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Review: Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake (Dark Days #1)

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Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake Nightwalker (Dark Days #1)
Jocelynn Drake
Published: July 29, 2008 (Harper Voyager)
Purchase at: Book Depository or Amazon

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Mira is a nightwalker. She has lived for more than 600 years. Currently she is the keeper of Savannah, Georgia, meaning she watches over the other nightwalkers in the city to be sure that they are keeping their secret from the humans. Mira can also control fire, which sets her apart from the others of her kind. They fear her.

When vampire hunter Danaus comes into her territory and starts causing trouble, Mira has to figure out a way to deal with him. What she doesn’t expect is the re-emergence of an old foe where Danaus may be the only one able to help her.

This book started out pretty slow. Told from Mira’s point of view, the beginning has a lot of exposition. It wasn’t until about a third of the way through the book that I finally got to the point where I didn’t want to put the book down. I needed to know what was going to happen next.

Mira is a strong character. She’s been through horrible things in her long existence, some of which she can’t even remember. It takes the whole book to finally understand the Mira’s vulnerability. At first glance she comes off as cold-hearted and maybe a little cruel. By the end, I felt bad for some her, but she stands strong and vows to remain her own person.

Danaus, too, misjudges vampires and throughout the book he is hit with surprise after surprise. He’s full of mystery. He is constantly referred to as “human” throughout the book, but even Mira acknowledges on their first meeting that “human” is not entirely the case when it comes to Danaus. We are given a little bit more information but not the whole thing.

While there is no true romance in this book, there is a lot of sexual tension between our two main characters. It’s made even better because they have one of those love/hate relationships. I found it funny that they would constantly remind each other throughout the book that once their truce was over they were still going to kill each other. But you couldn’t help but feel the attraction between them. This is the kind of story I like reading. The kind where maybe there was attraction at first sight, but over the course of the series it develops into more.

Jocelynn Drake has created an interesting world and put her own spin on the vampire legend. There are also lycanthropes, which don’t get too much page time, but may in a later book in the series. The main bad guys in this book are the Naturi, equivalent to the Fae.

There is no real conclusion to this book. Nothing with the Naturi gets completely solved. Everything leads into the next book, but Jocelynn Drake sets everything up so well, revealing just the right amount of information, that this doesn’t bother me. I think it also helps that this series is complete with six books. So there’s no waiting to continue the story and I look forward to seeing what is thrown at Mira next and how she manages to get through it.

Sexual content: Kissing, references to sex

9 Responses to “Review: Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake (Dark Days #1)”

  1. Maya says:

    I was never able to finish this book. If I had read when I started reading about vampires I may have read more but now it just seemed very boring.

    • Amy M says:

      I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish it at first myself, but there was a certain point where it just clicked and I couldn’t put it down. I’m glad I got to that point before stopping completely. I understand though, there are just some books that don’t grab / keep your attention.

  2. Coleen K. says:

    I read this series and let me just say these books get better and better. A friend recommended it to me (after seeing Kim Harrison recommend it) and let me tell you waiting for the last book in the series was painful! I agree the first book was a little slow to start but I always expect that when it’s the first book of the series. There is always a lot of world building. This series has made Jocelynn Drake and auto buy for me.

    • Amy M says:

      I’m excited to read the rest of the series and I’m reall happy that they are all out so there’s no waiting. I’m also interested in reading her new series The Asylum Tales.

  3. Jennifer says:

    I just got this on the recent Amazon Kindle sale. Glad to see such a good review for it. Can’t wait to read it!

  4. Coley says:

    I remember this book having a really slow start – I read them quite awhile ago – right after the 3rd book came out. It is a good read though with nice development and interesting lore. If you can get through the slow bits, its worth it.

  5. Angela says:

    This definitely sounds interested and is now added to my TBR list.

  6. I’m glad to see you enjoyed the book. I grabbed the whole series for my Nook while they were only $0.99 each.

  7. Kat says:

    I grabbed these on sale to on Kim Harrison’s recommendation. I have not read any yet because I am enthralled with Drakes new series Asylum Tales! LOVE it! I’d read the first short story when it came out an was waiting patiently. Well worth the wait! Gage, Bronx & Trixie are the best! Now that I’ve finished those I have high hopes for the Dark Days series.

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