.
November 28, 2013
Not sure how to rate this one. Is it really supposed to end that way? That was the most abrupt ending ever.
December 9, 2013
2.5 stars
Set-up
Vivi's parents told her the big family secret when she turned thirteen: she's descended from a long line of shape shifters called Haguari and can turn into a Jaguar. Instead of being thrilled about this news, Vivi was horrified, and has rejected everything about that nature since the day she found out about it. Why can't she just be normal? But when a tragedy strikes her family, Vivi is forced to confront who she is and reexamine everything she's denied about herself.
Thoughts
I became a huge Cate Tiernan fan this summer, after I read and adored her Immortal Beloved series. They feature a heroine whom I fell for from the first page, even though she was extremely unlikable. I also enjoyed that it presented an unique take on immortality and the Paranormal Romance genre. Of course, I was hoping for a repeat of that in Darkest Fear. Unfortunately, though I picked up flavors of why I love Tiernan's writing, as a whole this book didn't work for me.
Darkest Fear begins as a typical PNR in many ways. A tragedy leaves Vivi isolated and alone, without her family support. She has a secret she can't tell anyone, and feels lost and alone, especially because she all of a sudden has a lot of questions about her family and can't access them - or so she says. Because Vivi has always refused to discover more about her nature, she's lacking vital information about herself and her people. But instead of asking an extended family member questions, she chooses to do everything on her own. I got increasingly annoyed with Vivi for this. I just didn't buy Vivi's excuses for why asking her aunt questions, even really general ones, was a bad idea.
Throughout this entire story, Vivi would make a tiny bit of progress in coming to terms with her Haguari nature, but then she'd backtrack again. This lead to long inner monologues where she'd struggle and beat herself up about how she felt. While I think Vivi's feelings and concerns were valid (for a time), they dragged on to long. Even after she joins a community of people of her kind, it still takes her forever to come to terms with who she is and that wore on me so much. I got to the point where I didn't understand her perspective anymore and got so fed up with her stubbornness, that I could no longer sympathize with her.
Part of the reason I struggled to understand Vivi, is because I was ready to embrace her animal nature early in the book. In fact, one of my favorite aspects of Darkest Fear was whenever Vivi was a Jaguar. I enjoyed how her perspective changed in that form, and also how her human and animal natures came together. I wanted her to explore the bounds of her ability. Although I'm assuming this will come with time, it is probably one reason why I struggled so much with Vivi's rejection of it. It was difficult for me to handle her very slow growth and path to self awareness. By the end of the book she's really getting there, but I'm worried she'll just backtrack again. While there is an overarching mystery that comes out, it is only focused on briefly in spurts, and the rest of the story is about Vivi's daily struggle to come to terms with herself. At the end of the story there is finally some action and forward direction, but all of a sudden everything ends, right in the middle of the (finally) exciting momentum.
Despite all my negative feelings about this book, I did manage to find elements that I liked. Vivi graduates from high school at the very beginning of the story and I like that r=Darkest Fear has more of a New Adult, discovering your path, type feel to it, than navigating high school. This book features a mix of cultures, races, genders in a community living situation, which I enjoyed (this is also classic Tiernan). I love the house where Vivi lives in New Orleans and especially her cousin Mateo and his girlfriend Aly. Darkest Fear has some fantastic high stress, action sequences in it, all involving jaguars. It also features a few moments of nice romantic tension and swoon, but unfortunately those sections of the plot were only bright bursts in an overall slow moving story. Even though I have a few theories about Vivi's love interest by the end, we still know next to nothing about him, which was quite frustrating. Yes, despite my better judgment, I am apparently still drawn to these mysterious boys.
Even though this review is mostly negative, I'm still curious about the next book in the series. Or at least, I am still a big fan of Cate Tiernan and hope that this story gets exponentially stronger in book two. I'm crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath.
Love Triangle Factor: None
Cliffhanger Scale: Medium - no immediate danger, but story felt unfinished. However, I was anticipating this, as it's standard Tiernan.
FInd this and other reviews on my blog Love is not a triangle
Set-up
Vivi's parents told her the big family secret when she turned thirteen: she's descended from a long line of shape shifters called Haguari and can turn into a Jaguar. Instead of being thrilled about this news, Vivi was horrified, and has rejected everything about that nature since the day she found out about it. Why can't she just be normal? But when a tragedy strikes her family, Vivi is forced to confront who she is and reexamine everything she's denied about herself.
Thoughts
I became a huge Cate Tiernan fan this summer, after I read and adored her Immortal Beloved series. They feature a heroine whom I fell for from the first page, even though she was extremely unlikable. I also enjoyed that it presented an unique take on immortality and the Paranormal Romance genre. Of course, I was hoping for a repeat of that in Darkest Fear. Unfortunately, though I picked up flavors of why I love Tiernan's writing, as a whole this book didn't work for me.
Darkest Fear begins as a typical PNR in many ways. A tragedy leaves Vivi isolated and alone, without her family support. She has a secret she can't tell anyone, and feels lost and alone, especially because she all of a sudden has a lot of questions about her family and can't access them - or so she says. Because Vivi has always refused to discover more about her nature, she's lacking vital information about herself and her people. But instead of asking an extended family member questions, she chooses to do everything on her own. I got increasingly annoyed with Vivi for this. I just didn't buy Vivi's excuses for why asking her aunt questions, even really general ones, was a bad idea.
Throughout this entire story, Vivi would make a tiny bit of progress in coming to terms with her Haguari nature, but then she'd backtrack again. This lead to long inner monologues where she'd struggle and beat herself up about how she felt. While I think Vivi's feelings and concerns were valid (for a time), they dragged on to long. Even after she joins a community of people of her kind, it still takes her forever to come to terms with who she is and that wore on me so much. I got to the point where I didn't understand her perspective anymore and got so fed up with her stubbornness, that I could no longer sympathize with her.
