First Light

In Kerin’s gritty follow-up to Night’s Edge, the vampire tale continues as Mia—having survived the gruesome events that resulted in the death of her mother, a “Sara,” or sufferer of the vampirism-inducing Saratov’s syndrome—plots revenge on Devon, the man who turned her mother into a vampire in the first place. Kerin toggles between timelines as Mia infiltrates ADAPT, a Sara-supremacist organization that believes vampires are entitled to societal control due to their status as the next evolution of human beings. As she grows ever closer to Devon and vengeance, she learns that her enemies are closer, and hungrier for her blood, than she could ever have anticipated. Though the expanded worldbuilding and dueling timelines sometimes prove difficult to follow, Kerin imbues the story with a twitchy, grimy energy all its own, and the ending wraps things up beautifully. This duology stands as an exciting take on the vampire mythos for the modern era, exploring the difficulties of emotional intimacy in a world designed to make it a fatal liability.Readers will be entranced. (Apr.)