I gave this one 4 starts because...I wanted more!

I liked it a lot? I mean, it was too short. I wanted more. I want more books. I want this to be a series. Long story short...Give me more.

When I read the synopsis of this, I was so here for this. Vampire hunter and Vampire falling in love. Do I even have to say more? To top that premise... MALE vampire hunter and MALE vampire falling in love. Like, I'm sold. Also reading that the vampire is actually hiring the vampire hunter to kill one of his own. Again, long story short...I was sold. I wanted it. I got it. Now I want more.

The characters were awesome. I really love Cassian the Vampire. I don't know why but I really do. He's interesting and different and sweet and idk? I want a Cassian for myself.

The writing was beautiful. I feel like I wanna read more by this author now. Interestingly enough, for a book this short there was quite a lot of thought put into the world and the world building. I really wanna get more of this because the whole thing sounds so interesting that I'm so here for more. As I said, I really wish this was a big fantasy series where we can dive a lot more into this world of this vampire society and learn more about the world Cassian has come out from.

A few tags for people to remember: this is kind of a hate to love relationship, there's violence and blood (obviously). Also, as far as I remember, one of the characters is demisexual.

Although this is a rather short novel, Emery's wonderful writing makes it a lush and entertaining story, full with great characters and a real mystery.

We first meet hunter Belar, who's a loner and hiding his real self. When a Vampire, nonetheless the only one he couldn't kill, offers him a deal to solve a mystery, things start to get really interesting.

Both Belar and Cassian are strong, fully developed characters, and when they are together the story really takes off! Their banter and chemistry is on fire and Emery writes such a natural slow burn, it's beautiful. If only there was more in this world, with these characters, I would gladly read every book of it.
Love the writing, the worldbuilding and the characters!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was very entertaining! I really enjoyed the characters and I loved the premise. Now, I do love a good vampire story so there's that...but this is a really well-written and enjoyable novel!

Belar is a hunter. He primarily kills vampires but he's been known to hunt other monsters. Then a vampire that he's attempted to kill twice shows up in his house. Cassian is the vampire's name and he wants to hire Belar to discover who is trying to kill him. It seems that there is something going on in the vampire world and Cassian suspects that someone is trying to kill them both.

So... at its heart, this book is a mystery. The vampire world in this novel is rich and interesting. Vampires are mostly ancient creatures and stay to themselves. Cassian has an interesting history and I won't spoil that for you... suffice to say that he isn't all that he appears to be!

The relationship between Belar and Cassian is lovely. At first, of course, the two are at odds. After all, Belar has attempted to kill Cassian twice! Fortunately, he failed both times, and Cassian doesn't seem intent on getting revenge. From the first moment he speaks to Belar it's clear that he's intrigued by the human.

I really enjoyed the way the two of them went from being enemies to having a fragile truce to find out what being may be trying to kill them both. They work well together. Belar is a skilled hunter and Cassian has the strength and wile of his age behind him and they are a good team.

Don't be put off by this being a short length for a novel. Emery does a great job of bringing fully realized characters to the page and writes a great romance between two intriguing characters.

**I was provided an electronic copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

J. Emery brings their take to a vampire and hunter queer paranormal romance with From the Dark We Came. The story follows Cassian, our vampire newly awakened after having gone into a deep sleep, and Belar, our hunter who has already tried to kill Cassian at least twice. Someone is hiring Belar to hunt vampires who may or may not actually be hunting people, and Cassian wants to hire Belar to hunt someone for him. Belar seems to really be going through a time and I was absolutely here for it.

I was initially concerned by the length of this novel, but Emery managed to make the romance feel as though it was naturally developing and not rushed despite the short page count to work with. If that alone wasn't a talent, they also successfully avoided the instalove trope and managed some pretty excellent flirting and banter in the process.

If Emery saw fit to write more in this book's universe, I would absolutely be interested in reading more, but I was satisfied that the ends were tied up enough here to be a good standalone.

This is definitely solid storytelling and I look forward to exploring Emery's backlist while I wait for their next work.