Review: Of Light and Darkness: The Vampire's Daughter by Shayne Leighton

Reading Level: Young Adult
Publisher: Decadent Publishing
First in the Of Light and Darkness series
*this book was gifted by the author in exchange for an honest review*

When one human stands before an army of impossible obstacles, the likelihood of overcoming them in this coming-of-age modern fairytale may result in war between light and darkness.

Abandoned as an infant in Prague, naive and strong-willed Charlotte Ruzikova was raised by one of the last Vampires left alive. As a human, she knows no other home than the one nestled deep in the woods of Eastern Europe, where Witches drew spells of enchantment, Phasers threw tea parties, and Elves are the closest in kin. Charlotte has lived her life in the dark with her Guardian, content to having him to herself and reveling in his attention, until she's realizes she wants more...

Resident medical doctor and Vampire, Valek Ruzik fears the day his ward would come of age and blossom into a fine woman, and he is forced to confront his own motives as time is of the essence once his past catches up to him, and their lives become endangered...

As genocide and war threatens their secret society, the dictator in power is ready to wipe out Valek's race, but Charlotte will not allow that to happen. Fighting for the only one she's ever loved and truly believed in, she will do whatever it takes to save their love...before the sun comes up and light takes over.

I love vampires. It might be a little more like an obsession but that's okay. They are my favorite paranormal creature and I love reading about them. It's actually been a while since I've read a vampire book and I have never read one like this. The concept for it was so original. A vampire finds an abandoned baby girl and takes her home. In this case home is an 'Occult' which is a walled city where mythical creatures can live without humans knowing about them. Charlotte is raised as the only human in a town full of faeries, witches, elves, shape shifters and many other creatures. The setting was one of my favorite things about this book. It was like nothing I've ever read and I loved reading about it. I wish I got to live there.

One of my favorite things about vampire books/shows/movies is how different the vampires always are. Sometimes they can walk in the sun and sometimes they can't, sometimes they sleep and sometimes they don't and sometimes they don't drink from humans and sometimes they do. These vampires do drink human blood, they can't walk in the sun without bursting into flames and when the sun comes up they die. Seriously every day at sunrise they start to die and are dead until the sun sets again. I thought that was so incredibly original and it made these vampires one of my favorite kinds.

Also one my new favorite vampires is Valek. *Sigh* Valek. I adored him. He was so appropriately dark for a vampire and loyal to Charlotte and just wonderful. I liked Charlotte she was so strong and would do anything for the people she loves. Two things I love in a main character. At first I wasn't sure about her having feelings for Valek. He was a father figure to her and I just wasn't big on it being more than that. But when Valek started to show feeling like that towards her I warmed up to it more. He wasn't really her father it was more like he was the only person she had and the same for him. By the time they actually got together I was totally rooting for them. They were adorable. I felt like they loved each other in many different ways. I don't know how I really felt about Aiden. I didn't like him but I felt bad for him. To me he didn't seem to know what love really was. He was more obsessed with the idea of being with Charlotte because he thought it would give him more power. That creeped me out a little. I loved Sarah. Witches are another of my favorites. I had very back and forth feelings toward Evangeline. Edwin was so adorable.

I thought this was a fantastic, imaginative debut with strong characters, a very fast plot and vampires. What more could you want in a book? I wish I had my own copy to mark the cute parts in and look all pretty on my shelf but I'll just stick with the e-book for now and anxiously wait for the sequel.
5/5 stars
-Marissa