[Archive] LITERAL ADDICTION's Review of Edge of Dawn

Lara Adrian As a child, Lara Adrian used to sleep with the covers up around her neck, afraid she might become the midnight prey of deadly vampires. Later on, under the influence of Bram Stoker and Anne Rice, she had to wonder if her fear wasn't actually something else: a secret desire to walk in a darker world, to live a dangerous and sensual dream with a man of seductive, preternatural power. It is that twining of fear and desire that fuels Lara's own fantasies today, and the idea that she explores in her New York Times bestselling Midnight Breed series of vampire romance novels from Bantam Dell Books.

With an ancestry stretching back to the Mayflower and the court of King Henry VIII, Lara Adrian lives with her husband in coastal New England, surrounded by centuries-old graveyards, hip urban comforts, and the endless inspiration of the broody Atlantic Ocean.

Edge of Dawn, book #11 of the MIDNIGHT BREED series

by Lara Adrian

Synopsis:

In this pulse-pounding and thrillingly sensual novel, New York Timesbestselling author Lara Adrian returns to the mesmerizing world of the Midnight Breed, following new characters into a dark future where an uneasy peace can unravel into war—and a great betrayal can mask an all-consuming love.

Twenty years after the terror of First Dawn—when mankind learned that vampires lived secretly among them—the threat of violence reigns as the two species struggle to coexist. The only group preserving the fragile harmony is the Order, an elite cadre of Breed warriors dedicated to protecting humans and vampires alike. And in this precarious world of torn loyalties and shattered trust, Mira, a fiery squad captain, finds that every fight bears an intensely personal cost.

Raised among the Order, Mira has always believed in the warrior’s code of swift—and even lethal—justice. But the one thing she desires more than the Order’s hard-won acceptance is Kellan Archer, a sexy but troubled Breed fighter. In love with him since childhood, Mira once broke through his tough exterior during an unexpected night of rapture, but the next day he mysteriously disappeared, never to return.

Kellan didn’t think he would ever see Mira again—or have to confront the truth of why he left. After abandoning the Order years ago, he now leads a band of human rebels intent on carrying out their own vigilante rule of law. Yet a high-profile kidnapping assignment brings him face-to-face with the past he sought to avoid, and the striking woman he has tried desperately to forget. And as tensions mount and the risk of bloodshed grows, Kellan and Mira must take sides—between the competing missions that dominate their lives, and the electrifying passion that claims their hearts.

Our Review, by LITERAL ADDICTION's Pack Alpha - Michelle L. Olson:
*ARC received from NetGalley

MIDNIGHT BREED is one of my very favorite Paranormal Romance series and I auto-pre-order each new release. After finishing Sterling's book and hearing that Mira's book was next, I was both excited and a bit scared... I just wasn't sure how a spin-off would sit with me, and yet I wasn't ready to leave the world by any stretch of the imagination either. When I got the ARC from NetGalley and finally had a chance to sit down with it I breathed a sigh of relief, and shouldn't have been worried at all in the first place. Not only did Lara deliver an amazing book, Edge of Dawn is quite possibly my favorite Breed novel to date. It was wonderful!

Having known Mira since Renata brought her to the Compound as a little girl, seeing her all grown up as the captain of one of the Order's main fighting groups brought both a sense of wonder and pride. Not only is she a Breedmate, and therefore human, not Breed, but she's female as well and being that highly ranked is just something that doesn't happen.

The interim events with Kellan were a bit of a surprise. I sort of had a feeling that Mira might end up with him despite their age difference back in the earlier books, but I was very shocked at the dark turn Lara took with the story and how she unveiled and unraveled it all in Edge of Dawn. It was gripping, emotional, frustrating, maddening, and romantic all at the same time.

I liked how the world was changed in this book as well - humans know about the breed now, wars have been waged because of it and lives on all sides have been lost, there is a tentative kind of truce amongst the many factions and yet, as usual, an evil lurks, threatening to cause even more upheaval. All of the changes allowed for me as a diehard MIDNIGHT BREED fan to have something a little bit different, but still have some closure and a bit of a fix with the reappearance and new positions of my favorites as well.

I really enjoyed the heavier, darker, more intense MIDNIGHT BREED and cannot wait to see where Lara takes us with this new generation and their fight against the new big bad!

LITERAL ADDICTION gives Edge of Dawn 5 Skulls.

Edge of Dawn