J. A. London

J.A. London introduces us to a dystopian society where vampires rule over human cities. In exchange for protection, humans "donate" blood to their vampire overlords. Unrest stirs in the cities, as the humans grow complacent, believing that others will donate blood in their stead, teenagers question the need to stay behind the walls, and activitists protest the need to remain subservient to vampires.

My favorite part of the novel is the world building. The idea of vampires ruling the world show more with humans locking themselves up in walled cities intrigued me, and J.A. London has done a fantastic job introducing us to the history behind the war between humans and vampires and its devastating outcome. I also enjoyed seeing Dawn act out her role as her city's delegate to vampires and how she grows out from her prejudice against vampires (warranted as it is) to accepting them and eventually caring for one.

Character-wise, it doesn't feel as though Dawn has a steady personality. Her train of thought is hard to follow in places, such as her sudden switch from hating vampires to understanding and accepting them. While I can see where the changes takes place, it's a rocky transition in the wording. Overall, it feels as though Dawn's thoughts are inserted where it seems the reader would like to know them rather than playing out naturally. I do appreciate Dawn's growth as a character. Initially, she starts with self doubts, being the youngest Delegate to the vampires in history, and she hates her role because the vampires took everything from her. However, she gains more confidence as the novel progresses and even grows to appreciate the her parents' dedication to their role as the Delagates before her.

As a heads up, there is a love triangle of sorts in this novel. However, it's not a bad one or one with instalove. In fact, it's pretty obvious who Dawn's going to be with. While Michael seems like a great guy, he's missing for the most part, as Dawn and Michael's duties to the city keep them away from each other. When they're together, they don't talk about anything important and mostly derive comfort from each other. Overall, it is what it is: two friends who got together after they tried kissing. I was pretty indifferent to Michael until he suddenly feels the need to prove his self-worth to Dawn, leading to some unpleasant incidents. I very much liked Victor. He's a vampire, but he's compassionate towards humans and vampires alike... and I probably shouldn't go further than that because I'll end up giving spoilers. Let's stick to I-want-to-see-Dawn-and-Victor-together.

The pacing is pretty slow for the most part, as the novel focuses on world building and setting up the plot, but the action picks up towards the end as the plot unfolds. I see potential for more to happen in the second book of this trilogy and will be picking it up to see what happens next. show less

Bleh. I don't know how this book made me feel. When I started this book and was introduced to the dystopian world of human cattle and Vampire overlords I just had two things in mind -- [b:The Morganville Vampires|6571723|The Morganville Vampires, Volume 1 (The Morganville Vampires, #1-2)|Rachel Caine|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1292614318s/6571723.jpg|6764805] and [b:The Immortal Rules|10215349|The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1)|Julie show more Kagawa|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1323357921s/10215349.jpg|15114912]; which I definitely think is not a good sign. The story was quite different from these books but still it felt utterly unoriginal.

It was not a horrible book. It did not make me want to tear my hair apart and break something hard. It was, in all notions, a formula book. And the thing about such books is that they usually work. But it also makes them highly predictable - and that is what happened with Darkness Before Dawn for me. I wasn't sucked into the fictional world because I knew what to expect from it. And that sort of ruined the whole book for me.

The other turn-off was the dialogue. It was cheesy to the point of being mice-infested. I wanted to see more of the creepy side of Lord Valentine but sadly he couldn't live up to the evil vampire overlord image. It was exactly what a YA novel 'should' be - cheesy romance, unnecessary love triangle, sadistic hero who gets off of pushing the heroin away 'for her own good', a excited best friend and of course a heroin who has faced so many dilemmas in her life and yet has come out strong and brave. Sorry, but this whole formula book didn't work for me.

It was not among the worst books I have read but it was not memorable. I was torn whether to give it 3 stars or 2. What sealed the deal for me was that I am not going to continue with the series because I know what to expect from it and I am simply not that interested. show less

Blood-Kissed Sky was a suspenseful follow-up to the amazing Darkness Before Dawn. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire novel, and London threw many surprises at me. Both Dawn and the secondary characters grew throughout the course of the story, and I got to learn a lot more about each of them. While some characters are more likable than others, they are all realistic and multi-faceted. The continued world-building was also fantastic. London did an amazing job furthering this show more intriguing story.

In case you're wondering why this book got an A- instead of an A or A+, it's because the formatting is off. I bought one of the first copies at Barnes and Noble (they had them out a bit early here), and pages 186-220 were out of order. That made it extremely hard to read that part of the novel. If you want to buy a paperback copy of this work, I recommend checking to make sure those pages are in order before your purchase. I don't know how the Kindle and Nook editions are, but if anyone ends up ordering an e-book of this and wants to let me know, that'd be fantastic. The pages are numbered, at least, so I was able to piece it together, but it was inconvenient.