Part of the reason I struggled to understand Vivi, is because I was ready to embrace her animal nature early in the book. In fact, one of my favorite aspects of Darkest Fear was whenever Vivi was a Jaguar. I enjoyed how her perspective changed in that form, and also how her human and animal natures came together. I wanted her to explore the bounds of her ability. Although I'm assuming this will come with time, it is probably one reason why I struggled so much with Vivi's rejection of it. It was difficult for me to handle her very slow growth and path to self awareness. By the end of the book she's really getting there, but I'm worried she'll just backtrack again. While there is an overarching mystery that comes out, it is only focused on briefly in spurts, and the rest of the story is about Vivi's daily struggle to come to terms with herself. At the end of the story there is finally some action and forward direction, but all of a sudden everything ends, right in the middle of the (finally) exciting momentum.
Despite all my negative feelings about this book, I did manage to find elements that I liked. Vivi graduates from high school at the very beginning of the story and I like that r=Darkest Fear has more of a New Adult, discovering your path, type feel to it, than navigating high school. This book features a mix of cultures, races, genders in a community living situation, which I enjoyed (this is also classic Tiernan). I love the house where Vivi lives in New Orleans and especially her cousin Mateo and his girlfriend Aly. Darkest Fear has some fantastic high stress, action sequences in it, all involving jaguars. It also features a few moments of nice romantic tension and swoon, but unfortunately those sections of the plot were only bright bursts in an overall slow moving story. Even though I have a few theories about Vivi's love interest by the end, we still know next to nothing about him, which was quite frustrating. Yes, despite my better judgment, I am apparently still drawn to these mysterious boys.
Even though this review is mostly negative, I'm still curious about the next book in the series. Or at least, I am still a big fan of Cate Tiernan and hope that this story gets exponentially stronger in book two. I'm crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath.
Love Triangle Factor: None
Cliffhanger Scale: Medium - no immediate danger, but story felt unfinished. However, I was anticipating this, as it's standard Tiernan.
FInd this and other reviews on my blog Love is not a triangle
January 9, 2014
Darkest Fear is a tale that begs lovers of paranormal stories to pick it up, promising a closer look at a lesser-known shifter than the werewolves who are so prevalent in supernatural fiction, and while the jaguar-shifter element holds us fascinated throughout, this first installment feels more like a novel-length prequel rather than the opening book in the series. We’re introduced to a variety of different plot threads–not so many as to be frustrating luckily, just enough to give the story a well-rounded feel–but unfortunately not a one of them finds resolution before the end. Whenever we pick up book one of a series, we know not all our questions will be answered by the time we reach the last page, but with Darkest Fear we’re like runners warming up for a big race, working our way up to the starting line fully prepared to make swift progress toward our ultimate destination, but then the gun never even goes off and we’re instead left behind the line wondering what happened...
Full review available at: http://supernaturalsnark.blogspot.com...
Full review available at: http://supernaturalsnark.blogspot.com...
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September 25, 2014I think we've established that I will read anything she writes, provided I can get my hands on them. Lol
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April 16, 2014I tried... however Darkest Fear just wasn't what I had hoped :(
February 8, 2015
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Actual rating: 3.5 stars
Though I ended up really enjoying the one other Cate Tiernan novel I’ve read after a rocky beginning, I wasn’t sure what to make of Darkest Fear and I wasn’t really in a hurry to read it. Still, when it came up as an option on YABC, I thought I’d give it a chance, especially since it had a couple of decent reviews from friends. My hesitance was that paranormal novels are very hit or miss for me, and mostly miss. While occasionally venturing into some YA tropes, I loved Darkest Fear for its diversity and awesome jaguar shape shifting.
The heroine Vivi is a haguari, which means that she, like her parents can shapeshift into a jaguar. Unlike them, though, she sees this as a curse. All she wants is a normal life. This is trope number one, but I did really like the way Tiernan handled this. Rather than feeling like the stereotypical girl who resents being all powerful and gorgeous, her reasons are explained. During Vivi’s journey, she realizes that her resentment of her heritage is likely driven by not knowing there were people outside of her family with these powers. Basically, she’s lonely and has to be keep this secret from her best friend. Also, her parents shifting in front of her on her thirteenth birthday terrified her.
In the first chapter, her parents are brutally murdered on Vivi’s birthday (this girl must hate her birthday), their hearts cut out. This leaves Vivi even more alone surrounded by mysteries, like the apparent existence of another aunt her mother never mentioned. Curious and wanting to escape her hometown, with its memories of her parents’ deaths and an attempted break-in Vivi sets out on a road trip to New Orleans to find her Aunt Donella. She arrives to find that her Aunt is dead, but that her cousin Mateo and his girlfriend Aly live in her awesome old house with a bunch of friends who are also haguari.
This cast of characters is really well-drawn, and I found myself really liking the whole bunch, even the ones I wasn’t sold on at first. They’re diverse of race and of sexuality. Vivi herself is Brazilian, while her cousin is half-Brazilian/half-Irish. The entire cast has various backgrounds and I love love love how much more this reflects the world I grew up in than the average YA book. On top of that, among her friends in New Orleans there’s a gay couple and a lesbian couple. Her best friend Jennifer is gay as well. The best thing about all the diversity is that no one is token or stereotypical; they’re just themselves. For all that, I did make a face at the book when Vivi described herself as foreign and exotic-looking, but otherwise I thought the treatment of diversity was wonderful.
My favorite aspects of the story are those of her coming to terms with herself and making friends. Vivi’s taken a gap year, though she was planning to head across the country to college before her parents died. She moves to New Orleans spontaneously, with no desire to return to her hometown. She gets her first job. This is a new adult experience, though with paranormal trappings added on. She’s trying to figure out who she is and what she wants to do.
The paranormal plot line is fun, but a bit less fulfilling. There’s not as much resolution to Darkest Fear as I expect from the first installment of a series. I’m a big proponent of there being a completed plot arc to each book within the series and a larger arc running through the whole thing. Darkest Fear raises a number of different considerations: the murders, Vivi’s boss, the family book, Jennifer’s issues at college. None of these are resolved and the ending just kind of feels like jerking to a stop. I did really like, however, the way Tiernan handled the narration of Vivi as a jaguar.
