Darkness Before Dawn (Darkness Before Dawn #1)

I was captured from the very first page! A truly memorable tale that had me at the edge of my seat, holding my breath, and flipping through the pages like there was no tomorrow. I couldn’t put it down. Dawn is the perfect female lead. Not only is she innocent and kind, but she’s also smart and can kick some vampire ass with that stake she keeps in her boot. Victor is immensely swoon-worthy and his relationship with Dawn is complicated in quite a bittersweet way. He slowly changes her, heals her, and forces her to see things like she never thought she would. Their love is passionate and believable, very well written.

All the characters play an important role in the story as well. Tegan, Dawn’s best friend, is very prominent throughout the book and, thankfully, wasn’t the annoying secondary female lead like some authors usually write them out to be, although she did have her moments. Lord Valentine plays a fierce and frightening villain and I love how he’s an old-style vampire, with rules and etiquette, but he is also quick to make and live by his own, which doesn’t play out too well for Dawn.

There were a lot of surprises and “hold your breath” moments in this book, and I loved it. So many times I was literally yelling “Oh no!” or “OMG!”, totally diving into this world that J.A. London created and relishing every second of it. The ending, although not quite a cliffhanger, definitely left me wanting more. I knew how it was going to end like halfway through the book, but getting there was an amazing ride and it’s going to be torture waiting for the next book. This one is a real page-turner here, people!

If this book interests you, read it. But I would suggest adding it to the BOTTOM of your TBR pile.

This book was totally predictable. Nothing is unique about it at all. The author(s) seem to also take take a bit from Game of Thrones. There is a wall that the humans live in and it's unsafe to go out because of the vampires who would drain them. They have guards called the Night Watchmen... see where I'm going with this? That being said, I did kind of enjoy the book. It was an easy read that I finished in one sitting.

Dawn's parents were killed, now that leaves her to fill their spot of being the city of Denver's Delegate to the Lord Valentine. An 'old family' vampire. He protects the city and keeps his vampire lackeys out of the wall and away from the humans in exchange for blood. He's not very good at it though as Dawn gets attacked for vampires super early in the book. She ends up being saved by Lord Valentine's son. Whom she will grow to love. Yeah...

I had high hopes for this book as it sounded really good and that cover is just beautiful but I don't think I'll read the others in this series.