Now onto the good stuff... Dawn grew a lot as a character in this installment. She's learning to stand on her own against anything the world (or the vampires) may throw at her. She really has become an extremely strong and admirable character. I enjoyed reading from her perspective, and I like the changes she's making. We learn a lot of interesting stuff about her in this book as well, and I can't wait to see what these how these ideas develop. Michael irritated me at the very beginning, but by the end, he grew on me. Teagan really got on my nerves, and I've decided I just really don't like her. There's always one, you know? She's it for this book. I liked getting to spend more time with Faith and Richard, and I enjoyed learning more about them. I would have liked more Victor, but the more I get to know about him, the more uncertain I become regarding whether he is, in fact, a good guy or a bad guy.

The plot was intense and action-packed. Also, London kept me guessing the entire time. I figured a few things out right away, but not everything... just enough that I felt like I knew what was going on. Basically, I was lulled into a false sense of security and then London threw some shocking bit of info at me. This was one of those books that I couldn't put down, and I was up most of the night reading it. It was worth it, though. The ending was a cliffhanger, but at least we get to read the first chapter of the next installment at the end. That teaser made the cliffhanger a little easier to deal with. I can't wait for the third book in this series.

Overall, I'd recommend this novel to anyone who loves dystopian and/or vampire novels. It's a bit dark and gritty, but the characters are tough and intriguing. The plot will keep you guessing, and the suspense will keep you hooked. If you haven't read this series yet, I highly recommend it. show less

I really, really, really enjoyed this one despite its very obvious flaws. A lot of people are judging this one by its cover's similarity to the Fallen series by Lauren Kate (same cover artist, so yeah) and its similarities in premise to The Hunt and Immortal Rules. I say meh! I read The Hunt (well, I started it) and they've got nothing in common. I started the Immortal Rules, too, and was bored to death. Either way, I say give this one a try.

Dawn Montgomery is the delegate between humans and show more vampires, the one in charge of blood negotiations, etc. I loved her! She was well trained in kick-ass-ness but that didn't take away from her vulnerability. She was still frightened by the scary (sort of Anne Ricey) vampires. She was broken by the murders of her parents and her older brother, and that shaped a lot of her opinions about vampires. I thought she was very believable, and probably someone I would want to be friends with.

I thought the world building was intriguing: the walled-in cities, the Night Train, the lack of travel, the trolleys, everything. London (a mother-son collaboration) really embraced the idea of vampiric monsters and I loved the emphasis on the sun's cycles. Her vampires were nothing like what we're used to seeing in YA. They weren't sparkly (lol, I had to) and they weren't cuddly. This seems to be a new direction YA vampire books are taking, and I'm 100% behind it!

This book does include a love triangle but I wouldn't let it deter you. It ends in a surprising way, one that I wouldn't have guessed. The thing that saddened me though, was the way Michael (Dawn's boyfriend) was always compared to Victor. It made Michael seem like a weakling, emasculating him in a way that I thought was unfair. I really like Victor though, and his story really intrigues me. I can't wait to read more about him in the upcoming sequels.

I have two complaints about this book. First of all, I was nearly two hundred pages in before I found a smidgen of a speck of a dust particle of a plot. Halfway through the book, I noticed that while I was loving it, I really didn't know what the plot was. I wish that the story was more evident from the beginning, but I realize that a lot of world and character building had to be done in order for it to be at all believable. My second complaint is one that I notice with a lot of YA. Dawn was only seventeen, still in high school and everything. It really made no sense why she should be chosen as delegate, even if her parents served before her. She was the youngest ever, and even if she was strong and often times very sure of herself, she was in many ways still a kid. Since this novel is sort of dystopic there was no reason for her to be 17. She could have been 19-20 and it would have made more sense. 19-20 is still a young adult (hell, I'm only 22 and I consider myself a young adult. That's what I am!) I feel like the book would have been more believable -- I mean, her 17 year old boyfriend was chosen to be in an elite task force against vampires. How does that make any sense?

In all though, I thought Darkness Before Dawn was thoroughly enjoyable. While the title coupled with our MC's name is a little cheesy, I still found Dawn to be very likable, someone I would want to be around, and someone I definitely would like to continue to read about. I like the characters -- Tegan, Michael and Sin, Dawn's friends (although I'd like to say that Sinclair also known as Sin was a character in Nina Malkin's Swoon series and that bothered me.) The story was enjoyable, and I'm definitely a fan of the more monstrous vampires that seem to be trending in YA right now. Very much recommended. show less