Review – Night Myst (The Indigo Court, Book 1) by Yasmine Galenorn (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Size: 352 pages
Publisher: Jove Books
Release Date: June 29, 2010
ISBN: 978-0515148145
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Indigo Court series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 2/5 stars

I have had this book on my reading list for some time and finally picked it up at the library to read. There are 5 books planned for this series; the 4th book, Night Vision, just came out in July 2013. I was excited to read this book since I love urban fantasies featuring fae, but this book was pretty disappointing for me. The characters sound awkward and the setting is a bit corny.

Cecily Waters can control the wind and has been called home after learning that members of her family are disappearing. Shortly after returning she finds out that the Indigo Court has taken over the forest and is kidnapping magic users. As she delves into the mysteries of the Indigo Court she finds they hold her childhood sweetheart, Grieve, in their thrall. As Cecily gets further and further drawn into the mystery she finds herself aligning with the Vein Lords and discovering disturbing things about her own nature.

I didn’t like this book that much at all. The world was interesting but the characters sound awkward when they talk to each other. The characters talk really formal and just sound like bad actors reading poorly written parts. I had trouble reading it and keep having to concentrate really hard and go back a reread stuff.

Cecily herself is a bit hard to engage with and pin down. Over and over she talks about she how she was on the run with her junkie mom and how that makes things hard for her. Yeah, I agree that would suck…but we don’t need to rehash this every chapter. Additionally Cecily gets new power on top of new power added to her character as the book progresses..it was a bit excessive. Then she does strange things like lament at the loss of life as she is creeping through a creepy cave rescuing her friends. Really, does she really have time to spend all this thought on her morailty while everyone is going to die if she does move her butt?!

Cecily and Grieve are supposed to have this span the ages type of romance going on. But Grieve is part of the Indigo Court now and he is just creepy. The scenes between the two are kind of icky feeling. They say they love each other but pretty much there’s nothing else but sex going on here. Grieve coerces Cecily a lot and there’s a lot of dirty talk. I kind of felt like I was watching a bad porn during their love scenes not seeing two people desperately in love with each other.

Cecily is also forced into a sexual relationship with a member of the Red Court as part of a contract with them. Again this was just yucky and awkward feeling.

Aside from all of my problems with the awkward characters the story was also a bit silly. It kind of goes like this…Is the Indigo Court fey? NO! Is the Indigo Court vampiric? NO! Get ready for it….they are actually….vampiric fey…ooooohhhhh so scary. The whole thing was a bit corny and the story never really drew me in.

All in all there wasn’t much I liked about this story except for the world. I liked the idea of different Fey/vampire courts and enjoyed the idea of the seasons being influenced by them.

Unfortunately I got the second book in this series to review, so I am probably going to have to struggle through that one as well since I always try to read the books I get for review. I just really did not enjoy Galenorn’s writing style.

Overall definitely not one of my favorite urban fantasy reads. The language is awkward, the characters are hard to engage with, the romance is creepy, and whole plot comes across as corny. The world is somewhat interesting but that is about it. If you are interested in reading an urban fantasy about fey I would recommend: the Alex Craft series by Kaylana Price, the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, The Fairwick Chronicles by Juliet Dark, or The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa. All of these are much, much better books than this one.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge
– 150+ Reading Challenge
– Paranormal Reading Challenge
– TBR Pile Reading Challenge