Darkness Dawns (Immortal Guardians, #1)

by Dianne Duvall

In this dazzling, sensual novel, Dianne Duvall beckons readers into a world of vampires, immortals, and humans with extraordinary gifts. . .where passion can last forever, if you're willing to pay the price. . .

Once, Sarah Bingham's biggest challenge was making her students pay attention in class. Now, after rescuing a wounded stranger, she's landed in the middle of a battle between corrupt vampires and powerful immortals who also need blood to survive. Roland Warbrook is the most compelling man Sarah has ever laid hands on. But his desire for her is mingled with a hunger he can barely control. . .

In his nine centuries of immortal existence, no woman has tempted Roland as much as Sarah. But asking her to love him is impossible--when it means forfeiting the world she's always known, and the life he would do anything to protect. . .

• ISBN10: 1306657679
• ISBN13: 9781306657679
• Publish Date: 1 January 2011
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 14 April 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Zebra Books
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[FranJessca @ A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog]

I’ve meant to read the Immortal Guardians series by Dianne Duvall for such a long time that I’m glad I read it during the #Romanceopoly2020 Challenge. It fulfilled ‘The Vault’ square for the challenge for being one of the longest PNR books on my TBR list on Goodreads. Yup…this challenge is making me read older books from my ever-growing TBR list.

I loved the idea of Immortal Guardians protecting the world from evil vampires. At the beginning of the first book, one of the Immortal Guardians, Roland, finds himself in trouble and almost getting killed by a bunch of vampires. It’s a human female, Sarah, that ends up saving him, even though she has no idea what he is and who the bad guys were that were trying to kill him. Here’s when Roland has to come up with a story to prevent her from finding out the truth. He’s an Immortal Guardian and doesn’t want to scare her. She’s eventually going to find out, and she ends up taking pretty well compared to what others would’ve done in her case. Roland ends up putting Sarah in danger, though, and he’ll end up needing his Immortal Guardian friends to help. Roland, though, has never asked for help because he prefers to work in solitude. He doesn’t trust because he’s been betrayed in his past. He’s going to have to learn to trust since he now has a human wanting to help him.

I liked the first book to the Immortal Guardians series due to its world-building Dianne Duvall created for her readers. I also liked the secondary characters and looked forward to reading their books later on. Those two things, plus listening to the book, instead of reading it, made the book enjoyable. Unfortunately, I didn’t connect well with Roland and Sarah. I think it’s due to the love at first sight feeling I got from the two characters. I didn’t feel their romance. I’m more interested in Seth and the other Immortal Guardians. I did enjoy the ending and the shock of who was behind the vampires going after the Immortal Guardians.

Will, I read the next book? Yes. I’ll have to wait, though, since I have several other series I’m catching up reading on right now. I will come back to this series because I need to know where Dianne Duvall takes this series. Overall, this book gets 3.5-stars from me, but I would recommend it to PNR readers who have devoted vampire lovers like I am. Vampires are the reason why I started reading PNR back in high school.

[Nadz@Totally Addicted to Reading]

This is my first time reading Dianne Duvall and I assure you it will not be my last. I had a great time listening/reading to Darkness Dawns, the first book in the Immortal Guardian paranormal romantic suspense series. I heard so many great things about this series, I knew I had to try it and I got a copy of the audiobook through the audible romance package to do so. Darkness Dawns is filled with enough steamy romance and action to keep you entertained.

The book introduces readers to a group known as the Immortal Guardians who spend their time protecting innocent humans from vampires. What made these guardians special was despite being infected with the vampire virus, their unique DNA makeup they a spared them the madness that normal humans experience from the infection

I enjoyed the unique world and interesting characters the author created. The sarcastic banter between the immortals and the humans who worked with them had me laughing whenever these moments occur.

The main characters Roland and Sarah were a treat. Sarah is a music professor. Because of her bouts, with insomnia, she sets out at dawn to prepare the soil for her garden. While she is busy turning the soil something moving at high speed crashed into her and knocks her to the ground. She believed it was a wild animal, but then on hearing the hunter’s conversation she realised it was not an animal. She took it upon herself to carry out a rescue, with, no form of backup other than her trusty shovel. I loved that scene.

