Review: Edge of Dawn by Lara Adrian

This is the 11th book in the Midnight Breeds series by Lara Adrian. I wasn't sure where Ms. Adrian was going to go with the series after the end of the last book.  Picking up basically 20 years later is complete genius.  Basically she get to completely reinvent the series with most of the same characters, and the grown children of the first couples.  Complete genius, kudos to Ms. Adrian for reinventing the series in a completely natural and organic way. 

This story opens with some journal entries providing background to the events that would be come to known as First Dawn.  The day that Dragos released the blood addicted Rogues on the general populace of the world. It gives us a glimpse of the morning after, a year after and 10 years after, before starting the story at the 20 years later mark.  

This story is about Mira, the all grown up version of the little girl who was found in book 5, Veil of Midnight and later novels.  The little breedmate who if you looked into her eyes, you saw your destiny even as it took part of her eye sight.  Remember her?  Well now she is a Captain of her own squad of Breeds.  She is tough and dangerous.  She takes no shit and kicks major ass.  Yep, Mira is awesome!  

We find out that she grew up still loving the breed Kellan Archer who lost everyone but his grandfather one night when their compound was attacked.  Remember him?  (Imagine that angry young man all grown up. Yowzers!)  But that after one night together, he was killed in a  rouge ambush.  She has been mourning him ever since.  (This just makes her more awesome somehow.) 

Then one night, while out on the town after a successful mission with her squad.  She spies Rooster, known Rebel sympathizer and someone who in Mira's mind is enemy number one.  When she trails him into a underground Breed fighting match.  When Rooster starts to escape her clutches, she knives him into a wall.  Needless to say, this doesn't end well for Mira.  Rooster is currently doing nothing wrong and the attack on him was seen as unprovoked.  Mira is stripped of her command and benched for her behavior. 

Mira is given a babysitting assignment to keep her out of the way and out of the public eye for a while.  She is told to go pick up a reclusive OCD scientist and drive him to Boston for an award.  Problem is, when she gets there, she interrupts a kidnapping plot and ends up getting kidnapped herself.  Turns out the leader of the kidnappers is none other than her long lost love, Kellen. 

Can I just say, OMG!! I loved this book.  It was awesome topped with awesome sauce.  There is so much good stuff to be found I couldn't believe it.  If you have ever wondered where exactly the breedmates came from, it gets answered in this book.  We get an all new Big Bad.  One that looks worse than Dragos ever was!  These next books are going to take us places we have never been and give a us a whole new look at the breeds and especially the breedmates.  Totally can't wait!  5 Stars on Goodreads.

In this pulse-pounding and thrillingly sensual novel, New York Times bestselling author Lara Adrian returns to the mesmerizing world of the Midnight Breed, following new characters into a dark future where an uneasy peace can unravel into war—and a great betrayal can mask an all-consuming love.

Twenty years after the terror of First Dawn—when mankind learned that vampires lived secretly among them—the threat of violence reigns as the two species struggle to coexist. The only group preserving the fragile harmony is the Order, an elite cadre of Breed warriors dedicated to protecting humans and vampires alike. And in this precarious world of torn loyalties and shattered trust, Mira, a fiery squad captain, finds that every fight bears an intensely personal cost.

Raised among the Order, Mira has always believed in the warrior’s code of swift—and even lethal—justice. But the one thing she desires more than the Order’s hard-won acceptance is Kellan Archer, a sexy but troubled Breed fighter. In love with him since childhood, Mira once broke through his tough exterior during an unexpected night of rapture, but the next day he mysteriously disappeared, never to return.

Kellan didn’t think he would ever see Mira again—or have to confront the truth of why he left. After abandoning the Order years ago, he now leads a band of human rebels intent on carrying out their own vigilante rule of law. Yet a high-profile kidnapping assignment brings him face-to-face with the past he sought to avoid, and the striking woman he has tried desperately to forget. And as tensions mount and the risk of bloodshed grows, Kellan and Mira must take sides—between the competing missions that dominate their lives, and the electrifying passion that claims their hearts.