So far as the romance goes, I’m torn. There are two options on the table right now, both absurdly handsome. Her boss, Rafael, who’s got the typical paranormal love interest brooding thing going as well as the “I’m drawn to you but we can’t be together” thing. Then there’s Aly’s brother, Alex, who’s a playboy. I could potentially be okay with either one, but there’s not been enough development on either front for me to commit to a ship at this juncture. There is, however, one really steamy scene. Tiernan is excellent at those.
Darkest Fear ranks pretty highly against the other paranormal novels I’ve read, and I really wish I had the sequel right now, because, as I said, there’s a lot left open and I must know what happens next.
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
Though I ended up really enjoying the one other Cate Tiernan novel I’ve read after a rocky beginning, I wasn’t sure what to make of Darkest Fear and I wasn’t really in a hurry to read it. Still, when it came up as an option on YABC, I thought I’d give it a chance, especially since it had a couple of decent reviews from friends. My hesitance was that paranormal novels are very hit or miss for me, and mostly miss. While occasionally venturing into some YA tropes, I loved Darkest Fear for its diversity and awesome jaguar shape shifting.
The heroine Vivi is a haguari, which means that she, like her parents can shapeshift into a jaguar. Unlike them, though, she sees this as a curse. All she wants is a normal life. This is trope number one, but I did really like the way Tiernan handled this. Rather than feeling like the stereotypical girl who resents being all powerful and gorgeous, her reasons are explained. During Vivi’s journey, she realizes that her resentment of her heritage is likely driven by not knowing there were people outside of her family with these powers. Basically, she’s lonely and has to be keep this secret from her best friend. Also, her parents shifting in front of her on her thirteenth birthday terrified her.
In the first chapter, her parents are brutally murdered on Vivi’s birthday (this girl must hate her birthday), their hearts cut out. This leaves Vivi even more alone surrounded by mysteries, like the apparent existence of another aunt her mother never mentioned. Curious and wanting to escape her hometown, with its memories of her parents’ deaths and an attempted break-in Vivi sets out on a road trip to New Orleans to find her Aunt Donella. She arrives to find that her Aunt is dead, but that her cousin Mateo and his girlfriend Aly live in her awesome old house with a bunch of friends who are also haguari.
This cast of characters is really well-drawn, and I found myself really liking the whole bunch, even the ones I wasn’t sold on at first. They’re diverse of race and of sexuality. Vivi herself is Brazilian, while her cousin is half-Brazilian/half-Irish. The entire cast has various backgrounds and I love love love how much more this reflects the world I grew up in than the average YA book. On top of that, among her friends in New Orleans there’s a gay couple and a lesbian couple. Her best friend Jennifer is gay as well. The best thing about all the diversity is that no one is token or stereotypical; they’re just themselves. For all that, I did make a face at the book when Vivi described herself as foreign and exotic-looking, but otherwise I thought the treatment of diversity was wonderful.
My favorite aspects of the story are those of her coming to terms with herself and making friends. Vivi’s taken a gap year, though she was planning to head across the country to college before her parents died. She moves to New Orleans spontaneously, with no desire to return to her hometown. She gets her first job. This is a new adult experience, though with paranormal trappings added on. She’s trying to figure out who she is and what she wants to do.
The paranormal plot line is fun, but a bit less fulfilling. There’s not as much resolution to Darkest Fear as I expect from the first installment of a series. I’m a big proponent of there being a completed plot arc to each book within the series and a larger arc running through the whole thing. Darkest Fear raises a number of different considerations: the murders, Vivi’s boss, the family book, Jennifer’s issues at college. None of these are resolved and the ending just kind of feels like jerking to a stop. I did really like, however, the way Tiernan handled the narration of Vivi as a jaguar.
So far as the romance goes, I’m torn. There are two options on the table right now, both absurdly handsome. Her boss, Rafael, who’s got the typical paranormal love interest brooding thing going as well as the “I’m drawn to you but we can’t be together” thing. Then there’s Aly’s brother, Alex, who’s a playboy. I could potentially be okay with either one, but there’s not been enough development on either front for me to commit to a ship at this juncture. There is, however, one really steamy scene. Tiernan is excellent at those.
Darkest Fear ranks pretty highly against the other paranormal novels I’ve read, and I really wish I had the sequel right now, because, as I said, there’s a lot left open and I must know what happens next.
April 21, 2024
fine
solid 4 stars
solid 4 stars
December 5, 2025
This one.... was okay.
I found it very slow but also really intriguing. I really want to know why the events of the book happen and I hate that it ended in a way that I need the second book to feel fulfilled in any way.
So my overall feelings? Great idea. Giant cats? I'm in. Turning into jaguars is pretty niche, and when this book came out it was all vampires and werewolves. So many bonus points.
The mystery? Interesting, but we needed a bit more info. There was lots of (what felt like anyways...) aimless existing. Talking, finding a job, and just living. Half of it could have been removed and the story would feel the same. That is not what I want from those scenes. Random life scenes need to be building something - character development, setting a scene, highlighting something important, etc. Especially if you are setting up a series.
The romance was odd. Wasn't fully developed and felt like it was thrown in just to try to get readers interested. Didn't really work for me.
So... I do want to read the next book because I'm intrigued. Will I find it easily? Probably not. But hey... this book is okay by my standards.
Three out of five stars.
I found it very slow but also really intriguing. I really want to know why the events of the book happen and I hate that it ended in a way that I need the second book to feel fulfilled in any way.
So my overall feelings? Great idea. Giant cats? I'm in. Turning into jaguars is pretty niche, and when this book came out it was all vampires and werewolves. So many bonus points.
The mystery? Interesting, but we needed a bit more info. There was lots of (what felt like anyways...) aimless existing. Talking, finding a job, and just living. Half of it could have been removed and the story would feel the same. That is not what I want from those scenes. Random life scenes need to be building something - character development, setting a scene, highlighting something important, etc. Especially if you are setting up a series.
