Into the Light by Katherine Hastings is the story of a wealthy, centuries-old vampire named Aiden who needs someone to volunteer as his blood donor. In exchange for her blood, he’s offering a life beyond her wildest dreams and a hefty payoff at the end. Emilia is fresh out of a horrible marriage that left her in financial ruin, and she can’t resist Aiden’s offer. What neither of them counted on was the attraction between them.
The story hits on a few common romance tropes: Aiden is a billionaire, which allows him the lavish lifestyle that makes the story possible. Then there is the paranormal aspect of the story: Aiden is a vampire. He’s a billionaire vampire so he checks a few boxes in all of the right ways.
Into the Light was a wholly unexpected but absolutely delightful discovery. I came upon the story because I’d been reading paranormal YA books and the helpful algorithm on Kindle suggested I give it a try.
Boy was it worth it.
I read the book over two days, purposefully taking as much time as I could because I didn’t want the story to end. Aiden was charming, Emilia was strong and smart and sassy, and Aiden’s best friend and personal assistant Mark deserves his own story because he’s a spitfire of energy and enthusiasm.
I didn’t know what to expect from the story, and I was very happy to see that when the story started taking what I thought to be a turn toward Cliche Ville, it veered sharply and surprised me with a very fresh and very satisfying twist. Hastings wastes no time setting up her characters in a way that draws readers in from the start, and once you’re hooked, you’re hooked.
I’m a huge fan of vampire stories. I’ll take them all, from YA to gritty vampire thrillers and even dark horror. Aiden is the kind of vampire that knows how powerful he is and he doesn’t apologize for it, and that’s how vampires should be. (At least, that’s what I think) And Into the Light offers a fun and unexpected twist in a genre that tends to get bogged down by the same stories told a million times with little variation.
For anyone looking for a feel-good escape from the daily grind, Into the Light is your ticket and it’s the kind of story that you will return to every time you need to spend an afternoon with the perfect book boyfriend.
By Katherine Hastings
384 pages
Flyte Publishing
Random Readings 