I finally got The Darkest Hours yesterday and am really enjoying it so far! I have to be honest and admit that it's the first Spiderman novel I've ever read; I've enjoyed the movies and have read some comics in the past, but it took Jim writing one to get me to venture into a Spiderman book.

ETA: I guess that I can now post in the ‘Just Finished the book’ thread for real  --  I finished it this afternoon, and once I got into the ‘swing’ of reading a Spider-Man novel, it was very enjoyable. Lots of snark and fun lines; though this was my first Spider-Man novel, as I mentioned above, it seemed to me that I could recognize a lot of Jim-type humor in it. I will say that I even got a little teary-eyed during the phone conversation between Aunt May and Peter. *sniff* I loved the “magically malicious” response, lol, and as a Spike fan, the

"It is a trap." She considered and stuck out her thumb too. "Dummy."

gave me a big smile. I too liked the scene with Rhino, Peter and Mary Jane in Aunt May's apartment. Another conversation that I particularly noticed was with Dr. Strange (pages 130 and 131).

I'm sure that with me not being a Spider-Man aficionado as many on the list here are I missed a lot of "in" references from previous novels and other story/plot-lines, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. I can’t honestly say that I will read another Spider-Man novel (unless Jim writes another that is), but this one was well-worth reading IMO.