Audiobook Review – Dark Diary by P. Anastasia (2/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Length: 8 hours and 35 minutes
Publisher: P. Anastasia
Release Date: September 20, 2016
ASIN: B01LX7BRYL
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Audiobook through Audible Escapes
Rating: 2/5 stars
“A 17th-century vampire haunted by guilt over the passing of a friend and lover.
An artist tormented nightly by visions of her own untimely death.
Worlds collide when a young woman with a dark past encounters a man with an even darker one. More human than vampire, Dark Diary is a quaint, sophisticated romance detailing the accounts of two lovers who have paid the ultimate price…. Forbidden romance in the vein of classics like Wuthering Heights, frosted with the seductive allure of immortality, the story documents a pair torn apart by time.”
Series Info: Stand Alone, borrowed from Audible Escapes
Audiobook Quality (3/5): The author narrates this audiobook herself. She did a great job with the female voices but the voice of Matthaya in particular was very robotic and stiff sounding. It made his parts of the story awkward to listen to.
Characters (2/5): I didn’t really like either of the characters. They both come across as strangely needy and whiny at points. I also felt like they were all pretty selfish. I didn’t really understand how the Kathera’s mother being really bitchy played into the story and struggled with the heroine’s reasons for continuing to live with her step mom. The relationship between Matthaya and Kathera had a very creepy vibe to it as well. You never really get to know Matthaya all that well (aside from his passionate young love for his first lover Katherine). Both Kathera and Matthaya are very one dimensional. Kathera is driven by the need to escape her stepmom’s hate and Matthaya is driven by his unrequited passion for his dead lover.
Story (2/5): The story was pretty predictable and kind of boring. I did enjoy the twist of Kathera being the reincarnation of Matthaya’s long ago lover Katherine (this is pretty apparent early on in the story so I don’t feel like I am spoiling anything). I think the best part of the story was when we went back into the past to learn about Matthaya and Katherine. Aside from the part where we went back in time, I didn’t enjoy this much at all. I just didn’t understand the point of it, I guess it was for both characters to find some happiness? There really isn’t much of a plot here.
Setting (3/5): The setting was fairly blase’. The dark corners of a typical city. Again, you do get to journey into the past for part of the book which was interesting.
Writing Style (2/5): I didn’t enjoy the writing style here. There was just too much jumping around which was confusing. Additionally, the whole thing just felt kind of lethargic to me. I almost stopped listening to this audiobook a number of times because I just did not enjoy either the writing style or the story.
Summary (2/5): Overall there really wasn’t anything here that I really liked. The reincarnation concept was kind of interesting but has been done many times before. The journey into the past was better than the rest of the story. I didn’t like the characters and didn’t really think there was much plot here at all. I won’t be reading any more books by this author.