LynneC’s review of Edge of Dawn (Midnight Breed, Book 12) by Lara Adrian
Paranormal Romance published by Delacorte Press 26 Feb 13
By moving the story of the Breeds on twenty years, Adrian has rebooted her series. The original heroes and heroines are all there—all of them—but now their children have stories to tell. This also cleverly moves the series into the currently hot New Adult sector, as most of the central protagonists are in their early twenties.
It also has an urban fantasy vibe. The main characters are all warriors, part of the Order, and they work with the new council, now that everyone knows that Breeds exist. Breeds are people descended from awesomesauce aliens who landed on earth and were captured to breed with humans. They drink blood to survive and can’t cope in the sun, they will turn to ash. So they’re a variety of vampire.
The world is very familiar, if you read a lot of urban fantasy. Not post apocalypse, but close to it. Post revelation, maybe. The Breeds are depressingly beautiful, powerful and perfect, and they can take paltry humans out with one finger. Which, for me, is a bit depressing, because I’m human. It’s nice of Breeds to want to discuss parity with the humans they despise. I’m not sure why they just don’t take over the world, since they’re so superior to us.
Mira is the grown-up version of the wunderkind who were featured in the previous series. She’s a Breedmate. At the start of the series, all the Breeds were male, and the Breedmates were women with a special tear-shaped birthmark somewhere on their body. Now it’s more confused, and we have the “Except on Tuesdays” rule coming in. Now Mira is a powerful warrior, a captain with her own unit. But she’s lost the love of her life, Kellan, who was killed in an explosion eight years before. Poor baby. Except from the blurb and the knowledge that this is a romance, we, the reader, know that he isn’t. Or there wouldn’t be a story, would there?
The books starts as a fascinating variation on JR Ward’s world with many similar features, but with stronger heroines and better thought-out heroes. It’s morphed into big, badass stories, featuring much less detailed character analysis, relying more on tropes and familiar situations for effect and, for me anyway, far less interesting. I kind of lost interest with Andreas’s story, when she changed what was a very interesting, nurturing, almost beta hero into a big, badass warrior. Yawn. I am so over big, badass warriors, male or female.
What’s more, this story is overloaded with padding. We get to visit what seems like all the previous heroes and heroines of the previous books, and the setup for the main story, that of Mira and Kellan, is three chapters long. When we get Mira and her band of merry vampires visiting a nightclub especially for Breeds in the first chapter, I nearly gave up there, but one thing Adrian can do is write. Her style is great, her vocabulary extensive, and she knows how to use a sentence. The technical stuff is most definitely there and it kept me going.
The story starts to be interesting when the germ-terrified scientist enters the scene. I just wish it hadn’t taken three chapters of boring warrior stuff to get there. A chapter would have done. And without the slew of backstory. As a writer of paranormals myself, I know it’s difficult to get the world across without resorting to straight narrative, but her editor could have persuaded her to cut some of it in favour of moving the story along a bit faster.
The reunion of Mira and Kellan is pretty explosive and the sex is full-on. I do like that they came to each other as virgins eight years before, and now they are frankly so into each other they can’t resist. But the sex scenes do get a tiny bit repetitive.
So what I’m saying is that this is a great urban fantasy book with hot sex and not so much romance, because Mira and Kellan already connected, and it’s just a matter of carrying on where they left off. The conflict is external, and there are lots of action scenes, which to me were probably the best parts of the book. With judicious cutting it could have been even better, but I’ll probably carry on reading the series. But I’d have loved the “different” of the first books in the series to have continued.
Grade: C+
Summary:
In this pulse-pounding and thrillingly sensual novel, New York Times bestselling 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.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
