Review: "Beyond the Veil" by Pippa DaCosta

Holly Jane - Writer
Mar 12, 2021
5 min read

"Beyond the Veil" by Pippa DaCosta. Book 1 of the Relentless series .

Genre(s): Fantasy, Fiction, Supernatural

Favourite Quote: "You are capable of great things,” he said with conviction. If by great things, he meant complete destruction, then yes, it would seem so."

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Please note that this review will likely contain spoilers and only reflects my own thoughts and experiences. There is no conflict of interest here.

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Charlie, or as we will learn by her given name, Muse - is on the run from the secrets of her upbringing and her past. A severely tortured, beaten half breed demon and human, Muse has had her fair share of scraping at the bottom of the barrel for survival.

In the beginning, we're led to believe that Muse is a strong female character who is used to looking out for her own back and doing what needs to be done. But as her world is rocketed by a sudden meeting of a being who seemingly is just like her, we really begin to see the cracks in the confidence she's tried so hard to build.

Story

Humans and demons coexist and for the sake of the poor citizens of Boston, it really seems like their local council has a lot of jobs to do with reconstruction and landscaping.

The thing that niggles me a little bit, is that these governments know of the existence of demons, but there's no real outward response to it. Sure enough there are probably both private and public institutions working to cover up and destroy the threat, but I really don't feel the real urgency or fear that I'm certain would be a thing. We've witnessed very real supernatural events in the streets and there's no repercussions or fear mongering among the citizens and media outlets (I mean, they'd be eating that stuff up!)

The plot was interesting but did get a little stale for me in a couple of places. I was excited mostly to learn of the sort of powers that Muse could utilise, but a lot of the fluffy descriptions really eek towards watching someone charge up their power with no real BANG resolution to it.

I enjoyed the few twists and turns that were thrown in, but again was growing bored between the repetition of Akil/Muse/Stefan lies and deceit. I think one big reveal of that specific twist at the end would for me, have made Stefan's sacrifice a lot more significant and emotional, because I wouldn't have seen it coming.

Setting

We're situated in Boston, US for this story. I do feel like this is a bustling city, but in response to some of the more public events that happen, we rarely get to feel the public's reaction and panic, which flattens that description just a tad for me.

I personally would have liked to have had a little more insight into the netherworld itself and picture it how Muse would have seen through the eyes of a slave and a plaything for her previous owner. This is however not that big of a deal because I know DaCosta will definitely dive into this a little more further into the series.

Characters

Muse, under the guise of an alias, was first introduced to us as a fierce, independent badass who knew what was up. She's her own confidant and she's a strong woman. But after the events of the first few chapters and throughout the story, we see her weaken and her resolve really beaten down to her core. She's face with the realisation that she wasn't as strong and resourceful as she thought she was, and I think, depends on others more than she realises.

Towards the climax, she definitely tries to grab some of that personal power back and in the epilogue, I was back to feeling her as a badass protagonist again.

There was some confusion for me when we met Akil. In the same chapter, she references someone called Mr. A, who she fears - and I immediately connected this to be Akil himself. Later on in the chapter, I came to another conclusion that Mr. A was a some kind of demon figurehead knowingly out to get her.

But nope, Mr. A was ACTUALLY a reference to Stefan, before we knew his name. So yeah, I was very confused for those few chapters, but we got there in the end.

Language

A lot of beautifully thought out description that really gave us the raw feeling of power on many levels. I did find myself having to double back on more than a few occasions to properly visualise what was going on. Some scenes were arguably over described just that little bit much for me.

A couple of spelling errors here and there but nothing notifiable to spoil my enjoyment of the story.

Theme

Demons and humans - what's not to like? An over saturated market indeed, but it's the plot that really makes it stand out from the others and I would definitely be interested in reading more of the series.

PROS

+ Some really great, powerful description.

+ The main characters were well fleshed out, three dimensional and believable.

+ The breakdown of Muse's walls and confidence to have her address her issues and flaws, only to build up her walls again and develop as someone who's no longer a pawn of others.

+ Elements of interesting world building and demon lore

CONS

+ The lack of tangible fear of the public and governments in the existence of demons and the obvious supernatural events happening.

+ Nica, although somewhat integral to the plot really did annoy me along the way, which didn't fit with the huge mission ahead of her.

Conclusion

I did find myself in reading this, the uncertainty if I would bother to read more of the series or not. Half way through I really fell into a lull that I managed to push through and was glad I did, as the second half of the book gets a little more action.

I enjoyed the plot all in all, the characters were well written and I didn't see the ending coming, which did ultimately satisfy me and set up well for the next book in the saga.

Overall I award Beyond the Veil:

4 out of 5 magical unicorns. 🦄🦄🦄🦄

About the author:

Pippa DaCosta is a USATODAY bestselling, two-time DragonCon Award Finalist, and Amazon Breakthrough Novel semi-finalist hybrid author. Before securing a traditional publisher, she published the Veil Series (a x5 book urban fantasy series) independently in 2014. Pippa is traditionally published with Bloomsbury and Random House Germany. Her work has been featured in the Galaxy Chronicles anthology, part of the Future Chronicles series. Pippa continues to independently and traditionally publish fantasy and science fiction. Her books have been downloaded, bought and listened to over 1,000,000 times.

Pippa also writes as Ariana Nash.

She lives in Cornwall, England.

Check out Pippa DaCosta's social media:

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