A Perfect Darkness is the debut book in a series by Jaime Rush about a group of young adults who have psychic powers and are being hunted by a group. The focus of this story is on Amy Shane, a young woman who lives a relatively quiet life until a man breaks into her house and tells her she is a specially gifted person, then gets shot and dragged away. That man, Lucas Vanderwyck, has been in Amy's dreams for months, and her curiosity
leads her to begin investigating some of his wild claims.
This starts in motion a new life for her, that of running from the CIA and being unable to trust anyone. She makes a reluctant alliance with two other Offspring;
still, she feels a link with Lucas and wants to rescue him.
But Lucas is being held prisoner and being used for his psychic powers - plus he doesn't want them to rescue him.
What can Amy do?
Although aspects of this novel are enjoyable, overall it is a little slow. The awkward central love story between Lucas and Amy is almost entirely carried out in dreams. It's difficult to fully believe that Amy loves Lucas so much when she's only met him once for two minutes or so.
Although Petra and Eric are complex and interesting characters, some of their rescue attempts are a bit unlikely.
Some disjointed parts of the story, such as Amy's wish to rescue her parrot (which doesn't take place in this story)
make it feel rather unfinished. In fact, the story is unfinished. It's clearly the first of a series, not enough is completed in this installment to make it feel satisfying.
Parts of the plotting and underlying situation are well-written and enjoyable, but too many loose ends and too little going on in the middle
keeps this from being a really good read. The quote from Janet Evanovich on the cover
overstates the merit of this book, unfortunately; it is 'paranormal', but not 'exciting' or 'sexy', and it hasn't 'hooked' me.