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Embrace the Darkness
Lilly Gayle’s Embrace the Darkness is a heady blend of crime thriller, paranormal romance, and psychological suspense. The story follows Detective Amber Buckley, a battle-scarred Iraq veteran turned cop, as she dives into a string of eerie murders tied to a medical research company in Asheville, North Carolina. What starts as a routine investigation into missing persons and blood-drained bodies quickly twists into a world of genetic anomalies, ancient secrets, and forbidden desire. At the heart of it all stands Gerard Delaroche, a mysterious, brooding man with an unearthly charm and secrets that blur the line between man and monster.
This book surprised me. The writing is straightforward yet atmospheric, painting tension with just enough detail to make the hair rise on the back of your neck. The dialogue feels snappy and relatable. Gayle doesn’t drown you in gothic language or purple prose; instead, she uses small, vivid moments to pull you into Amber’s mind, her trauma, her skepticism, her growing attraction to Gerard. The pacing is tight in the early chapters, almost cinematic. The mix of crime procedural and supernatural tension feels fresh, even though vampires in fiction are well-trodden ground. I found myself flipping pages faster than I expected, caught up in that blend of fear and curiosity that makes for a good late-night read.
The romance, though passionate, can lean into melodrama, and some of the dialogue between Amber and Gerard feels like it was lifted straight out of a classic paranormal romance novel. But even with that, I couldn’t put it down. There’s a pulsing emotion beneath the clichés, a raw honesty in Amber’s pain and Gerard’s guilt that kept me rooting for them. I liked that the book didn’t just use darkness as a metaphor for vampires, it used it as a mirror for trauma, for secrets, for the parts of ourselves we try to hide. It’s messy and human and oddly touching.
Embrace the Darkness is more than a story about blood and lust. It’s about trust, redemption, and the strange ways two broken people can find light in each other. It’s gripping, emotional, and full of heart. I’d recommend it to readers who love their mysteries with a supernatural twist, especially fans of shows like Bones or The X-Files. If you like crime stories spiced with danger, romance, and a little bit of the uncanny, this book is worth diving into.
Pages : 303 | ASIN : B0FRYLWCVX
Lost Love
Out of the Darkness centers around a biochemist who meets a mysterious stranger with a rare genetic condition seeking both survival and redemption. Where did the idea for this book come from?
The original idea for this story came from an old Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, Universal Soldier, which gave me the idea of vampire soldiers, Dean Koontz’s Moonlight Bay Trilogy, which gave me the idea of incorporating a real medical condition, and a tangent I went on while researching XP that gave me the idea of making vampirism a virus.
What draws you to the paranormal genre?
The idea of the impossible being possible.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Redemption, survivor’s guilt, lost love, forgiveness, power and corruption, and the healing power of love.
Can we look forward to more work from you soon?
Absolutely.
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on edits for Embrace the Darkness, the second book in the Darkness Series, and completing the third book, Edge of Darkness.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Her research could cure his dark hunger if a covert government agent doesn’t get to her first.
Vincent Maxwell is a vampire with a conscience seeking a cure for his dark hunger. But when a scientist looking to create vampire soldiers captures and kills a fellow vampire, Vincent seeks out Dr. Megan Harper, a research scientist who discovered a link between a genetic light sensitivity disorder and vampirism. Dr. Harper could hold a key to a cure and the answers to Gerard’s death. But getting close to the beautiful scientist could endanger both their lives.
When Megan meets Vincent she believes he suffers from xeroderma pigmentosum, the genetic disease that killed her sister. Sensing a deep loneliness within the handsome man, she offers friendship and access to her research files. But she and Vincent soon become more than friends and Megan learns the horrifying truth. She’s entered the dark and unseen world of vampires and Vincent is her only hope of survival.
Out of the Darkness
Lilly Gayle’s Out of the Darkness blends paranormal romance with medical intrigue, delivering a story that’s both heart-thumping and heart-wrenching. The novel follows Dr. Megan Harper, a biochemist who returns to her hometown to regroup after leaving a high-pressure research job. There, she meets Vincent Maxwell, a mysterious and charismatic stranger with a genetic condition eerily similar to her late sister’s rare disorder, xeroderma pigmentosum. But Vincent hides a deeper secret. He’s a centuries-old vampire seeking not just survival, but redemption. As their lives entwine, science, myth, love, and danger swirl together in a tale of redemption, betrayal, and desire.
To put it bluntly, I got hooked. The way Gayle wove together emotion, science, and sensuality felt fresh. There’s a pulse to her writing that makes even the quiet scenes feel alive. I liked Megan from the jump. She’s brilliant, damaged, and still trying her best. Vincent, on the other hand, is this perfect mix of stoic and smoldering, and watching his emotional thaw unfold gave me chills. I felt genuine tension in their encounters. Sometimes sexual, sometimes just raw and emotional. Their chemistry is off the charts, but it’s the emotional stakes that stuck with me.
There were moments when the dialogue leaned a little too melodramatic for my taste, and a few plot developments felt more convenient. But honestly, I didn’t care much. I was too wrapped up in the push-and-pull between science and the supernatural, the hope for healing, the hurt of loss, and the chance at love. Gayle’s writing isn’t flashy, but it’s emotionally tuned in, which kept me locked in even when the plot veered into familiar territory.
If you’re into moody, brooding vampires and smart heroines with big hearts and haunted pasts, Out of the Darkness is absolutely worth your time. It’s perfect for fans of paranormal romance who crave character depth along with the fangs and fantasy. This book had me feeling things I didn’t expect, grief, longing, excitement, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a vampire story that’s more soul than spectacle.
