Melanie's Book Reviews

Beneath Scarlett Valley is an intriguing book and very easy to read and get into.
We meet Cassidy Daniels and her sister Harper as they arrive at Scarlett Valley in search of ‘the Source’. Both Cassidy and Harper are Furors or rage demons -as the myths say- who constantly battle the internal rage and the need to kill. Their parents had become immortal by drinking from ‘the Source’ and had supposedly left clues for their daughters to achieve immortality to so that is all that Harper is interested in…. find the source and become immortal….. but Cassidy doesn’t want that, she wants to die because she doesn’t like what she is but she agrees to help Harper. She starts to rethink her decision however when she meets the schools swimming star – Sebastian – and begins to fall for him but could she ever get a happy ever after? She also finds that there are a few people who aren’t exactly who they’re meant to be and she needs to find out what everyone is up to because Furors don’t really have friends…. So who to trust?
So, as I said, this book was very intriguing and moreish. I liked the set up of the girls being sisters and rage demons, they were both very hot tempered and I thought that got across their rage problem very well. I liked that they were on a sort of quest, like looking for the fountain of youth but in this case ‘the Source’ that when drunk from, will give the drinker immortality and I liked that both Cass and Harper were on opposite sides of the fence about using it because it gave us a view for both for and against using it. A lot of Scarlett Valley’s history is tied to the Furor and I thought that definitely added to the story, we get some folklore that everyone believes is false – but is it? And we also find that the Furor aren’t the only supernatural fish in the pond giving us a glimpse of an enemy and a long ago feud that moulded what happened to both sides. There is also a bit of a side thread of story about missing teens that ties humans into the equation too, especially Sebastian.
I thought all of the characters were likable, there were a few instances when Cass & Harper came across as spoilt b*tches that irritated me a bit but I suppose that could be classed as the mannerisms of a rage demon. I liked Cass and Sebastian’s love connection, they fit well and got along great, it was nice to see her struggle to keep her demon in check more as if she was trying to be the better person and overcome her basic instincts.
The story culminated into a big ending where there are some major reveals and some massive consequences and I’m very curious to see where it’s headed now – this was a good read though and I’ll be looking out for book 2.