Review: The Deepest Night by Shana Abe

From the Back Cover:

It’s 1915, and sixteen-year-old Lora Jones is finishing up her first year as a charity student at Iverson, a prestigious, gothic boarding school on England’s southern coast. While she’s always felt different from everyone around her, now she finally knows why: She is a drákon, a rare, enchanted being with astonishing magical abilities.

As war hits Britain’s shores, and Lora reels from an unimaginable loss, she finds that her powers come with grave and dangerous responsibilities. At the request of Armand Louis, the darkly mysterious boy whose father owns Iverson, Lora will spend her summer at his lavish estate. To help the war effort—and to keep Lora by his side—Armand turns his home into a military hospital, where Lora will serve as a nurse. For Armand is inescapably drawn to her—bound to her by heart-deep secrets and a supernatural connection that runs thicker than blood.

Yet while Lora tries to sort out her own feelings toward Armand, fate offers an unexpected surprise. Lora discovers there is another drákon, a prisoner of war being held in Germany. And that only she, with her newly honed Gifts, will be able to rescue him.

With Armand, Lora will cross enemy lines on an incredible mission—one that could bond her to Armand forever, or irrevocably tear them apart.

Beautifully written, deeply romantic, and filled with daring adventure and magic, The Deepest Night is a mesmerizing novel of the enduring pull of destiny, and the eternal strength of love.

My Thoughts:

A worthy follow-up to The Sweetest Dark (click to read my review), which was haunting and absolutely fantastic. The sequel picks up right where we left off, after Lora has experienced devastating heartbreak, but has also learned that she is not alone in the world; there is another drakon. From the ashes of tragedy, a true friendship is born between Lora and Armand, the handsome, privileged marquess who shares her secret and would share much more if she'd let him. Working together to aid the war effort at home, Lora finds a purpose in which to channel her grief as a nurse while Armand finds solace in being able to stay close to Lora. But a new determination binds them as true partners when they discover that Armand's brother is being held as a prisoner of war and they may be his only chance for rescue.

They embark on a dangerous mission to retrieve him, sneaking across the Channel, through war-torn countryside, and into a primeval forest where there are still people who remember the stories of the drakon. But even as they both begin to embrace their true selves, terrible choices must be made, and the biggest revelation of all will have far-reaching consequences when they finally reach Armand's brother. And throughout it all, a truly beautiful, achingly bittersweet love story unfolds, though it will always be tempered by the bonds of the past and the threats of the future. Written just as lushly and with nearly as much emotional depth, The Deepest Night is a sublimely satisfying sequel, and I am anxiously awaiting the conclusion of this mystical, ethereal series.

My Rating:  4.5 Stars out of 5

**Please Note: This review references an advance copy received from the publisher through the Amazon Vine program. These are my honest and unbiased opinions, and I was not compensated in any other way for reviewing this book.