Review: Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

Darker Still

(Magic Most Foul # 1)

By: Leanna Renee Hieber

Pub. Date: November 8, 2011

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Pages: 317

Source: Netgalley

The Picture of Dorian Gray meets Pride and Prejudice, with a dash of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
 
New York City, 1882. Seventeen-year-old Natalie Stewart's latest obsession is a painting of the handsome British Lord Denbury. Something in his striking blue eyes calls to her. As his incredibly life-like gaze seems to follow her, Natalie gets the uneasy feeling that details of the painting keep changing...

Jonathan Denbury's soul is trapped in the gilded painting by dark magic while his possessed body commits unspeakable crimes in the city slums. He must lure Natalie into the painting, for only together can they reverse the curse and free his damaged soul.

The main character of Darker Still is a 17 year old named Natalie. Since her mother's death as a child, Natalie has been mute. As much as she has wanted to talk, she just wasn't able too. Despite this, I think that Natalie was strong-willed and overall a good person. Many people that she comes across thinks that she is slow due to her disability, but Natalie very quickly puts them in there place. I loved that about her!

Darker Still is being compared to Pride & Prejudice, and Lord Denbury definitely reminded me of a character in an Austin novel. He was such a gentleman!

I enjoyed the secondary characters as well. I loved Natalie's father specifically and Mrs. Northe was a lot of fun too!

I thought the plot was very interesting. It revolves around Natalie trying to help Denbury, who is stuck in a painting due to some really bad dark magic. This was so intriguing me and I couldn't wait to find out more.

Overall though, I was disappointed with Darker Still. Don't get me wrong, it was a good story and I liked the characters, but I was expecting something different. A lot of people have been raving about this book and I definitely see this book being popular with a lot of people!