Pages: 268 | ASIN : B0FB48PMQP
A Western Hearts Novel
Wilder Hearts is a historical western and romance novel. What draws you to the old west and makes it ripe for you to write such a great romance story in it?
I’ve been reading romance novels since high school. My mom and grandmothers taught me to love history, and my dad taught me to love westerns, science fiction, and the paranormal. Growing up, I used to watch western TV shows and movies with my dad all the time. We still watch western movies together. I think I’ve seen every western ever made starring John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, but my all time favorite “old” west movie is Support Your Local Sheriff– a western romantic comedy staring James Garner.
I thought the historical accuracy was spot on. What research did you do for this story?
A lot of research went into this novel. I have dozens of hard cover books on British and American history. When I began researching historical crimes a few years back, my husband gave me The Chronicle of Crime by Martin Fido, a book that chronicles the most infamous crimes in modern history. I also get a lot of my book ideas from watching Mysteries at the Museum. While doing internet research on American crimes similar to Jack the Rippers, I ran across a single article on the Servant Girl Annihilator. From there, I began searching the web for more info, and low and behold, just after I finished the first draft of Wilder Hearts, Mysteries at the Museum featured a segment on the Servant Girl Annihilator. The show even made the connection between Maurice, the Malay cook and Jack the Ripper. I was thrilled.
It’s time to make Wilder Hearts into a movie! What actress and actor do you picture playing the leading roles?
I think Melissa Rauch who plays Bernadette on The Big Bang Theory would make the perfect Ellie. She’s older than Ellie and her hair is blond, but in Hollywood, anything is possible. And I think Chris Pratt would make a great Jake.
I enjoyed the romance that was weaved into the mystery story. Where do you see Jake and Ellie, oh let’s say, a year after the novel ends?
As secondary characters in the sequel. I still haven’t settled on a title for the book. Obviously, it will be something with “Hearts” in the title, but in the rough draft already in the works, Ellie suggests that Brett Henderson (the rancher who helped Jake rescue Ellie) consider answering an ad for a Mail Order Bride she read in the San Francisco paper, Matrimonial News (a real paper in the late 1800’s.) Jake, of course, will be against the idea, but Brett is desperate to find a wife for his son in the dying town of Harmony.
Writing about the outlaw, Jake the Snake, could be the opportunity of a lifetime—if it doesn’t get her killed. When Ellie Wilder takes her sister from their grandfather’s home, she’s determined to put her family back together and write of their adventures. Then she runs into Jacob Harper, a man who resembles Jake the Snake, a notorious outlaw who once rode with Billy the Kid. Is it possible the outlaw who escaped justice has mended his ways? Or is the handsome Mr. Harper now murdering servant girls in Austin? Finding out the truth could be the journalistic opportunity of a lifetime. Former Texas Ranger Jake Harper has returned to Texas to help solve the Servant Girl Annihilator murders. But when a similar murder occurs in Harmony, Texas, Jake goes undercover as Jake the Snake to find a connection between the series of brutal murders. Then Ellie Wilder shows up. Her snooping could blow his cover and get her killed, but Ellie soon becomes a bigger threat to his heart than his investigation.
Wilder Hearts
Wilder Hearts by Lilly Gayle is a combination of a historical western romance and a mystery romance novel. If you love stories about Billy the Kid and western gunslingers, you will enjoy this book. There is a mystery story line involving a serial killer to keep the novel moving along as well as the romance between the two main characters Ellie Wilder and Jake Markham. The book has a slow start, you get some background to the characters but it jumps around a lot between current events, stories that Ellie and her sister Ida Louise tell, and past events. About a third of the way though the novel, when the Wilder family make it to Harmony Texas, the story picks up and moves quickly.
From the beginning of the book Ellie and her sister are following their father from Pennsylvania to Texas. Their father Clay is an oil wildcat looking to find the next big oil deposit in Texas. When the they arrive in Austin Texas they’re greeted by the street cleaner outside the train depot. He tells the girls about some murders that have happened recently by a killer named the Servant Girl Annihilator. Ellie is drawn into the mystery and wants to know all she can about the case. While at the train station waiting on their father to fetch their trunks she spots a man resembling a sketch in her book about Billy the Kid and his gang of Renegades. The man she see’s is listed as Jake the Snake in her book but in reality he goes by several names. Ellie is attracted to him right away even if she doesn’t recognize that it is desire at first. She is just intrigued by the mystery, why is he in Austin, how is a wanted man wandering the city unnoticed, is he the Annihilator? Ellie dreams of being a famous writer and thinks telling the story of what happened to Jake the Snake or the story of the Annihilator is her ticket to fame. In Ellie’s innocence she fails to see the danger and trouble associated with her spying and investigating.
Jake is actually a Texas Ranger that goes undercover in the small dying town of Harmony. This is also where the Wilder family winds up as Clay Wilder is certain there is oil to be found in that small town. Character development was something that I enjoyed as there were many interesting people the book introduces. From the rich grandfather, to the old town sheriff you really get a feel for each character’s personality. And as the story goes on you start to understand and like them. I liked the historical accuracy of the Oil Industry and its expansion in the west that is used throughout the novel. The author expertly uses accurate descriptions of that time period to really sell the time and place of the old west; and I enjoyed the references to the Texas Rangers and Billy the Kid.
This is a great read once you get past the slow beginning chapters. Then the story gains a strong direction and the story flows smoothly. Wilder Hearts provides an adventurous and romantic look at the untamed west that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Pages: 254 | ISBN: 9781310875816
LITERARY TITAN 