Edge of Darkness
Diana Collins charges at life with an irreverent comment and a right hook, but even her hard-headed attitude may not be enough to protect her heart…or her life.
As a senior investigator for a high-end insurance company, Diana searches for the person responsible for the theft of several rare weapons. Diana struggles to protect her burgeoning relationship with kindergarten teacher, Cami Michaelson, as the investigation leads her into a bitter world of rage and revenge. Diana uncovers one damning piece of evidence after another that challenges everything she knows about right and wrong. She finds her hard-driving work ethic, which demands the thief be held accountable, at odds with the desire to protect her new friend, Ali Sandoval, who is caught in the center of the conflict. As Diana is drawn deeper into a dark subculture of sex, power, and death, Ali must choose between vengeance and peace as she struggles to escape with her sanity intact.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Awesome
Congrats to the Author, If you are thinking of buying this book then go ahead it is fantastic.
Complex charactors and exciting plot.
The author had me convinced that ‘killing’ for a good cause is commendable.
The ending leaves the story open for a possible sequel, although I hope Ali does not hold a grudge against the two main characters.
Great love scenes.
4 Stars Suspense and Intrigue, With A Twist
Warning - This book is not for the faint of heart. It includes spousal abuse, murder, and all the undesirables that go with them. That said, I really enjoyed this book by first-time author Belle. The reader takes chances with any new author’s first offering. Many times, especially via Bold Strokes Books publishing, the author is quite enjoyable. Such is the case here and I’m really looking forward to Belle’s upcoming release `Split the Aces.’
I may be naïve, or just not very good at solving mysteries, but it was nearly impossible to figure out who the villain in this story is. Belle drops hints everywhere, but throws in a crafty twist at the end. I don’t want to give away too much, so I’ll just leave it at that.
In the midst of solving the crimes, protagonist Diana Collins finds herself falling hard for Carni Michaelson - a woman who is in danger because of Diana’s investigation. Needless to say, Diana isn’t sure how to proceed until all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.
Bottom Line - Good first book. Looking forward to the next one.
4 Stars Dark suspense with a light romance
I never would have known about author Jove Belle if a friend hadn’t mentioned her to me, but I’m so glad I’ve found her. Edge of Darkness is one of those books that really popped for me. Its edgy, dark suspenseful story line combined with a juicy love story made it one of the best reads in while for me. And I must admit, that cover totally grabbed me.
There is absolutely nothing bad I can say about this book. I was just so impressed by all of it: the complex character development, the slow build up of a suspenseful investigation, and a realistically and honestly written love story, which all came together in a flawless, enthralling way for me. I really can’t say enough about how positively affected I was by the writing and story telling in this book.
The characters: Diana–is the main character and it’s through her eyes that this story is told. She’s a tough scrapper type who is not afraid to get into it with people to do the right thing. She’s also got a huge heart and takes her Irish Catholic upbringing, including being family oriented, very seriously. She’s still getting over a failed relationship and has been sticking to having one-night-stands even though she dreams of having the white picket fence and living in domestic bliss forever with someone someday. At the moment though, she’s mostly focusing on her career as an insurance investigator. She’s such a complex and interesting character whose mix of contradicting qualities really turned me on.
Cami- is Diana’s new love interest. What I really got off on in this story is how realistically the love story develops between Cami and Diana. Cami is a real sweetheart of a woman, who, like Diana, feels so attracted but also has all the usual doubts and insecurities that goes with falling in love and getting to know someone knew. The interactions between her and Diana came across as very authentic and it’s the first time for me read a lesbian love story that expressed how I imagine it would really be between two women.
Braxton- is Diana’s mentor at work and she is also a well written character. She a tough, straight forward, take no prisoners type of woman who’s extremely intelligent and a pro at interviewing and psychologically breaking down people to get info. She and Diana have this playful but respectful rapport between them, which I really liked. And even though she’s a straight, married woman, she flirts with Diana with lots of subtle sexual innuendo, which Diana doesn’t quite no how to take at times. I got the impression that she did have a thing for Diana in some way and it was interesting to me that Jove Belle kept what’s going on between them ambiguous because that felt more real to me.
Ali- is the serial killer. I can say that because it’s revealed right in the beginning. She’s a refreshingly written damaged character and I felt so much for her. She was kidnapped and abused for most of her youth by a tyrant of a man and basically kept prisoner until she managed to escape one day. Consequently, she is trying to save other helpless women by trying to rid the world of abusing men. What I loved about the way Jove Belle wrote her is that even though she’s become this cold blooded killer, when Diana shows her real love and compassion, that part of her that she’s forgotten that needs to be loved and accepted makes her feel more vulnerable than she was as a kidnapped victim because she actually opens up and reaches out for the first time. It was heartbreaking.
Other than those main characters, I felt the interactions between the office men and Diana were very interesting as well. The men joke about her being a lesbian and show their ignorance and sexism on a regular basis to the degree that it borders on sexual harassment, and yet, Diana’s sarcastic and humorous reactions to it, easily deflecting it back to them, and the fact that the men actually respect her and Braxton, didn’t turn all of that into a male bashing fest, which it could have easily happened to add more unnecessary tension or drama to the story and I liked that.
The suspense plot is also very well written. We know who the killer is straight away, but like a Columbo story, it’s the detailed and logical way in which Diana goes about investigating and the conclusions she comes to along the way, plus the unpredictable reactions of Ali, that kept the interest up in this story.
I would love to read another of Jove Belle’s books from this.
5 Stars Intrigue, romance and you’ll think
Jove Belle has written a book that contains two different stories within one. One story is an intricate suspense tale of revenge and retribution, while the other is a romance. What is different about this book is that the major characters in one story are not the same characters in the other, but the stories twine together to create an extremely good novel.