The romance was odd. Wasn't fully developed and felt like it was thrown in just to try to get readers interested. Didn't really work for me.
So... I do want to read the next book because I'm intrigued. Will I find it easily? Probably not. But hey... this book is okay by my standards.
Three out of five stars.
January 4, 2014
*Genre* Paranormal Romance
*Rating* 2.5
*First Thoughts*
As a fan of The Nine Lives of Chloe King, Cate Tiernan's Darkest Fear is yet another book that has let me down. This is my first experiment with one of Tiernan's books, and I am sad to say that I will most likely not continue further into this series.
I am absolutely disappointed in the writing and direction that this story took. I am frustrated that such a weakly written lead character didn't do anything special to keep me excited about reading more of her exploits. The ending leaves readers with PLENTY of questions, no answers, and such an abrupt ending that it gave me whiplash. The secondary characters like Mateo, Alyna, Jennifer, Coco, and Tink were more entertaining.
The highlights of the book for me was when Viviana's parents are killed on her EIGHTEENTH Birthday, Tink and Vivi being attacked by an unknown jaguar in New Orleans, and the ending in which Vivi, her cousin Mateo and his mate Alyna are involved in a car chase while fleeing from the villains.
In between, Darkest Fear is just another New Adult Contemporary novel with a supernatural twist to it and extreme angst that could have been done away with had Vivi just accepted who and what she was and what she had to do in order to find her parents killers.
Vivi, the lead protagonist, hates who she is, and does everything in her powers to avoid her other half at the point of becoming a bit tiresome with her attitude towards her heritage and her family. She does almost nothing to find those responsible for killing her parents. She loses track of the fact that she was supposed to get the family book on her birthday which would have probably helped her out a whole lot. She's comparably innocent when it comes to relationships, but ends up falling for someone who is as mysterious and frustrating as he is appealing.
Darkest Fear was a very frustrating book to read and to finish. The pacing literally forced me to put it aside so many times that I honestly thought this would be my first DNF novel in over 3 years. While the concept of the Haguari was what caught my attention, and drove me to request this title in the first place, the unlikable Viviana Neves just couldn't hold it for long. I would love to know what happens next, but there are so many new books, and series that I follow that 2015 is a very long ways away to make any commitment to the sequel.
I try very hard NOT to write angry or negative reviews because it really is what the reader makes out of the story. In my experience, when you attack or make negative comments about what you just read, the trolls come out of the wood work and start calling you every nasty name that has been written, and some that are made up. In hopes that the trolls WILL STAY AWAY, I shall say this; opinions are mine, and mine alone. If you so choose to highly praise this story and recommend it to others, that is YOUR choice and nobody should tell you otherwise.
Recvd via Edelweiss 10/07/2013 - Expected publication: January 7th 2014 by Simon Pulse
*Rating* 2.5
*First Thoughts*
As a fan of The Nine Lives of Chloe King, Cate Tiernan's Darkest Fear is yet another book that has let me down. This is my first experiment with one of Tiernan's books, and I am sad to say that I will most likely not continue further into this series.
I am absolutely disappointed in the writing and direction that this story took. I am frustrated that such a weakly written lead character didn't do anything special to keep me excited about reading more of her exploits. The ending leaves readers with PLENTY of questions, no answers, and such an abrupt ending that it gave me whiplash. The secondary characters like Mateo, Alyna, Jennifer, Coco, and Tink were more entertaining.
The highlights of the book for me was when Viviana's parents are killed on her EIGHTEENTH Birthday, Tink and Vivi being attacked by an unknown jaguar in New Orleans, and the ending in which Vivi, her cousin Mateo and his mate Alyna are involved in a car chase while fleeing from the villains.
In between, Darkest Fear is just another New Adult Contemporary novel with a supernatural twist to it and extreme angst that could have been done away with had Vivi just accepted who and what she was and what she had to do in order to find her parents killers.
Vivi, the lead protagonist, hates who she is, and does everything in her powers to avoid her other half at the point of becoming a bit tiresome with her attitude towards her heritage and her family. She does almost nothing to find those responsible for killing her parents. She loses track of the fact that she was supposed to get the family book on her birthday which would have probably helped her out a whole lot. She's comparably innocent when it comes to relationships, but ends up falling for someone who is as mysterious and frustrating as he is appealing.
Darkest Fear was a very frustrating book to read and to finish. The pacing literally forced me to put it aside so many times that I honestly thought this would be my first DNF novel in over 3 years. While the concept of the Haguari was what caught my attention, and drove me to request this title in the first place, the unlikable Viviana Neves just couldn't hold it for long. I would love to know what happens next, but there are so many new books, and series that I follow that 2015 is a very long ways away to make any commitment to the sequel.
I try very hard NOT to write angry or negative reviews because it really is what the reader makes out of the story. In my experience, when you attack or make negative comments about what you just read, the trolls come out of the wood work and start calling you every nasty name that has been written, and some that are made up. In hopes that the trolls WILL STAY AWAY, I shall say this; opinions are mine, and mine alone. If you so choose to highly praise this story and recommend it to others, that is YOUR choice and nobody should tell you otherwise.
Recvd via Edelweiss 10/07/2013 - Expected publication: January 7th 2014 by Simon Pulse
January 16, 2017
Cards on the table here, folks: I have been reading Cate Tiernan’s books since I was twelve years old. Twelve. That��s fourteen-going-on-fifteen years, and more than twenty books. I’m a fan, to say the least, and unfortunately I picked up this book with the mindset of “well it’s Cate, so I’m going to like it no matter what.”
