Review – The Darkangel (Darkangel Trilogy, Book 1) by Meredith Ann Pierce (4/5 stars)

This is the first book in the Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce.  This was an excellent book, very fairy tale like in the telling and an interesting, somewhat traditional, take on vampirism.

Aeriel’s friend is taken away by a vampire to become his bride.  Aeriel is determined to find her friend and take her back home.  When the vampire comes to take her she finds herself in a castle where only a gnome-like mage, gargoyles, and the wraiths of the vamp’s wives are her company.   Aeriel must find what she needs to do to free the wraiths from the vampire’s clutches.  Her quest will take her on a magical and fantastical journey.

The writing for this book is a bit dated but good.  At times the writing is incredibly descriptive.  The story is very fairy tale like, slow-moving at times with lots of deliberate description.  There isn’t a ton of action here.  The pacing is variable; at times the story moves forward at a very deliberate pace then all of the sudden months have gone by.  This story is not for people who are really into high action or fighting scenes.  If you are into fairy tales then this is the story for you; that is the best description for this book….classic fairy tale style.

Overall this is a beautiful story and very gothic.  It is also a fairly short book; takes maybe a couple hours to read.  Appropriate for young adult readers or maybe even younger readers who don’t scare easily.  I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series 🙂

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– The Young Adult Reading Challenge
– The 100+ Book Reading Challenge
– 1st in a Series Reading Challenge