Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! I finished another book and you know what that means!

Title: Surrender the Dark
Author: Tibby Armstrong

Disclaimer: This review is based on opinion and observation of the lead writer! Please respect her thoughts and opinions on this book! Plus, not only spoilers might take place but it also contains yaoi, as in boys love, if you aren’t into it then don’t read unless you know someone who likes it.

Description: We meet Benjamin Fuller who is hunter born and hunter raised to kill vampires! While helping his uncle, he ends up going blind all thanks to a vampire in his uncle’s basement and the vampire not only escapes but kills his family as he does it. Now he has to fight vampires blindly and with a new sense which with this new sight he couldn’t see that the vampire that killed his family would come back and fall in love with him. On top of that, a war between vampires, zombies, and witches is about to happen and Ben, Tiziki (I am calling the vamp that) along with his friends, Akito and a witch named Nix must stop it unless Ben has to sacrifice himself to save it.

Thoughts: Oh man…. this book was awesome! At first I was like thinking, “Great! He is blind by acid! Book over!” But when I saw that Ben had a cane with a sword conversion that was when I was interested! I never expected that he would go Daredevil on vampires in this book since we do see Blade have sunglasses while fighting and Angel go badass in Buffy in vamp form but here! Here! We have blind guy go Zaruichi on vampires! I wished that he didn’t get his sight back in the book because it would’ve been a greater challenge in the final fight but when he meets up with Tiziki…why the nickname? Well, it is a Greek name and not sure how I would spell it from hearing how Siri pronounced it, Tiziki came to mind! Great, now I am craving for Greek food with the delicious Teziki sauce! Anyways, focus, that was when he could see again. What I found interesting was how not only he was able to see again along with seeing the auras a lot more in his friends and Tiziki, he was able to see the monsters for who they were and not everything is always beautiful once you see it. Such as when he first walked down the street with his sight back, Ben had his sunglasses off for the first time and he saw his reflection in a car window and saw the scars on his face and above his eyes which scared him. He was hoping that his scars were heroic but it was the result of having acid poured on his face.

Speaking of acid, I found it interesting with the vamps in this one that not only walking in daylight weakens them but acid and iron weakens them more which causes them to have more human traits such as eating food, drinking stuff, and have some blood to make them strong again. What is also interesting, since I mentioned zombies, they are created through magic and vampire blood that was collected to bring back the dead. They do act like vampires even which was what I got from reading this. Okay, basically the zombies are revanants created by witches which is cool in a way.

Speaking of witches, my fave character throughout this was Nix who is the daughter of Lord Morgan and Lady Morgana of the Fae! She may be small but she does have a lot of power even if she has a cuff that helps her from being found by her parents. Oh yes, she has mommy and daddy issues where if daddy finds her she is dead or mommy finds her then she is banished. Since it looks like a sequel may come up, she will be important in that since in this book she was not only able to make barriers to protect any onlookers and police from seeing anything supernatural but she was able to absorb magic from her father without being detected which shows that her talents can be used very well. I do like how she does have the motherly attitude towards Ben since they did meet each other as kids and did look out for him by helping him out with getting over hangovers and reading to him. If Ben and Tiziki were together then I would see Nix and him as a couple but I did see how she cared about Akito like that too even though he was gone in the end of the book. I am wondering how the next one will have him involved when it releases.

The romance, since it was balanced beautifully with the action, was very well written. At first Tiziki shows up and was supposed to kill Ben but couldn’t help by falling for him since Ben is a handsome guy as in blonde curls, muscles, and tattoos and piercings underneath. Not kidding! Tiziki was also described as very handsome and very bishonen-like. To me, I felt like I was reading Gravitation again with how the relationship was starting as in how both were kind of awkward and always fighting with each other until KISS! And…you know what will happen next…sorry! I am keeping my professionalism here! If you are into Grvitation, Loveless, and other yaoi (it means boys love in Japanese for anyone who is asking) then this is a book for you! Heck, I think my blush was glowing during the Epilogue last night and I did have lights off so…yeah…I was glowing in the dark! Hey Vivi! You should read this too if your blush glows! (Yes, I told her about this one!)

Rating: 5 Star Pawprints Out of 5! It deserves a 5 because it was a romance and action story written very well! As in, the action and romance were balanced and it was even more awesome with Ben going Daredevil on a vampire with a sword! Hoping with the sequel continues Ben and Tiziki’s story and see what happens to Akito next. I would also like to see more stuff with Nix since she is an awesome half-breed character. And yes, more yaoi!

Anyways, that is it for this review! I am reading another book on my Net Galley list of books! If you saw my Kindle shelf, you would be like “Damn!” I am a bookworm guys and I am glad Kindle is accessible with Siri. Anyways, we will try to get more MegaCon footage and make sure you check out the Nerdy Shique Universe channel since I did a makeup look using the new Maybelline Fairy Highlighter in Exclusive Purple! Until next time!