Bad! Bad E! Smack on the nose! Being blindly loyal to an author is all well-and-good, but if you’re going to operate a book review blog, you have to be objective – you have to be bluntly honest, no matter how much of an ungrateful, disloyal warthog it makes you feel like. *tiny sob* And bearing that in mind, as I sat down to write this review, I took a little while to sit down and really relive the story as a whole, and I was surprised at the end when I found I could only, in good conscious, give this three out of five stars. Okay, follow the slumping shoulders as I take you to…
The Breakdown:
Vivi comes from a family of higuari – humans who can shapeshift into jaguars – but she has snubbed her legacy at every turn, much to the disappointment of her higuari-proud parents. But when her parents are brutally murdered on her eighteenth birthday – by one of her own kind, she suspects – Vivi is forced to delve deeper into her origins than she ever thought she would. Through small clues found in her parents’ belongings, she is led to New Orleans, to a cousin she never knew she had, and she suddenly finds herself living in a house full of fellow higuari. She begins to adjust to her new life (though she still does not embrace her jaguar-self), with a new job, a potential love interest, and good friends, but after a series of attacks and the realization that her aunt and uncle may have been killed the same way as her parents, Vivi realizes life may never be normal again.
Let’s start with The Cons:
1. The language. I don’t mean this as how the book is written as a whole – you don’t read someone’s entire bibliography if you hate the way they write – but only in times when Vivi transformed herself into a jaguar. The narrative became choppy and repetitive, without punctuation. And while I understand the purpose of this – Cate is demonstrating that the character is in a more primitive, less cognitive state – I feel it could have been brushed up just a bit, somehow, so that it didn’t make me feel like my head was on one of those Viking ship swing rides at an amusement park. I felt like I had to read it very fast because Vivi would have been thinking it very fast, and it just ended up giving me a headache.
2. The passage of time. Here is where I’m going to revert back to my knowledge of Cate’s bibliography – if you’ve not read any of her other books, this may not necessarily bother you as much. But she’s generally very good about taking everything step by step, letting you walk with her characters through every moment of their lives; in this novel, however, there was a lot of skipping ahead. A new chapter would begin and months would have passed, that missing time summed up in just a few paragraphs. And while I recognize that not all of her series can be fourteen books long (ah, Sweep, you are still my #1), I still felt she could have taken her time and taken us through Vivi’s day-to-day.
3. Rafael. Rafael is Vivi’s boss at her coffee shop job in New Orleans and I haaaaaaate him. This is unfamiliar territory for me, because Cate usually writes the most mmff men, but I just saw absolutely nothing good in this guy. He is described as drop dead gorgeous but standoffish, but then later (after one small act of kindness that I honestly can’t even remember) it is revealed that he has a good heart. Archetypal, but okay, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But he doesn’t. Do. Anything. He’s an artist and spends most of his time at the coffee shop painting a mural instead of working, he never has any meaningful conversations with Vivi that allow us to see a blossoming romance, and he’s just...blah. And then, when something does begin to happen between Vivi and Rafael, he gets very complicated and nonsensical and this isn’t resolved by the end of the book. Vivi suspects he may be higuari. I also suspect that he may be higuari, but I just can’t seem to make myself care if he is because I don’t care about him. He was not fleshed out enough, he was not given any depth, and therefore he just seems like he’s there so Vivi will have someone to...how do I put this?...use as a scratching post for her big kitty claws.
4. Oh, the body issues! I don’t care what you look like, okay? I don’t care if a character is large or small or girly or tomboyish or any of that, as long as they’re realistic and consistent and intriguing. However, as a reader, you do like to have a picture in your mind of what a character looks like, and in Vivi’s narrative she can’t seem to come to an agreement with herself over her own body type. Sometimes she seems as though she is athletic, sometimes full-figured and feminine, and sometimes she even seems to describe herself as a bigger size. And it doesn’t even seem to be in an intentional, I-have-self-image-issues way, which is a perfectly acceptable narrative, but it doesn’t seem to apply with her personality. It’s just hard to get a read on how she’s supposed to look, so it was hard for me to really immerse myself in the book, because I couldn’t picture anything in my head.
TL;DR (yes, I will use this a lot, because I am a long-winded person):
Cons: The jaguar narrative is just a bit too choppy, I really want to know what’s happened in all that skipped time, man I hate Rafael so much, and I’m sorry but what does Vivi look like?
And now, The Pros:
1. It’s fluid. I know this seems contradictory, because I just talked about the choppy jaguar language, but besides that there is a good linguistic flow that makes it easy to plow through this book and pick out all the important details.
2. The secondary characters. When Vivi moves in with her cousin, Matéo, we’re introduced to a full cast of higuari that also live in his house. There’s Matéo, Aly, Coco, Tink, Suzanne, James, and Dana, and even though most of them only get a few scenes here and there, they are all vibrant, defined characters. The same goes for Hayley and Talia, Vivi’s coworkers, and Jennifer, her best friend from back home – all real people with real personalities and real issues. I’m looking forward to reading more about them in the next two books (the second should be released this July).
3. Vivi’s loss. In the beginning, when Vivi first loses her parents, it is written with real grief. It’s not “oh they died and two weeks later I’m fine.” No, it’s weeks of stumbling around in an empty house, sobbing every single day that you stop noticing when it’s happening. I appreciate that sort of raw, descriptive sorrow – I like being able to feel what the character is feeling.
TL;DR:
Pros: The narrative flows nicely and nothing is buried far beneath the surface, the secondary characters feel like real people, and you can feel the profound loss Vivi has experienced.
Of the four series Cate has written, I have to say this is only #3 on my list, and objectively only worth three of five stars. However, as a devoted fan, I am eagerly awaiting, with an open mind, the next two books. And I’m kind of hoping that Rafael isn’t a higuari, and in fact gets eaten by a higuari. Seriously. Hate that guy so much. But this is an easy read, a fresh idea, with character you can get attached to. Probably best for readers between the ages of 14 and 19.
