Daywalker Legacy by Amanda Young

Title: Daywalker Legacy
Author: Amanda Young
Publisher: Createspace
Length: 295 pages
Buy the book: Amazon & Createspace

Blurb:

Secrets and Lies
After the near genocide of his race, Teague Johnson now spends his life hiding in plain sight. In a city populated by humans and Nightfeeders alike, he and his brother are forced to cloak themselves in forged histories in order to blend in among the hierarchy of society.

Teague’s weekly trysts with Kyle Drake give him a reason to anticipate the future — until Kyle unexpectedly disappears. Afterward, Teague’s life is thrust under a microscope, endangering everything he holds dear. Allegiances are tested, and the lines of friendship blur in a race to stop an inhuman killer. Kyle’s fate hinges on Teague’s ability to untangle the intricate web of secrets and lies before it’s too late.

The Hard Truth
Blackmailed into claiming a birthright he doesn’t want, Cadge Johnson is thrust into a world of politics and intrigue. His only ally is old friend and former lover, Red Taylor — a Nightfeeder he has kept at arm’s length for decades. The sordid past they share is nothing compared to the trials ahead. After nearly a century of love, loss, murder, and deception, only the cold, hard truth will finally set them free.

Review:

Daywalker Legacy is a compilation of the first two novellas in Amanda Young’s Daywalker series for the paperback market.  Fans of the author and this series, who like to own paperbacks, will be thrilled by this book.  I’ve not read the series before and whilst I enjoyed the first story, Secret’s and Lies, the second story, The Hard Truth was somewhat disappointing.

Secrets and Lies tells of two club owning brothers Teague and Cadge (which I never could work out how to pronounce – is the  ’a’ sound in Cadge, long or short?) who are Daywalkers, special beings similar to vampires but whose powers are greater, and lineage nobler.  They are, in fact, the last of their kind but fear of being hunted down and killed, like the rest of their kin, causes them to hide amongst humans and pretend to be the lesser species known as Nightfeeders.  Teague basically runs the club by himself as Cadge is reclusive and insular.  As the book begins we meet Kyle who’s been Teague’s lover for a few weeks.  Kyle is getting tired of essentially being Teague’s latest fuck-toy and craves some form of affections from Teague.  When that looks like it’s never going to happen, Kyle backs off, vowing to keep away from Teague.

Even though the book is about the Daywalkers, so called because unlike vampires, or the Nightfeeders, sunlight doesn’t harm them, this is mostly Kyle’s story.  Kyle is a sympathetic hero who’s been unlucky in love in the past and has ended up falling for a cold man who doesn’t return any of his feelings.  My sympathy was further heightened in a touching scene where Kyle visits his mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s.  I liked Kyle a great deal, he’s sweet and deserved better in many ways than Teague, who blew hot and cold and confused Kyle no end.  The sex scenes were frequent and scorching, as they often are in Amanda Young’s books, but there was also tenderness as the sex was often used to show Teague’s slow change from refusing to become emotionally involved to falling in love with Kyle.

As well as the relationship between Kyle and Teague, there are a couple of other themes interwoven with their story.  The first is that of the history of the Daywalkers and whether Cadge should identify himself and take his rightful place on the Council.  Much of this sub-plot is setting up for the next book, and so only plays a minor part in this story.  Then there’s a slight mystery involving a dodgy businessman, a couple of linked attacks on young adults and Teague’s involvement with covering that up.  This sub-plot forms most of the basis for the dramatic tension in the book and whilst it worked well, I did feel that once everything was revealed at the end, it was slightly anticlimactic and relied a bit too heavily on the ‘insane bad guy’ cliché.

Having said that, I got to the end of the first story, pleased that Kyle and Teague had worked through their differences.  The romance and the sexual tension were by far the most appealing parts of the story, and whilst the action/mystery plot was perhaps weaker, I still enjoyed the story overall.

The second story, The Hard Truth, was less satisfying, both in terms of the overall plot and the romance between the heroes.  This time it’s Teague’s brother Cadge who is the main focus of the story, along with his childhood friend, Red, who makes a brief appearance in the first book.  Teague has been persuaded to go to the council and declare his intention to stand on the council as a Daywalker.  In doing this he will oust at Nightfeeder, Victor Manning, who was a suspected bad guy from the first book, from the council.  There are also consequences for Red, who has a position of authority in the guards which is now jeopardised because he deliberately kept Cadge’s identity a secret.

The start of the story is quite suspenseful as I waited eagerly to discover whether the Council would accept Cadge as a Daywalker.  The scene where he comes before the Council was done very well with a good balance of the frustration of politics and a flash of drama.  I was looking forward to seeing how, or if, Cadge would be accepted and how that would affect the slimy Victor.  In the end, I found the story decidedly underwhelming as after that first section, that part of the story is sidelined in favour of a rather static plot involving the relationship between Red and Cadge.  They have some shared history, and Red is in love with Cadge, but Cadge doesn’t share those feelings.  Despite this they have lots of sex and then Cadge decides he is in love with Red.  It was all a bit sudden and not particularly subtle.  It didn’t help that I didn’t really feel that I got to know the characters very well as most of their interaction involves having sex, talking about wanting to have sex, or fighting their mutual sexual attraction.  Like the first book the sex scenes were hot, but I felt disconnected with it because it seemed just mechanics with little emotion.  We are told many times that they like/respect/love the other man, but I didn’t see this in any of their actions outside sex where Cadge especially acts coldly and so I didn’t really care for them or their relationship.

One thing I liked about both books was the worldbuilding.  The use of the vampire myth and the way that the author had adapted that to create the Daywalkers was intriguing.  The prologue to the first story sets the scene for the world, and the way that this in continued in the second book with the Council made up of different supernatural creatures worked well within the context of both stories.  There are a lot of questions left unanswered about how and why the Daywalkers were wiped out, but I suspect that might be something which continues into susequent books.

The first book in this collection had a good mix of locations, emotion, drama, sex and action.  This second book takes place in the same location and is mostly centred on the two men, with the occasional other character flitting in and out for a short scene. This meant that the story was lacking in much action and drama, and relied far too heavily on sexual content to cover up the cracks in the relationship between the heroes.  I liked the first book, mainly due to the well rounded character of Kyle, but I can’t say I cared too much for the second, making this a rather mixed paperback compilation in terms of quality.