Book Review: Hearts in Darkness by Laura Kaye

Hearts in Darkness by Laura KayeTitle: Hearts in Darkness
Author: Laura Kaye
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: bought
Published: April 2011 by The Wild Rose Press

Makenna James thinks her day can't get any worse, until she finds herself stuck in a pitch-black elevator with a complete stranger. Distracted by a phone call and juggling too much stuff, the pin-striped accountant caught only a glimpse of a dragon tattoo on his hand before the lights went out.

Caden Grayson is amused when a redhead literally falls at his feet. His amusement turns to panic when the power fails. Despite his piercings, tats, and vicious scar, he's terrified of the dark and confined spaces. Now, he's trapped in his own worst nightmare.

To fight fear, they must both reach out and open up. With no preconceived notions based on looks to hold them back, they discover just how much they have in common. In the warming darkness, attraction grows and sparks fly, but will they feel the same when the lights come back on?


Why I Read this Book: This book was recommended to me by an author friend. She and I have pretty similar reading tastes so when she said “read this!”, I obeyed.

What I Liked: The main characters are in a dark elevator for most of the story, and yet, the writing is very descriptive. The characters cannot see anything whatsoever so they’re dependent on their other senses. As a reader, I got that – the touches, the smells, the sounds.

The author did an incredible job with the character development in such a short amount of time. Because of the lack of their visual senses, conversation is at the forefront and is the key to this story. The reader learns so much about these two characters in such a small amount of time.

There was such chemistry between Mackenna and Caden. I love how her playfulness set Caden at ease.

What I Didn’t Like: I didn’t like the story backtracking when the POV switched between characters. I would be reading from Mackenna’s POV then when it switched over to Caden’s POV, the story would rewind a bit and I had to read what just happened from his prospective. It felt redundant.

I’m a little over the he was the most well-endowed man she’d ever been with cliché.

This book is a bit overpriced, in my opinion. Right now, the book is $2.99 (which is less than what I paid for it) and it’s only 112 pages long. I feel more comfortable paying 99¢ for novellas that are right around 100 pages.

Memorable Moment:

“Give me your hand,” Caden offered. “You can feel for yourself.”

Overall Impression: Hearts in Darkness had an interesting premise and was incredibly hot.



Brianna’s Rating:
4 Frogs


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About Brianna: Supermom by day, naughty reader by night. Addicted to chocolate, Twitter, her iPad, her Kindle, and 99¢ Kindle deals. You can follow Brianna on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and Instagram.

7 comments:

  1. I liked this novella too but I thought it lost a lot of its steam at the end. Could have done with 20 pages longer to keep the story tight after the elevator IMO.

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    1. There was a lot of build up in that elevator!!

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  2. It was a fun and hot novella! I agree that $2.99 is a bit much for a novella but I bought it on a bunch of recommendations as well. I liked the elevator idea although I expected more of it to take place there.

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    1. I bought it based on recommendation too. I normally don't spend $3 for a novella but this one was the exception.

      Have you read anything else by this author? I have another of her books on my Kindle, maybe even two of them.

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  3. Nice review! If it is just sex, it will be too much for me. Is there some story when they are out of the elevater as well?

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    1. Yeah, there is a story but it's more character based as the leads share a lot of their emotional selves as well as sexy times in the elevator. Post-elevator story is too short IMO but completes the required HEA.

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    2. Exactly what J9 said. You find out quite a bit about these two characters during their time in the elevator. It was like a round of speed dating :)

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