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Bad! Bad E! Smack on the nose! Being blindly loyal to an author is all well-and-good, but if you’re going to operate a book review blog, you have to be objective – you have to be bluntly honest, no matter how much of an ungrateful, disloyal warthog it makes you feel like. *tiny sob* And bearing that in mind, as I sat down to write this review, I took a little while to sit down and really relive the story as a whole, and I was surprised at the end when I found I could only, in good conscious, give this three out of five stars. Okay, follow the slumping shoulders as I take you to…
The Breakdown:
Vivi comes from a family of higuari – humans who can shapeshift into jaguars – but she has snubbed her legacy at every turn, much to the disappointment of her higuari-proud parents. But when her parents are brutally murdered on her eighteenth birthday – by one of her own kind, she suspects – Vivi is forced to delve deeper into her origins than she ever thought she would. Through small clues found in her parents’ belongings, she is led to New Orleans, to a cousin she never knew she had, and she suddenly finds herself living in a house full of fellow higuari. She begins to adjust to her new life (though she still does not embrace her jaguar-self), with a new job, a potential love interest, and good friends, but after a series of attacks and the realization that her aunt and uncle may have been killed the same way as her parents, Vivi realizes life may never be normal again.
Let’s start with The Cons:
1. The language. I don’t mean this as how the book is written as a whole – you don’t read someone’s entire bibliography if you hate the way they write – but only in times when Vivi transformed herself into a jaguar. The narrative became choppy and repetitive, without punctuation. And while I understand the purpose of this – Cate is demonstrating that the character is in a more primitive, less cognitive state – I feel it could have been brushed up just a bit, somehow, so that it didn’t make me feel like my head was on one of those Viking ship swing rides at an amusement park. I felt like I had to read it very fast because Vivi would have been thinking it very fast, and it just ended up giving me a headache.
2. The passage of time. Here is where I’m going to revert back to my knowledge of Cate’s bibliography – if you’ve not read any of her other books, this may not necessarily bother you as much. But she’s generally very good about taking everything step by step, letting you walk with her characters through every moment of their lives; in this novel, however, there was a lot of skipping ahead. A new chapter would begin and months would have passed, that missing time summed up in just a few paragraphs. And while I recognize that not all of her series can be fourteen books long (ah, Sweep, you are still my #1), I still felt she could have taken her time and taken us through Vivi’s day-to-day.
3. Rafael. Rafael is Vivi’s boss at her coffee shop job in New Orleans and I haaaaaaate him. This is unfamiliar territory for me, because Cate usually writes the most mmff men, but I just saw absolutely nothing good in this guy. He is described as drop dead gorgeous but standoffish, but then later (after one small act of kindness that I honestly can’t even remember) it is revealed that he has a good heart. Archetypal, but okay, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But he doesn’t. Do. Anything. He’s an artist and spends most of his time at the coffee shop painting a mural instead of working, he never has any meaningful conversations with Vivi that allow us to see a blossoming romance, and he’s just...blah. And then, when something does begin to happen between Vivi and Rafael, he gets very complicated and nonsensical and this isn’t resolved by the end of the book. Vivi suspects he may be higuari. I also suspect that he may be higuari, but I just can’t seem to make myself care if he is because I don’t care about him. He was not fleshed out enough, he was not given any depth, and therefore he just seems like he’s there so Vivi will have someone to...how do I put this?...use as a scratching post for her big kitty claws.
4. Oh, the body issues! I don’t care what you look like, okay? I don’t care if a character is large or small or girly or tomboyish or any of that, as long as they’re realistic and consistent and intriguing. However, as a reader, you do like to have a picture in your mind of what a character looks like, and in Vivi’s narrative she can’t seem to come to an agreement with herself over her own body type. Sometimes she seems as though she is athletic, sometimes full-figured and feminine, and sometimes she even seems to describe herself as a bigger size. And it doesn’t even seem to be in an intentional, I-have-self-image-issues way, which is a perfectly acceptable narrative, but it doesn’t seem to apply with her personality. It’s just hard to get a read on how she’s supposed to look, so it was hard for me to really immerse myself in the book, because I couldn’t picture anything in my head.
TL;DR (yes, I will use this a lot, because I am a long-winded person):
Cons: The jaguar narrative is just a bit too choppy, I really want to know what’s happened in all that skipped time, man I hate Rafael so much, and I’m sorry but what does Vivi look like?
And now, The Pros:
1. It’s fluid. I know this seems contradictory, because I just talked about the choppy jaguar language, but besides that there is a good linguistic flow that makes it easy to plow through this book and pick out all the important details.
2. The secondary characters. When Vivi moves in with her cousin, Matéo, we’re introduced to a full cast of higuari that also live in his house. There’s Matéo, Aly, Coco, Tink, Suzanne, James, and Dana, and even though most of them only get a few scenes here and there, they are all vibrant, defined characters. The same goes for Hayley and Talia, Vivi’s coworkers, and Jennifer, her best friend from back home – all real people with real personalities and real issues. I’m looking forward to reading more about them in the next two books (the second should be released this July).
3. Vivi’s loss. In the beginning, when Vivi first loses her parents, it is written with real grief. It’s not “oh they died and two weeks later I’m fine.” No, it’s weeks of stumbling around in an empty house, sobbing every single day that you stop noticing when it’s happening. I appreciate that sort of raw, descriptive sorrow – I like being able to feel what the character is feeling.
TL;DR:
Pros: The narrative flows nicely and nothing is buried far beneath the surface, the secondary characters feel like real people, and you can feel the profound loss Vivi has experienced.
Of the four series Cate has written, I have to say this is only #3 on my list, and objectively only worth three of five stars. However, as a devoted fan, I am eagerly awaiting, with an open mind, the next two books. And I’m kind of hoping that Rafael isn’t a higuari, and in fact gets eaten by a higuari. Seriously. Hate that guy so much. But this is an easy read, a fresh idea, with character you can get attached to. Probably best for readers between the ages of 14 and 19.
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January 20, 2014
Darkest Fear is a book I was eager to read and that caught my attention because the main character is transformed into a jaguar, and I really like books about shifters and was intrigued to see how they handled the origins of these Haguaris. But the truth is that I struggle a lot with this book, I was about to drop it because I felt that nothing was happening when in fact they were a lot of things happening because Vivi and her parents are attacked by a jaguar and from the attack only Vivi survives, she is devastated, she doesn´t kkow what to do without her parents and all her relatives live in Brazil, but she didn´t want to move or going for a short visit, so because she has eighteen years old, doesn´t need a guardian and can stay living in the parental home.
