Sheep Book Review: The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin

***The Darkening Dream is FREE on Kindle today only at Amazon.com. Or click on the link at the end of this post.***

An ominous vision and the discovery of a gruesome corpse lead Sarah Engleman into a terrifying encounter with the supernatural in 1913 Salem, Massachusetts.

With help from Alex, an attractive Greek immigrant, Sarah sets out to track the evil to its source, never guessing that she will take on a conspiracy involving not only a 900-year vampire, but also a demon-loving Puritan warlock, disgruntled Egyptian gods, and an immortal sorcerer, all on a quest to recover the holy trumpet of the Archangel Gabriel.

Relying on the wisdom of an elderly vampire hunter, Sarah's rabbi father, and her own disturbing visions, Sarah must fight a millennia-old battle between unspeakable forces, where the ultimate prize may be herself.

As the modern world establishes itself and pushes the supernatural into the shadows, they supernatural fight back.

So a Rabbi, a Greek immigrant and an Egyptian God walk into a bar....Yes this was kinda the first thought I had when I saw the synopsis of this book, and I have to say I am so glad that I grabbed this one to read.

Our protagonist is a young woman named Sarah, who is not your "typical" young woman of the 1913's. Instead of worrying about who her family is arranging for  her to marry, she's busy with her nose in a book trying to better educate herself.

Sarah is very independent and speaks her mind, despite what her mother thinks. I found this to be a breath of fresh air in the book, rather than being a typical "damsel in distress" Sarah is always the one thinking first about what to do in order to save her friends. No guns, no swords, no weapons, just the belief in her religion, family and friends gets Sarah through this fight.

Alex is the Greek immigrant that Sarah meets and feels an instant attraction, even though she knows her mother and father would never approver of their relationship since he is not Jewish.

Shortly after Sarah and her friends first meet Alex, things take a turn for the worse when the corpse of one of their classmates is found buried in the branches of a nearby tree. A few nights later while Sarah and her friends are out enjoying the last days of an Indian Summer they come across their former classmate, who is now a vampire. Alex explains what has happened to their classmate and they decide to kill the boy again to keep him from attacking others. Now knowing that there is a vampire "maker" somewhere in the town they discuss going after him, with some reluctant help from Sarah's father and Alex's grandfather. The story picks up great speed at this point until the end. There is a wonderful mix of Jewish, Greek and Egyptian lore and religion in this book, along with a touch of Dark magic, prophetic dreams and angels.

The way the chapters are set up is a great way to follow the plot of the story. Each one has the date, location, and  sometimes the time of day. It really helps set the mood and tone of what is going on, and it doesn't leave you wondering how many days has gone by between incident A and incident B. There are a lot of small chapters (mainly 3-4 pages) so the number of chapters may seem overwhelming at first, but once you get going and get caught up in the flow of the book, you hardly notice that you have gone through so many chapters.

If you are looking for a Twilight style of vampire book, this is not it. If you want something more of the darker side, this is the book you want to grab!

The Darkening Dream gets 4.5 sheep

~DD~