Darkness Dawns (Immortal Guardians)

Darkness Dawns - Dianne Duvall "Darkness Dawns" is one of those stories that while it has an interesting premise in adult paranormal/urban fantasy, not everything worked out for it as strongly as I'd hoped coming into it. I downloaded it for free on the Kindle and decided to give it a fair shot. Pleasantly surprised me that the primary character was an instructor at the University of North Carolina (my alma mater, whoo-hoo!). But then I read the book, and well...I wish it were better than it came across - it wasn't my cup of tea. The way the story plays out is VERY formulaic for paranormal romance, even to the point that you kind of know what's going to happen even before the story ends - but I suppose that's a moot complaint because for those who like the formula, they know what they're getting into and what they're getting out of it. The difference is that you have a university instructor (whom I don't get an idea of what impassions her) who comes across a horrific scene and ends up caught in a battle of epic proportions. The worldbuilding and scene establishment in this book is interesting albeit a bit much (I don't know if all the detail was needed - it definitely slowed the pacing down) - but I'm not going to knock it for that. First half of the book kept my attention, though I wished Sarah had more fleshing out as a character. Second half dropped the ball, and it left for a very awkward lead in to the next book, with several loose threads left untied (not saying they shouldn't have been left somewhat loose, but it could've been much better written). I felt the main character's random rants about food to be very distracting from the overall story (I get that it might've established her character's quirks or ticks, but it felt too expository and also took away from the pacing), and the sex scenes, while quite vivid and steamy, seemed to lack the very passion that the author seems to established leading up to them.Overall, I think if readers are looking for a steamy paranormal romance and a somewhat likable male lead, they'll find it here, but there are too many cumbersome aspects of it that detract from the story. Hopefully the author's next effort proves better and improves upon the aspects that hindered it in this book.Overall score: 2/5