But searching through the important documents from her parents, she discovers something that makes her travel to New Orleans, where she meets new friends, find a job and begins to accept her legacy a bit, because until that moment she hated the fact of being a Haguari and wanted no part of it, but in this new environment she begins to see gradually that being Haguari is not been a monster, and that been a Haguari isn´t the worst thing that could happen to her in the world. So between rediscovering her heritage, making new friends, meeting a guy that she´s attracted to and try to discover what really happened to her parents, Vivi starts to get away from the deep depression that she had.
As a main character I didn´t like Vivi that much, maybe it can be that I got to see a Vivi tha´s devastated by the death of his parents, with terrible feelings of guilt and falling into a severe depression, so during the most of the book she cries a lot and rightly so for what happen to her, but I just do not like her character.
Overall, Darkest Fear is not a story that I really liked, is very slow, I felt flat at times and I was not captured by the characters, plus it has an abrupt end. Definitely this book was not for me.
But searching through the important documents from her parents, she discovers something that makes her travel to New Orleans, where she meets new friends, find a job and begins to accept her legacy a bit, because until that moment she hated the fact of being a Haguari and wanted no part of it, but in this new environment she begins to see gradually that being Haguari is not been a monster, and that been a Haguari isn´t the worst thing that could happen to her in the world. So between rediscovering her heritage, making new friends, meeting a guy that she´s attracted to and try to discover what really happened to her parents, Vivi starts to get away from the deep depression that she had.
As a main character I didn´t like Vivi that much, maybe it can be that I got to see a Vivi tha´s devastated by the death of his parents, with terrible feelings of guilt and falling into a severe depression, so during the most of the book she cries a lot and rightly so for what happen to her, but I just do not like her character.
Overall, Darkest Fear is not a story that I really liked, is very slow, I felt flat at times and I was not captured by the characters, plus it has an abrupt end. Definitely this book was not for me.
February 16, 2014
You know those books that you fly through, find addictive, but once you sit down to think about it, you're left with a little confusion? This totally gave me reader whiplash.
Vivi is a shifter. She's known since her 13th birthday - and she wants to be anything but. The story starts with a flash as her parents are suddenly murdered, shredding all the plans for the future she had, and leaving her...empty. In her search to find answers about her family, she finds more questions, sending her on a road trip.
Vivi keeps coming up against questions after question - and not all of them are answered in this book. I'm assuming they will be touched on the sequel. She's learning who she is truly as a person - and shifter - but there's still so many unanswered questions (including some that seem to be forgotten by Vivi). To me, Vivi seems a little immature for her age, but perhaps it's just simply because she's under experienced. The death of her parents' is ultimately a catalyst for growth, but she still falls back into her old frame of mind at times.
The romance is light. I have my suspicions about the main contender, but that may be too obvious. Shrug.
The ending is where the majority of the excitement happens. This is where you're on the edge of your seat. This is the sweet spot. Cue action movie music, because you're going to need it. And buckle in your seatbelt, because the brakes get slammed on so fast that you're going to ask, "Wait, that was the end?"
I had mixed feelings about the narrative from the jaguar form. It was easy to know which form she was from the type of speech, but I tend to gloss over broken speech/sentences, so I couldn't enjoy it as much as some readers might. It did provide some great insight.
Admittedly, I don't like shapeshifter books. At all. For whatever reason, I decided to give this one a try. I'm not disappointed, and I'm sure when the sequel comes out, I'll bite as this book is kinda like a bag of chips. Maybe you shouldn't have more than one handful, but you know you're going to anyway.
Vivi is a shifter. She's known since her 13th birthday - and she wants to be anything but. The story starts with a flash as her parents are suddenly murdered, shredding all the plans for the future she had, and leaving her...empty. In her search to find answers about her family, she finds more questions, sending her on a road trip.
Vivi keeps coming up against questions after question - and not all of them are answered in this book. I'm assuming they will be touched on the sequel. She's learning who she is truly as a person - and shifter - but there's still so many unanswered questions (including some that seem to be forgotten by Vivi). To me, Vivi seems a little immature for her age, but perhaps it's just simply because she's under experienced. The death of her parents' is ultimately a catalyst for growth, but she still falls back into her old frame of mind at times.
The romance is light. I have my suspicions about the main contender, but that may be too obvious. Shrug.
The ending is where the majority of the excitement happens. This is where you're on the edge of your seat. This is the sweet spot. Cue action movie music, because you're going to need it. And buckle in your seatbelt, because the brakes get slammed on so fast that you're going to ask, "Wait, that was the end?"
I had mixed feelings about the narrative from the jaguar form. It was easy to know which form she was from the type of speech, but I tend to gloss over broken speech/sentences, so I couldn't enjoy it as much as some readers might. It did provide some great insight.
Admittedly, I don't like shapeshifter books. At all. For whatever reason, I decided to give this one a try. I'm not disappointed, and I'm sure when the sequel comes out, I'll bite as this book is kinda like a bag of chips. Maybe you shouldn't have more than one handful, but you know you're going to anyway.
May 13, 2014
Vivi, a reluctant jaguar shape shifter (haguara), is just like any other girl in that she just wants to be normal and fit in. She wants this so much, that she has completely shut out her jaguar culture, so that when her parents are murdered, she is completely unprepared to take care of herself. This is partly because she has been a sheltered teen, but also because her dual nature has to surface. In her search for answers, she ends up with her cousin in New Orleans and finds that shape shifters raised in different circumstances have different perspectives. It is very much a metaphor for a teen thrown into an adult world. I love how she grapples with not wanting to grow apart from her human best friend, but feeling she can only be herself among other shifters. And she can only heal her grieving away from the familiar. She is so conflicted, and while I would personally love and embrace being a shifter, I understand her confusion. I think Tiernan stays very true to what the teen experience really is versus an idealized view of how teens might want to see themselves in this kind of a situation - i.e. When someone mentions a carriage house, Vivi has not idea what that is: "Did she really mean an actual carriage house, like for carriages?" Life really can be that confusing for a teen on her own for the first time. I also enjoyed the contrast of the human Vivi with the Ha-Vivi (haguara jaguar Vivi), as the Ha-Vivi fully accepts her own duality. Great action at the end with a cliffhanger and romantic mystery left for the next book.
