“Darkness Before Dawn” by, J. A. London

                I received an advanced copy of “Darkness before dawn” from the author, who was nice enough to send one out to me. This title is a teen paranormal romance with a lot of surprises. The story follows a teen girl named Dawn Montgomery who lives in the (Future) walled city of Denver.

                Years before the walls went up, a war between vampires and humans had occured. Seeing that they couldn’t win, the humans decided to call a truce between themselves and the powerful beings. The vampires agreed not to kill everyone and the humans agreed to freely donate and deliver blood on a monthly basis. Not all vampires agreed with the truce however and those rogues made it necessary to wall up the major cities that were left after the war.

                Seventeen year old Dawn is the new human delegate and her job is to be a go-between with the head of the vampires in her area. The Valentines are the head vampire family in the Denver area, and Lord Valentine is a nasty piece of work. Dawn struggles with the weight of her responsibilities and with trying to be a teenager in this dark and dangerous world.

Dawn does have a best friend named Tegan who is a bit wild but does her best to be supportive. Dawn also has a love interest, a boy named Michael who is in training to be a Night Watchman, an elite warrior who protects the city at night. Dawn’s guardian, Rachel, does her best to help with the heavy load and support Dawn in her life. Things are very complicated for this teen girl but she carries herself well throughout the whole story.   

Enter Victor Valentine, Lord Valentine’s son. Dawn has never met a vampire like Victor and he begins to change her view of the world they live in. Victor is my favorite character in this book, he is smart and compassionate and I love how he is written.  There are a couple more characters that bring this story together but I will let you discover them on your own.

In a lot of ways “Darkness before dawn” is a typical teen paranormal novel, but in many more ways it’s not. I think most of the characters are very well developed and the world they live in is very interesting. This book deals with some heavy emotions from the characters. The struggle between making your own choices and having them made for you is a theme that occurs many times in this book, along with the difference between right and wrong. I fould it very easy to immerse myself into this story and the ending has a cliffhanger that will have you wringing your hands waiting for the next installment. Overall a very good read for teens and adults, and a series I will look forward to reading more of.