Beyond the Night
Joss Ware
Envy Chronicles, book one
Mass Market Paperback, 357 pages
Published January 12th 2010 by Avon
ISBN 9780061734014
A man with no future
When Dr. Elliott Drake wakes from a mysterious fifty-year sleep, the world as he knew it is gone. Cities are now desolate, and civilization is controlled by deadly immortals. Stranger still is Elliott's extraordinary new "gift"—he has the power to heal, but it comes with fatal consequences.
A woman with a past
Jade barely escaped the immortals and is now hell-bent on revenge. She trusts no one... until Elliott. His piercing gaze and tempting touch shatter her defenses, but the handsome doctor seems to have dangerous secrets of his own. Is it safe to trust him with her heart?
If they are to survive in this dark new world, Jade and Elliott must work together to fight the forces that take them beyond danger.
Beyond desire.
Dr. Elliot Drake -Dred, for short- takes a weekend caving trip with his buddies Quent and Wyatt- and emerges from their adventure to discover that the world has aged fifty years, and it is nothing like they remember it. Dred also discovers he's developed some rather phenomenal powers. He can heal. And he'd become a human MRI. Quent, too, has been given a gift. That of reading the memories of anything he touches. Quite handy in this situation, eh?
They soon come to learn of a large civilization of people still surviving the gangas that feed during the night and soon enough they meet Jade. It's then that Dred realizes another talent of his- he can transfer an injury from one person to another. Now *that* would be cool. What wouldn't be cool would be holding on to it and having it destroy yourself.
POV switches between Elliot, Jade, and even Quent. Readers are also privy to a journal kept by Lou Waxnicki, who is basically the founder of Envy. I really enjoyed the journal. =)
The romance is very realistic. Elliott wants Jade but he won't share, a fact he vocalizes quite clearly. At first, casually. Then again, quite forcefully. Jade, being a former prisoner and now a very independent woman doesn't believe herself to need to explain her association or actions with the other men. And so, a rift forms between the two.
Meanwhile, Quent has his own unobtainable woman to conquer. A modern day female Robin Hood, Zoe is an outsider and she's not given much of a role other than to aid the group at certain times and eventually share Quent's bed. The sex was rather hot though. Much different from the beautiful but somber love making by Elliot and Jade.
As far as violence goes, Elliot and Jade do get their asses kicked. Jade's encounters definitely have violence written all over them near the end and Elliot finds himself leaning hard on death's unlocked door more than once. While I did very much enjoy this book, and am quite curious as to how the story goes as the series progresses, I'm not sure if I'll make a hasty return to find out. There's a lot of questions left unanswered. Did the rise of Atlantis really bring about the end of the known world? Will Zoe ever come back? (bk 3) And what's up with Simon and Sage? (bk 2) What happens with Theo? (bk 4) So, so, many questions.
4 out of 5 stars.
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