Diana Collins is an investigator for an insurance company who has been assigned the job of recovering a rare sword that disappeared after it was used to kill its owner. The hunt for the kitana leads Diana into an ever widening circle of clues to horrific crimes, including abused women and gruesome murders. At the center of the vortex is Ali Sandoval, a woman who is haunted by her own violent past, but someone that Diana comes to admire for her work at a shelter trying to protect women from the men who have brutalized them. Coming from a family of police officers, Diana had always thought she had a clear understanding of right and wrong, but the horrible details of these women’s lives make her begin to question her own values, especially when she begins to suspect that Ali might somehow be involved in what is happening to some of the men. Meanwhile, Diana finds herself being distracted by a relationship unlike any she has ever experienced. Cami Michaelson was supposed to be another one-night stand, something Diana is familiar and comfortable with. From their first meeting though, Diana feels something is different about this woman and she finds herself being drawn closer to her. As Cami and Diana explore their deepening feelings, Diana can’t help but compare their lives to what she is encountering in her case. As she comes closer to finding the kitana, she can sense the danger increasing also and Diana is torn between how she can see justice carried out while protecting Cami and Ali.
Edge of Darkness is not a “who done it.” The reader has the answer to that question from the first pages. The tension in the novel comes from wondering when or if the authorities will ever put the pieces together and come after the killer. It also comes from the reader knowing what is happening, but Diana doesn’t. As she takes each step, the reader knows she is unwittingly moving closer to real danger. It’s similar to watching a movie when the audience wants to yell, “Don’t open that door!” but you know the character will anyway and it won’t be good. Then, as the tension mounts, stress of a different kind is introduced in the form of the love relationship that is developing. That releases the mood of the mystery, but builds suspense of a different kind. Throw in a straight co-worker who also has Diana confused and the reader will begin to wonder what is going to make her pop first. The character development is especially well done. Diana’s struggle to justify her feelings towards the crimes with her strong ethical values reflects the feelings that many people often have to deal with. Her confusion and that of Cami as they try to understand how their relationship could be developing so quickly, yet so deeply, will feel familiar to readers who have felt themselves caught up in such a whirlwind. One of the most simplistic, yet troubling characters, is Ali. Her motivations are easy to understand, but accepting them forces the reader to consider that, sometimes, walking on the dark side might be the right side and that by itself makes the book intriguing.
Reviewers say all the time that they couldn’t put a book down or that a book is a “page turner.” In this case, Edge of Darkness fits the descriptions.
1 Stars Don’t bother
This is the first book published by Jove Belle and, therefore, I was prepared for at least some minor glitches in “Edge of Darkness”. However, I must say that I was quite disappointed by this book and it took me some effort to read it until the end, since nothing in the book managed to really keep me interested.
The fact that I got stuck on the second sentence of the prologue, was not a good sign for what was going to come ahead in terms of prose. Included in the annoying things in the prose of “Edge of Darkness” are, the frequently unfortunate choice of words (e.g. a police car described as a `black and white chariot of justice’ with `crimson and cerulean lights’), the overuse of adjectives and similes, the fact that things are continuously being explained to the reader, the abundant infodumps, the frequent inconsistencies and the confusing way time is dealt with.
Setting seems to have been regarded as mostly unimportant. The book is set in Chicago, but the only thing I got from the book regarding the city was that there was a lot of traffic. Most big cities have a lot of traffic so that is certainly not enough for the reader to get a grasp of Chicago. Regarding Diana’s work, I suspect the descriptions are not close to reality. It seems from the book that to be an insurance investigator is quite a nice job. As a top insurance investigator all you have to do is drive around a bit in order to do 3 or 4 interviews per week, do some Googling, and one or two phone calls to the police to give you all the information you need. The rest of the time is used to answer personal emails. You get to drive a Mercedes and you probably get well paid since you can even lend temporarily $5000 to the FBI.
Expecting an intrigue (the book is labeled as “Intrigue”), it soon became obvious that the plot is quite poor. Things seem to happen just because it is convenient and, frequently, they do not make sense, namely psychologically. To show how efficient Diana is investigating, the Police are depicted as complete morons although, simultaneously, all the main information is obtained from them. Some things introduced in the plot such as that Diana’s investigation would be two weeks ahead of the police (when it was the police that gave all the relevant information for the investigation) as well as the existence of a Police protocol to follow an order in the interviews make no sense at all. At the end of the book the Police conveniently becomes smart to “save” Diana and Cami. There are three subplots that are complete dead ends and I can only conclude that they exist to fill space. Therefore, that leaves as raison d’être for the book, the romance. But even the romance is not well developed. I found it quite unrealistic, with Diana and Cami thinking of living happily ever after only exchanging a dozen words.
A priori, one of the interesting things about the characters was that the person doing the murders does it for a ‘good’ reason. Not being a black and white situation, this would allow for interesting characterization. Unfortunately, characterization is also a problem, since the characters come as difficult to grasp and, mostly, two-dimensional. We do, however, get a lot of information regarding the clothes they are wearing and Diana and Cami’s obsession with having sex with each other. Jove Belle uses extreme physical situations (e.g. Diana’s reaction to the website) to portray the characters’ emotions to the reader. However, they help alienate the reader from the characters since they are seen as unrealistic situations. A more subtle approach, would probably help make the characters more three-dimensional.
The editing of the book, is not very good, which was a surprise, considering the reputation of the editors for BSB. In summary, in a perfect world, Jove Belle would still be learning the craft and not being published by one of the main lesbian fiction publishers.
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