Book Review :: The Darkness Within Us by Tricia Levenseller

The Darkness Within Us by Tricia Levenseller
ISBN: 1782694730
Series: The Shadows Between Us #2
Also in this series: The Shadows Between Us
Published by Pushkin Children's Books
on 9 July 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Goodreads

Chrysantha Stathos has won.

By hiding her intelligence and ambition behind the mask of a beautiful air-headed girl, she has become a wealthy duchess. And, once her elderly husband dies, she will have all the freedom, money, and safety she's ever wanted.

Or so she thought.A man claiming to be the estranged grandson of Chrysantha's lecherous late husband has turned up to steal her inheritance. To make matters worse, her little sister is going to be queen and is rubbing it in her face.

Chrysantha decides that the only thing to do is upstage Alessandra at her own wedding. And as for this grandson, he has to go. Never mind that he's extremely handsome and secretive with mysterious powers... No, Chrysantha wants Eryx Demos dead, and in the end, a Stathos girl always gets what she wants.

Last updated on 7 November 2025

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What is The Darkness Within Us by Tricia Levenseller about?

The Darkness Within Us by Tricia Levenseller follows Chrysantha Stathos, who thinks she has it all figured out.

Play the pretty fool, marry rich, live free. Easy.

She’s spent years perfecting the act, fluttering lashes, playing stupid and dimwitted, and not a single hint of the sharp, ruthless mind ticking away behind the smile. And it’s paid off. She’s a duchess now, sitting pretty and waiting for her ancient husband to finally, you know… vacate the earth.

Freedom, money, safety … all hers for the taking.

Until it isn’t.

Because out of nowhere, a mysterious (and annoyingly handsome) man shows up claiming to be her late husband’s long-lost grandson. And just like that, her perfect plan starts to unravel. Oh, and to really twist the knife? Her younger sister’s about to become queen.

So what’s a girl to do? Steal the spotlight at the royal wedding, obviously. And maybe get rid of this Eryx Demos character while she’s at it, preferably before his secret powers and smouldering looks get in the way.

My thoughts on The Darkness Within Us by Tricia Levenseller

I read The Shadows Between Us, the first in this series in 2023 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve really been enjoying Levenseller’s stories – I loved The Daughter of the Pirate King – so I’m always keen to check out her releases.

The Darkness Within Us is a sequel … but only kind of. It’s more of a companion novel, in that it follows the sister of the main character in The Shadows Between Us, rather than a direct on-going story. It still takes place after the events of the first book, but we’re in a different location, and we’re introduced to new characters and characters that only made an appearance in the first one.

Chrysantha is nothing short of a genius, really.

“My husband is taking too long to die.”

She’s pretended basically her whole life to be the silly girl, the one who is overlooked, who isn’t that smart, who isn’t worth paying too much attention to. But she has a plan – wed the old Duke, wait for him to die, and gain everything he had.

And it was a plan that was absolutely going to work … until, as the description says, a man shows up claiming to be the Duke’s grandson and the rightful heir to everything that Chrysantha has finally got in her hands. She even started renovating the mansion and everything!

The story then follows Chrysantha as Eryx Demos moves in and takes everything she’s worked for. But he has a secret. And she’s determined to figure out what it is.

“We can patch up plaster. Replace broken wood, pound out the dents to the brass. But wounds to the soul cannot be fixed so readily.”

I really did enjoy this story. The characters – both main and side – were engaging, and I actually liked most of them, and the plot clipped along at a nice rate.

If you’ve read other books by Tricia Leveseller and enjoyed them, then definitely give this one ago. While technically you don’t need to have read the first one to read this … there is overlap and I would recommend checking out The Shadows Between Us before you pick up The Darkness Within Us.

Have you read The Darkness Within Us? What did you think?