She is smart, brave and strong. She definitely held her own.


Roland, a member of the Immortal Guardians is an anti-social 900-year-old immortal who prefers to work alone. He has issues with trust having been dealt the sting of betrayal several times. Compassionate but, deadly, he has proven to be a worthy adversary. I loved seeing him in action.

Someone wants him dead, which was evidenced by the several attacks made against him by an army of vampire minions. He has no idea why, but he along with his team members are determined to find out and put a stop to it. Besides this, readers are treated to another story, which had no bearing on what was happening with Roland. I am curious to learn more.

The romance is what you would expect in paranormal stories, fast paced. Despite the quick pacing, I enjoyed it. I believed they were a perfect fit.

Narrator
I found the narration by Kirsten Potter to be excellent. She did a great job with the voices, especially the variety of accents. I enjoyed how she captured the emotions and expressions of the characters.

Conclusion/Recommendation
Darkness Dawns delivered an exciting, suspenseful, romantic story. Fans of paranormal romance and urban fantasy will enjoy this offering. I have the second book Night Reins in my audible library.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Darkness Dawns is the first book in the series and is very light on the world building. I grasped things quickly but it was weaved into the tale instead of the typical information dumps we find at the beginning of some of these series. Duvall followed a tried and true formula and it worked. Her characters are interesting and I loved the banter and snark between fellow Immortals and the humans who side with them.

Sarah Bingham was a hoot. I love strong, independent, kick-ass, take no shit woman. Sarah fits the bill, but is still sweet, perceptive, and compassionate. She is a music professor, who lives alone in rural North Carolina. Up before the birds she is turnings soil over to create a garden when something moving very fast breaks from the woods and knocks her down. By the time she uprights herself, she dismisses it as hunters chasing a wild animal. As she continues to turn the earth, she hears the hunters and realizes they are about to kill a man. Instead of running to get help, she grabs her shovel and sets out to aid him. Annnd right away I like Sarah. Roland the victim soon finds himself trapped in Sarah’s home and from there our tale unfolds.

I adored Roland from the onset. He is of course gorgeous, and I appreciated the descriptions Sarah gave as she tended his wounds. Roland of course is an Immortal. He is a little anti-social, has trust issues and owns a cat which made him adorkable. He can cook, decorate and has a healing touch. I wanted to bite him. Roland is also a fierce warrior and seeing him in action was riveting. *sighs* The romance is typical of PNR and fast-moving, but Duvall made me feel their connection, the heat and friendship as it developed.

Darkness Dawns focuses on attacks directed at Roland by an unknown predator with an army of minions as well as a few side mysteries that proved to be interesting. I enjoyed the overall arc of the Immortal Guardian series and found thw secondary characters interesting. This review was originally posted on Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[Melanie]

Listening to audiobook.

This book was okay. I didn't hate it, but was not overly impressed. I was not drawn into the characters and the plot was boring in my opinion.


The story behind Lady Bethany traveling through time was unnecessary and didn't fit in the story, plus you never learn anything about time travel in the rest of the story.

Also, the fact that there was confusion on everyone's part and that is why everyone was so upset, was just a little strange. I don't think I've ever read a book where the bad guy was just confused and was able to be turned. It just seemed a little bit of a cop out.


I will not be continuing with this series.

[EBookObsessed]

One early morning, music teacher Sarah Bingham overhears men talking in a field close to her secluded home, and she goes over to investigate. When she find one man staked to the ground being tortured and stabbed by two others, she doesn’t think, she acts and saves the man from his attackers. She takes him home and gives him first aid. What she doesn’t know is that Roland Warbrook is an Immortal Guardian who was hurt fighting vampires.

Roland Warbrook has never met anyone like Sarah in his almost 950 years. She is brave and kind and oh so beautiful. After Sarah gets over her initial shock of learning who and what Roland is, they are helpless against their strong attraction for each other.

But the vampire leader has a personal vendetta to settle with Roland Warbrook and he has waiting over 200 years to finally kill him, and if his best chance is using human Sarah as bait, then so be it.

So now Roland, with the aid of the other Immortal Guardians, needs to solve the puzzle of who is trying to kill him and why, so that he can protect Sarah and return her to her normal human life.

See more at http://ebookobsessed.com