January 31, 2014
I was really hesitant to read Darkest Fear for the sole reason the blurb says fans of The Nine Lives of Chloe King will like this book. I read all three books in the Chloe King series and I really disliked each and every one of them.
But Darkest Fear was able to pull though (kinda).
I first want to call out who ever created the cover. They are stupid and don't know how to do their job. With the huge, bold print, you'd think this book was called Birthright. That's what I thought. But no. The series is Birthright and the actual book is called Darkest Fear. For some reason, this really pissed me off.
Anyway.
Darkest Fear is about a girl named Vivi who's family are like were-jaguars. She's told this at 13 and she's turned into a brat afterward. She wants to be "normal" and she hates her family for being "freaks". She doesn't even try to understand or accept it. She just pushes her family away and other really mean things. Then her mom and dad are killed and she realizes she was a bitch to them.
I really didn't like Vivi. She went on and on about how she found her family turning into jaguars to be "grotesque". She never tried to accept it and she was just a bitch. I thought. That's just my opinion.
It was hard for me to move past Vivi and how much I disliked her. I really like the concept of this story. I just really wish the main character was better. Someone who could accept these things and use them for good. Someone who doesn't cry about not being "normal".
But Darkest Fear was able to pull though (kinda).
I first want to call out who ever created the cover. They are stupid and don't know how to do their job. With the huge, bold print, you'd think this book was called Birthright. That's what I thought. But no. The series is Birthright and the actual book is called Darkest Fear. For some reason, this really pissed me off.
Anyway.
Darkest Fear is about a girl named Vivi who's family are like were-jaguars. She's told this at 13 and she's turned into a brat afterward. She wants to be "normal" and she hates her family for being "freaks". She doesn't even try to understand or accept it. She just pushes her family away and other really mean things. Then her mom and dad are killed and she realizes she was a bitch to them.
I really didn't like Vivi. She went on and on about how she found her family turning into jaguars to be "grotesque". She never tried to accept it and she was just a bitch. I thought. That's just my opinion.
It was hard for me to move past Vivi and how much I disliked her. I really like the concept of this story. I just really wish the main character was better. Someone who could accept these things and use them for good. Someone who doesn't cry about not being "normal".
May 25, 2014
I didn't exactly have any intention of reading this book but I saw it in the library yesterday and thought it looked cool. We all say don't judge a book by its cover and we shouldn't. But I judged this book by its cover and I have to say, it was judging well done. I didn't quite understand what it was about when I read the blurb but I picked it up anyone. But what can I say about this book? Oh. My. Gods. This book was amazing. As soon as I realized this not your usual paranormal book I did a little happy dance. And it was set in New Orleans, one of my number one places I want to visit. It had me on my toes the whole time and I was putting together theories in my head as I went along. I was tempted to flick to the back and see if any where correct. But the best part about this book? It gives away nothing. I have no idea what's going to happen next and nor do the characters. All things are happening to them and they have no idea who's behind it. And better yet, its not centered about a love story. Yeah, there's a side of romance and who doesn't what a slice of that but it isn't situated around it. Its about a girl getting in touch with her roots for the first time after shunning the truth for so long. I have another Cate Tiernan book on my bookshelf that I've never read but well, well I will definitely be reading it now.
September 11, 2014
Another fantastic book by Cate Tiernan. She is one of my favorite authors and I absolutely loved the book. Tiernan is a wonderful storyteller who creates really interesting, and well developed characters. Darkest Fear tells the story of an 18 year old girl who has to come to turns with being a haguara, a person who can turn into a jaguar, after the death of her parents. In coping with her parents death, Vivi finds out that she has an estranged aunt living in New Orleans. When Vivi goes to find her, she discovers a cousin whom she had never met before and learns that her aunt and uncle had died of suspicious circumstances. Vivi decides that she will stay in New Orleans to try to unravel the mysteries surrounding the death of her parents and aunt, and to better understand her haguari nature.
Darkest Fear is a great book for an easy, entertaining read. The plot is well thought out, the characters are all very real and interesting, especially the main character who has to deal with the death of her parents and trying to figure out who she is and what to do with her life. All in all, this is a great book and I highly recommend it.
Darkest Fear is a great book for an easy, entertaining read. The plot is well thought out, the characters are all very real and interesting, especially the main character who has to deal with the death of her parents and trying to figure out who she is and what to do with her life. All in all, this is a great book and I highly recommend it.
January 25, 2014
(2.5-3 stars) This was nothing like I'd expected from the author who penned one of my favorite YA trilogies, Immortal Beloved. Add to that the fact that her new series features feline shifters -- Love! The shifter mythology is intriguing; the characters, for the most part, are likable; and the MC's loss and struggle to find/accept herself was touching. Yet, sadly, there was something off. I read the book in one sitting and, by the end, which was a whiplash jarring sudden stop, I was left wondering what would happen next. So, I've no doubt that I will most likely read the next book. All of the pieces for another home run series are there, but in this series introduction they just didn't fit together well. I am hopeful that the next books will have whichever secret ingredient was missing from this one.
December 30, 2015
The story was good, but I utterly loathe books which end without the conclusion of at least the basic book-story. I enjoy overarching story arcs which covers many physical books, but I like individual volumes to be complete in themselves. If feels more like cynical marketing when a single book is split into a series.
February 7, 2017
This wasn't as bad of a book as I thought it might be. It's another example why you shouldn't take reviews too seriously. My only complaint is that this should have had more action in it. Nothing exciting really happens until the very end. I might continue on with series. I'll just wait and see how I feel.
January 1, 2014
Another amazing read by Cate Tiernan! Full review to come :)
October 25, 2015
Rafael, why do you hurt me so ??????????????????????????????????????
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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