[Archive] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of Hunting Daylight

Piper Maitland lives on a Tennessee farm with her family. She is the author of the paramormal romance, Acquainted With the Night (Berkley/November 2011). The sequel,  Hunting Daylight, will be published on 2/5/13 by Berkley/Penguin USA. Piper has also written novels under the name Michael Lee West.

Hunting Daylight, Book #2 of the NIGHT series
Author:  Piper Maitland

Synopsis:
Out of the Shadows…
For more than a decade, Caro Barrett has had doubts about the death of her husband, Jude, who disappeared while looking for tribe of day-walking vampires in an African rainforest. Now, their daughter Vivi is struggling through her teenage years without a father. Waiting in the wings is Raphael Della Rocca, an ancient vampire ready to possess Caro’s heart–and to protect her and Vivi from harm. And, with Caro’s husband declared legally dead, she feels it’s finally time to move on….
A hemisphere away in a windowless compound, an Ottoman vampire lies dying from a rare blood disease that has made him vulnerable to the faintest bit of light. Yet he is determined to vanquish its power over him– to feel the sun on his face one last time. And in Caro’s darkest fears, he will be lifted into the light of day.

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Pack Alpha - Michelle L. Olson:
*ARC Received from the Publisher in exchange for an honest Review

When this book came in the mail from the Publisher and I looked up the series on GoodReads I knew immediately that I'd want to read them. I didn't, however, expect to enjoy it as much as I did.

This is a long book, it's 560 pages, and I absolutely could not put it down! My first reaction upon finishing it was this: "Oh wow! I rarely cry over books, but the hold that this book had over me & the ending had me in tears for sure. Outside of that, it was like a James Bond/Bourne Legacy flick meets Blood Diamond on paper, all with vampires... Super strong & sassy heroines. Incredible heroes. Utterly despicable villains, & a story that just wouldn't quit. I loved it all!!"

Husband and wife, Caro and Jude, are madly in love but in need of money. They have a 3 year old daughter whose very existence sparks fanaticism and has had them on the run for years just to be safe. You see, Caro is a hybrid, a 1/2 vampire, and Jude is a vampire, but wasn't when Vivi was conceived, thus making Vivi a 1/4 vampire and the talk of the entire immortal race for one reason or another; especially those that are of the paranoid or superstitious variety.

In order to make some extra money for the family, Jude decides to take a position in the African rainforests for a company called Al Din, utilizing his skills as a biochemist to study a new species of bat that has been discovered, but he has no idea what he's walking into there and he mysteriously disappears, leaving long time friend of the family and Godfather to Vivi, Raphael, to step in once again as protector and continue the farce he's played for well over a decade, denying his feelings for Caro while trying to convince himself that just being part of her and Vivi's life is enough.

*sigh* Oh how I'd love to tell you more, but I don't do spoiler reviews, so you're just going to have to check it out for yourself to find out what happens! :) Let me just say this in addition to my little summation in my intro above - While this book is an Urban Fantasy it felt so very real! While unbelievably action packed and full of twists and turns, danger, intrigue and surprises, it all felt like it could happen (albeit with a little stretch of the imagination of course, but that's why we read UF and PNR, right!?). It also has some wonderful romance, and was so vividly written in every aspect that I truly was drawn in and invested in everything the book had to offer.

LITERAL ADDICTION gives Hunting Daylight 5 Skulls and highly recommends it! The last bits of the book took my breath away and I can only hope that the next installment shakes things up even more. I have found a new top 10 UF series and can't wait for more from Piper.

Hunting Daylight