Review: Betwixt and Between (Edge of Night, #1) by Alexis Duran


Reporter Ian Evers, obsessed with magical creatures since childhood, never experiences satisfying proof that the magical realm actually exists until he falls into an entrapment spell set by a handsome but dangerous elf. Barely escaping with his soul intact, Ian is able to undo the hex, but he can't escape the very real infatuation he's developed for the fierce, alluring elf.

Ezekiel Stormshadow is a svarta, a dark elf who serves the queen of the dark realm. The realm of darkness needs the power of light to survive, and while hunting the last few magical beings on earth, Ezekiel discovers Ian, a light elf who's unaware of his true nature and ripe for the plucking. Their brief encounter awakens a great hunger in Ezekiel, and he's determined to feast on the light elf's power and body before the queen intervenes and claims Ian for herself.

Ian knows only he can save Ezekiel from the grasp of the dark queen. Driven apart by the ancient imbalance between the dark and light realms, an evil queen starved for power, and their fear of each other, Ian and Ezekiel are relentlessly drawn together even though their union might destroy them both.


Ian has always been curious of the paranormal. He is a writer for a tabloid that specializes in the magical world. A dark elf, Ezekiel recognizes what Ian truly is and casts a hex to ensnare him. But Ian is able to thwart him. Surprising the dark elf. The two are drawn to each other. Ian begins to search for answers about his shady past, he was an orphan at the age of nine, raised by his deceased mother's best friend who is also a witch.

Ian is surrounded by a peanut gallery of humans who are drawn to his "light". I must say the world and elven mythos created was interesting. The beginning half of this novella was intriguing, the war between the elves and banishment and the mystery of Ian's parentage.

It was riding the 3.5 Hearts rating because while the ideas were solid, sometimes the execution wasn't as up to snuff.

The story nosedived around 70%. It made an effort to be exciting but it lost momentum. The good guy enters the forbidden world to save his man. And once he does, they end up switching places repeating the same plot twist on the evil tree instead of confronting the evil queen.

And then magic trampoline/acrobatic sex happens in time of peril. It read more like filling a sex quota or word count quota instead of adding to the action of light vs. dark finally coming together.

And the story ends with a HEA for the pair but the villain aka the queen is still around? Doesn't matter because there was time for more sex. *sighs *

The plot fell off. This isn't the best far romance I've read but it could have been better: lose the repetitive tree scene, actually have the protagonists face the antagonist, the antagonist was wishy-washy. That queen caused the rift between elven factions? She should have had a tenth of that gumption to actually make a difference. She ruled more from her throne instead of doing anything for herself. It was boring to read. She tried to talk the talk but couldn't walk the walk.

And the secondary characters. Oh dear. They tried so hard and I wasn't a fan of the peanut gallery. They too much face time for my preference, they didn't add much to the story. Cleona tried to protect Ian by letting him roam about looking for paranormal? :/

If the next book in this series continues with the same couple, I'm not interested in continuing. They could only be stretched so far.

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