Alright. This book was stupid good. I rarely give any books 5 stars because I like to reserve 5 stars for a book I'd read over and over. This one, I'd probably read again but it was so beyond many other books I've read lately that I HAD to give it 5 stars. Let me give you an overview before I get into what I fell in love with...

Darkness Dawns is another paranormal romance. We first meet Sarah Bingham. She's a professor, I think, of music or something like that. Sounds like she has just recently finished up the school year and she's up early and has decided on digging up a patch of her backyard so she can start a veggie garden (a girl after my own heart!). She hears some freaky noises in the forest near her house. It sounds like her backyard butts up to a large meadow and that large meadow butts up to the forest. Anyways, she hears noises and then out of nowhere, something flies out and knocks her on her ass and then whatever it is, is up again and back into the forest before she can see it. Is it a bear? It was HUGE but fast! Then, the noises change and it sounds like a PERSON! She doesn't want to waste time calling 911 so she takes her shovel and quietly goes out to the woods to see if she can help. What she sees there blows her mind! She sees a few men standing over another man and they have the man on the ground NAILED into the dirt!!!!! What the hell!?!? As she approaches, she hears the bad guys talking about leaving him out in the sun to die and about seeing what happens when they do "this" and she hears a nasty, wet sound and then a painful grunt. As she is able to see them, she sees that the bad guys are stabbing the man on the ground over and over again. She leaps into action and knocks one dude out and then another. By the time the 3rd dude realizes what's happening, she's knocked his ass out too!!! She helps the dude on the ground get un-impaled and helps him to her house. It takes quite a bit from her because he is weakened by the sun. He claims that he's photosensitive and the sun is deadly to him. Suuuurre... His name is Roland Warbrook. She wants to call 911 due to all of his injuries, not JUST the stab woulds and the wounds in his hands and feet! He says that he works for the CIA so she can't call 911 because it would ruin months and months of undercover work.

Of course, we ALL know that Roland is NOT photosensitive and he's NOT with the CIA!! Roland is an Immortal. And Immortals protect us (humans) from vampires. Here, vampires are turned by other vampires but after 10, 20 years maybe (?) they start going insane and are overcome by bloodlust and they have to be killed. Immortals drink blood but they only need a teensy bit and for the most part, they eat organic foods and little meat (the chemicals, etc jack up their system).

This book has so much going on and so much rich detail that it would take me 2 whole reviews to touch on all the stuff I want to tell you! So let me end my overview and tell you my number 1 reason I love this book: I've been reading a few different blogs about Fifty Shades of Grey and many of them are talking about whether or not Christian Grey is abusive, etc. Although I enjoyed those books, I DO also agree that the relationship is not a healthy one. One of the big reasons is because Ana (the main female character) has little to no choice in decisions made about her. She *must* eat, she *must* be on birth control, she *must* call him to tell him her whereabouts all the time, she *must* not have male friends, it goes on and on and on. Everyone is making decisions for her and she's just swept along. To me, good intentions matter little when a man is controlling in that way. So in Darkness Dawns, the heroine, Sarah, has an active role in the relationship. If/when they'll have sex. Taking their relationship to the next level. She even has a lot of say when the Immortals go on attack. She is able to, and often DOES, defend herself and take out people trying to harm her with extreme prejudice. I just really love that. Even in historical romances and in lots of paranormal romances, women are just along for the ride. And don't get me wrong, sometimes, I love that!!! But when you finally get a book where a man can do his man thing but a woman isn't a shrinking violet, its SUCH a breath of fresh air!!!

The characters are well and fully developed. They have interesting and complex back stories. The passage of time isn't really made a big point in the story and maybe if you're paying super close attention, you may realize how fast things are moving. BUT, Sarah addresses this a couple of times in an offhand way with comments like, "I can't believe its only been 2 days..." or "It seems like it was only yesterday that I met...". Stuff like that. I think the passage of time in these books is like a dirty secret that's swept under the rug since most of us don't fall madly, passionately in love over a few days. But here, its dealt with honestly and in an offhanded manner and you don't think anything of it.

This is already a really long review but I just loved this book. If you read these reviews and you've thought about reading ANY of the books I've recommended, forget them all. Read this book. Read this book now. I promise, you won't regret it!!!!!!!!