#48 Our Dark Duet

Our Dark Duet by V.E. Schwab

This is the sequel and final part of the 'Monsters of Verity' duology. These 2 books have completed restored my faith in YA, there was a few months there when i thought oh god, im too old for this now but after reading these 2 beauties ive realised that im not too old for YA when its done right!

I haven't liked any of Victoria Scwabs writing since i read Viscous... I know her 'Shades of Magic' books were massively popular and i did read this first one but it just wasnt for me every chapter felt like an absolute chore and i just couldnt get into it at all even though id pre-ordered it and it was my most anticipated read of that year (sorry for the tangent) but this book blew my mind, it was paranormal which im normally verrrrrry sketchy about but i managed to read both books in the duology and simply put, i loved them!

Our Dark Duet picks up roughly 6 months from where This Savage Song leaves off. August has joined the FTF to somewhat make up for the loss of Leo and Kate has become a monster hunter in a different territory after leaving Verity. Kate makes a few blah new friends that seem to be a big part of the story up until half way through and then you never hear about any of them again... its a good thing i didnt get attached to any of them! Augusts storyline is a bit more complex, he no longer has the desire to be human and has instead imbraced being a monster. He spends all his time hunting and trying to make Verity a better place by ridding it of the sinners.

The premise of this sequel is that SPOILER ALERT Sloan is alive and out for revenge and that there is a new monster that seemingly is impossible to catch and makes humans turn violent towards each other. There is also another monster that Kate created at the ending of the first book called Alice and she basically follows Sloan around like a lost puppy. She wants both Kate and August dead.

Normally im not a massive fan of sequels and i thought that This Savage Song ended like a stand alone, it cleared everything up nicely so i had no idea where this story would go but it surprised me! it was actually really good and a very worthy sequel. What i loved most about the first book was that it was a YA with NO romance which literally never happens! There was a brief moment in this book where i thought ohhhh godddd shes making it into a romance but luckily for me it was only 1 page of the 400 odd page book.

All in all very enjoyable and it has reminded me why i love Scwabs writing so much. One bad series does not and will not put me off any of her future work :)