**REVIEW** The Deepest Night by Shana Abe

Release Date:  August 13, 2013
Published By:  Bantam
Length:  320 pages
Review Copy:  Provided by publisher for honest review.

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A rich portrait of post-Victorian England, The Deepest Nightseamlessly blends thrilling romance with riveting history and adventure—perfect for fans of Libba Bray and Lauren Kate.

It’s 1915, and sixteen-year-old Lora Jones is finishing up her first year as a charity student at Iverson, a prestigious, gothic boarding school on England’s southern coast. While she’s always felt different from everyone around her, now she finally knows why: She is a drákon, a rare, enchanted being with astonishing magical abilities.

As war hits Britain’s shores, and Lora reels from an unimaginable loss, she finds that her powers come with grave and dangerous responsibilities. At the request of Armand Louis, the darkly mysterious boy whose father owns Iverson, Lora will spend her summer at his lavish estate. To help the war effort—and to keep Lora by his side—Armand turns his home into a military hospital, where Lora will serve as a nurse. For Armand is inescapably drawn to her—bound to her by heart-deep secrets and a supernatural connection that runs thicker than blood.

Yet while Lora tries to sort out her own feelings toward Armand, fate offers an unexpected surprise. Lora discovers there is another drákon, a prisoner of war being held in Germany. And that only she, with her newly honed Gifts, will be able to rescue him.

With Armand, Lora will cross enemy lines on an incredible mission—one that could bond her to Armand forever, or irrevocably tear them apart.

Beautifully written, deeply romantic, and filled with daring adventure and magic, The Deepest Night is a mesmerizing novel of the enduring pull of destiny, and the eternal strength of love.

  

  Beautiful, smart and breathtaking, The Deepest Night was every bit as wonderful as The Sweetest Dark.  There were many differences but the writing that had me so completely hooked was every bit as spectacular.  Shana Abe's writing and brilliant tales with twisted history and fantasy woven throughout are so easy to fall into.  These books are more than just a historical fantasy, they are also emotional and consuming.  Every bit the novel that reminds you why young adult is unique and beautiful.

  Everything starts off not too long after the last book ended and I could still feel the bittersweet ending that we left off on.  Lora still mourns her lost love and has to worry now about school ending and a life that may be in another orphanage but the stars have always had a greater plan for her.  In those plans is Armand and though he does not play the part that he wishes to, he is more twisted into her future than she could imagine.  When the announcement is made that she will not be going to an orphanage but to Tranquility (Armand's home) she is shocked but there is more to it than that.  Lora must do the impossible and rescue someone over enemy lines...but he isn't just someone he is like her...like Armand. Life is changing and everything is much more of a risk and there is much more to lose but Lora is willing to risk it.

  Lora grew a lot in this installment.  She had her moments where she doubted and became the closed orphan girl that she was but I think the journey that she took pushed whatever was left of that girl out.  There is no real room for weakness and doubt, so Lora has no choice but to push through it and learn to let go of what she holds onto.  Though she can not let go of everything she does grow more powerful and start to have more faith and control over what she is, it seems that the more she embraces it the more control she has.  I enjoy Lora, the fact that she has logical thought and  does not let emotion rule her.  She does not just fall into the arms of the next man waiting for her but mourns and lets things progress naturally, grow into something.  As I said there was never really a love triangle but there was always more than one person vying for her attention and the one being lost does not sway her resolve not to be the girl that just changes heart at the drop of a hat.

  Armand was a larger focus in this novel.  Though Lora is the star he now holds a larger share in the story now.  Still drawn to Lora but it seems he knows that it is more than a simple infatuation or the fact that they share being Drakon in common.  With the one that taught Lora all she knew no longer standing with them it is just him and Lora to figure it all out.  I admit that I saw things going a little differently with him and his changes and once I was almost paralyzed with fear but his change was never meant to be like Lora's.  No what Armand can do is something completely different and I was shocked when it came about but it was most convenient when it did and I couldn't help but smile when I found out how it came about.  This boy has taken on more responsibility and become someone completely different in this book but I found myself more drawn to him and my heart breaking for him at times.

  With more action and a deeper look into the war and the characters this was an outstanding sequel.  Shana Abe is quickly becoming one of the authors that I will watch for.  Her writing, her characters and the evolution of the story are beautiful and highly addictive.  I find myself torn between loving the bittersweet ending of the first book or the beautiful yet sad in a way ending of this book.  Honestly they were both good endings for the books and could have been the end of the series but what pulled at me with this one was the epilogue.  The epilogue tells me that there will be more and I hope that it was not a horrible tease and this was it because I feel that there is to be so much more to this wonderful series and I am anxious for the moment when the story continues.

You're waiting for the moment that I Turn into something more than just smoke.  You're waiting for Lora the dragon.
  Lora-of-the-moon, Jesse used to call me.  It's not yet.  But soon.

All those names flung at me recently, beast, bitch, thing, were true.  If they were insults, then I would rip them inside out and make them my own.

I was not useless.  I was small and marked with a strange magic; I was different, but I would not be useless.  Not by Sophia, not by Deirdre or Chloe.  Not by anyone.  I had my own kind of power, and even if practically no one else know of it or understood it   even if I didn't fully understand it   it was real.  It existed. 

Only a few weeks ago I'd been the outcast charity student seated on a stage before some of the most wealthy and powerful people in the kingdom, but now I, Eleanore Jones   a girl without a true home or a past or even a middle name   was on my way across enemy lines to save the life of a man I'd never met.  Because I could.