Review--After Daybreak by J.A. London

Our last hope lies with our oldest enemies.

When we lost the war with the vampires, our world changed. The Old Family overlords trapped us in a few scattered cities and demanded our blood. Then Victor- the first vampire I've ever trusted, ever loved- came to power, and I hoped for peace between our kinds. Only now a new type of monster, Day Walkers, has emerged, and their maniacal leader is threatening to destroy us all, human and vampire alike.

The Old Family Council is stubborn and proud, unwilling to acknowledge the danger. But once I claim my birthright as the last living member of the Montgomery line, they will have to listen to me.

Neither fully human nor vampire, I am the bridge between both. Even if I'm not sure where I belong anymore, I know that the only way any of us will survive is if we stand together.

The final book in J.A. London's Darkness Before Dawn trilogy concludes with After Daybreak. There was a lot happening last go around and now we get to see it all wrapped up in a neat little bow.

Dawn and Michael fled L.A. when the Day Breakers were attacking them, their friends made it safely away on the last bit of working train piece, but Dawn and Michael didn't make it out completely unscathed. They're hurt and find refuge in a small town that has a few surprises of its own.

Soon Dawn and Michael return home with Victor and then the real troubles begin. They have a lot on their plate. Dawn is trying to deal with the information Sin told her about her family line and that she might in fact be a damphir, then there's the issue of needing to shut down the V-processing center in L.A., the Day Walkers causing havoc in Denver, Dawn needing to convince the Vampire Elders to let her on the council and of course trying to defeat Sin once and for all. All in a day's work, right?

There was quite a bit of action and moving in this one! So many problems that had to be dealt with before we could hopefully get to a happy ending. I think what I enjoyed most though was finally learning about Faith and Richard's past. For the course of the trilogy, Richard has made it clear he wants to be with Faith, and Faith has always brushed him off and we finally get the insight as to why! 

When it comes to series endings I tend to over analyze things. Most particularly what will happen with Dawn as a dhampir. Does she get a longer life expectancy? She's already made it clear she doesn't want to become a vampire, so it leaves to wonder what will eventually happen with her and Victor?

Then there's the wondering what happens to our other starcrossed lovers, like Faith and Richard, Jeff and Rachel to name a few! There's another couple too, I just don't want to name names because I can't recall if it was hinted at last time. But I just wonder how they are now that the series ended. I guess we just assume they are happy since we were focusing on our heroine Dawn anyway.

And then I am left wondering what Dawn's position as dhampir will be like. It is kind of focused on in the beginning then it kind of drifts off. A particular something happened while she and Victor went to the Vampire Council and I am left wondering what else will happen there...I can't explicitly state my wonderings because I don't want to get into spoiler territory, but the point is, I am left with quite a few questions now that the series is over and I don't tend to like having so many questions at the end of a series.

I will say that otherwise, I enjoyed how it ended. I liked that the main big issues were all resolved. Even some of the other smaller issues that branched off the larger ones were resolved. It was just those tiny little happenstances that occurred that I am left wondering what else will happen there! I guess you could say that the ending was happy enough!

This has been a truly enjoyable trilogy with lots of surprising twists and turns that I hadn't seen coming! Will be curious to see if the J.A. London writing team write another series together!


Overall Rating 4/5 stars