Book Review: Darkness Before Dawn by J.A. London

Darkness Before Dawn
Darkness Before Dawn #1
Author: J.A. London
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Paranormal/Dystopian
Release Date: May 29th 2012
Review Source: HarperTEEN
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) This electrifying new trilogy blends the best of paranormal and dystopian storytelling in a world where the war is over. And the vampires won. 

Humans huddle in their walled cities, supplying blood in exchange for safety. But not even that is guaranteed. Dawn has lost her entire family and now reluctantly serves as the delegate to Lord Valentine, the most powerful vampire for miles. It isn’t until she meets Victor, Valentine’s son, that she realizes not all vampires are monsters....

Darkness Before Dawn is a fresh new story with captivating characters, unexpected plot twists, a fascinating setting, and a compelling voice. Written under the name J. A. London by a talented mother-son team, the trilogy is perfect for fans of True Blood and the House of Night and Morganville Vampires series.

First order of business is the cover. Who doesn't love this cover. I'm a huge fan of the black and white look on covers. They can speak to you so much louder sometimes without having all those colors under the rainbow. The font is very pretty and the model's dress is to die for. I can see how this would represent Dawn in the book. Great job to the team behind the cover. 

Darkness Becomes Her is a collaboration between a mother and son team. This team really did their homework and wrote a great book. You might begin reading this book and feel it has similarities to Julie Kagawa's new book The Immortal Rules, but having read both the only similarities is that each book has vampires and its a dystopian. Other than that the story lines are very different. Each great in their own special way. 

In Darkness Before Dawn we meet Dawn. She is a human living during a time that Vampire rule. Dawn has lost her parents and has taken the position of delegate to Lord Valentine for the humans. This is not an easy task for such a young person to take on. Add to that the crazy expectations from Lord Valentine, from how Dawn has to dress to visit him to what she can say. The lord you can say in stuck in the old days. Dawn main goal is to maintain the peace treaty between humans and vampires. Of course Lord Valentine wants more blood donated, which Dawn sees as a problem. She must think of creative ways to get the humans to want to donate more blood. All this while still attending school where she is either respected or made fun of because of her position. 

Then one night Dawn receives help when she gets attacked, she believes her savior is one of the Night watchmen. Who serve to protect humans from the vampires. Well she eventually finds out that who she thought saved her was not who he really was. Dawn was saved by a vampire and to top that off, its Lord Valentine's son Victor. Victor (drool-worthy) doesn't follow by the rules and much less when they are coming from his father. Victor begins to appear at all times around Dawn and well this has Dawn questioning her relationship with her boyfriend who is trying to become a Night watchman. If Dawn's boyfriend or anyone really were to find out she is hanging around a vampire, its bad news. Dawn will have to try and understand what she is beginning to question about her beliefs on vampires and figure out what she is starting to feel towards Victor. 

Darkness Before Dawn will keep you tied to the pages as you become engrossed in this world where Vampires rule and human are the cattle. You will probably not want to stop once you start. Each characters is well balanced and our assets to the story. When you think you know what is going to happen, you find out you weren't even close to guessing. I recommend this book to those who like dystopian, paranormal and romance all in one book.