Ren Monroe is a scholarship student at Balmerick, the college of magic. Almost everyone uses magic, but Ren specializes in creating new spells. She wants to find a position with one of the five founding families when she soon finishes her graduate studies. She is on her way home to the Lower Quarter with her best friend Timmons. The transportation spell goes awry, and they, with their two “friends of circumstance” who regularly use the transportation portal, and two interlopers - sons from the five families who were stuck using that station that day - are moved deep into the Dires, a dangerous forested area.

I want to know more about the world. I was interested in the characters. I enjoyed the book. I would read the next book in the series, but I don’t know if I would buy it. I think it is unlikely I would reread it. ( )

Scott Reintgen's latest, A Door in the Dark, is a wonderfully character driven dive in to what constitutes morality and what can twist your perception of good and evil. The heroine's father is killed as a byproduct of a wealthy family's greed and Ren becomes driven by a need for vengeance. Ren is also a gifted spell creator and a top student at Balmerick University, a school for magicians that floats directly above her city. While using a magical portal to return home during a school holiday, Ren and five other students suffer a tragic magical misfire that sends all six far from their intended destinations. The struggle to survive their journey home, as well as each other, form the bulk of this first volume in a new trilogy by a master storyteller. ( )

Magic meets horror and romance for an exciting read, which holds until the very last page.

Ren's a top student at the Balmerick University and has to wake the interest of one of the major families/houses, which govern their world, in order to achieve her goals. It should be an easy task with her talents but, so far, she's been ignored. Giving in to her best friend, she attends a party only to witness a disaster, which not only strengthens her dislike for the elite families, but also sets off a devastating chain of events. Thanks to a terrible mishap, her and a handful of other students land in the far depths of the wild forests, where dangerous, deadly creatures hunt everything that moves. With no way to contact civilization, limited magic, and even more limited supplies, she and the others must find a way to survive the journey home. But none of them are aware of the true danger. Landing in the wilderness might have been an accident, but now, one of them is thirsty for blood.

Rich story telling hits high tension and stakes, and that with more than a little magic. It's an intoxicating mix, which promises an exciting tale...and it delivers. The first chapters are extremely well-woven. The author has developed a thorough, magical realm and provides the background and logic to back to up. While that might sound as if the information will bog down, it doesn't. The opening chapters are rich, allowing character depth to develop (on Ren's end), the world to grow vivid, and the tale to take firm root. It was a delight to sit back and sink into it.

Then, the second half of the book hits, and this changes in setting, characters, and atmosphere. Where the first part slides into a story about the magic, families, fighting for positions, and school, this second half jumps into survival, terrifying moments, and dangerous situations. It's definitely exciting and gripping, just not in the same direction...and because it takes on more of a horror and race-against-time vibe (with several characters we don't really know up until that point), the depth that was gained weakens and loses quite a bit of importance. I'm assuming that this will switch back in the original direction with book two, but the switch-a-roo was a little strange for one book. Not to say it was bad. It's not. Just unexpected and makes the brain do a little shift. The second half is also very gripping and keeps the reader on the edge of the seat. Granted, a little more character depth would have been helpful for several reasons. But, in general, it works. There were more than a few unexpected twists and turns, and it was very hard to put the book down. (I might have read this one in a single sitting because of that).

As a quick note, this is sold as a young adult read and is a young adult read. The university setting did throw me for a loop, but there was no need to worry. There's gore and violence, some drug use, but nothing extreme.

I'm definitely looking forward to book two because this world and Ren carry so much potential. Book one does tie off well at the end. So this isn't a cliff-hanger, and yet, there is plenty of room for the tale to grow into so much more. And I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes from here. I received a complimentary copy and enjoyed the read quite a bit. ( )

A Door in the Dark by Scott Reintgen is a tale of two stories. There are the first two-thirds of the story, entertaining but not memorable or engaging. I didn’t hate it enough to set it aside, and it did entertain me. Then there is the book’s last third, wherein we learn some intriguing information and get a plot twist that changes everything. Suddenly, I want to read more and discover how this new information will play out given what we already know. It is not a writing style I generally recommend – leaving all the exciting reveals until the end – but it works for Mr. Reintgen.

A Door in the Dark has an intriguing premise with its locked room murder mystery set in a magical world. Then, it morphs into an adventure story wherein our hapless students must traverse uncharted territory to reach safety. Finally, Mr. Reintgen adds a revenge plot to the mix. None of these trajectories are boring or poorly written, but neither are they stellar. It is only when a last-minute plot twist becomes something of a game-changer that I became fully vested in the story, a fault I attribute to the fact that there is no blend of the plotlines. There is the murder, then there is the adventure. Mr. Reintgen mentions the revenge plot several times throughout the story but only abstractly. Only towards the end does it start to take shape, and that’s where A Door in the Dark starts to get interesting.

I had a similar reaction to the main character. Ren appears to be one thing during the murder mystery portion. She is a bit fusty, like one of those know-it-alls you avoid at social functions. Then Ren adapts to become something else while in the wilderness. While she still manages to spout oodles of knowledge, she tones down her approach and lets herself be somewhat human for these scenes. Still, she feels very basic until the end of the book, that is. Something happens that proves Ren is much more complicated than you think through most of the story.

Combine a newly intriguing Ren with that plot twist, and it completely changes how I think of A Door in the Dark. In fact, those changes increase the chances of me reading the sequel. Despite a fairly ho-hum start, Mr. Reintgen redeems himself in the end, and that is all that matters. ( )