What do you think?
Rate this book
Damned Before Daylight
For unlikely friends, Rave and Mage, what started out as an end-of-the semester night on the town turns into a permanent vacation to Wisconsin’s seedy vampire underbelly.
What do an ambitious young professor and a flighty bohemian copywriter have in common? Unlikely friendship, nights out in Milwaukee, vampire bites, tragic young death, and being thrust into a supernatural turf war.
After an end-of-the-semester night on the town, Mage and Rave wake up sans heartbeats and feeling less than best. They’re locked up in a clammy old basement in their Underoos feeling a bit too old to have had that kind of night out on the town. When Andrew, the leader of one of Wisconsin’s oldest vampire families comes to release them from their prison, their lives go off the rails.
Not only did they drink too much, but they were murdered by vampires in the process, and they awoke as newly undead members of Wisconsin’s bustling underground paranormal community. What follows is a too-fast introduction to a Vampire family they’re not sure they want to belong to, a raging turf war where their afterlives are at stake, and a handful of frustratingly attractive vampires attempting to court them during the chaos.
Will they stay or join one of the enemy families? Will they throw reason out the window for a chance at vampire happily ever afters? Or, as is their way, will they muck everything up?
What do an ambitious young professor and a flighty bohemian copywriter have in common? Unlikely friendship, nights out in Milwaukee, vampire bites, tragic young death, and being thrust into a supernatural turf war.
After an end-of-the-semester night on the town, Mage and Rave wake up sans heartbeats and feeling less than best. They’re locked up in a clammy old basement in their Underoos feeling a bit too old to have had that kind of night out on the town. When Andrew, the leader of one of Wisconsin’s oldest vampire families comes to release them from their prison, their lives go off the rails.
Not only did they drink too much, but they were murdered by vampires in the process, and they awoke as newly undead members of Wisconsin’s bustling underground paranormal community. What follows is a too-fast introduction to a Vampire family they’re not sure they want to belong to, a raging turf war where their afterlives are at stake, and a handful of frustratingly attractive vampires attempting to court them during the chaos.
Will they stay or join one of the enemy families? Will they throw reason out the window for a chance at vampire happily ever afters? Or, as is their way, will they muck everything up?
194 pages, Hardcover
Published January 22, 2026
1 person want to read
About the author
Jessica Gleason
40 books77 followersJessica Gleason finds writing horror therapeutic. So, she puts her nightmares to paper for your enjoyment. As a Hawaiian-Italian, she often draws from her cultural background and lived experience to bring occult-flavored and slasheriffic horror to life. If you look hard enough, you can catch her singing hair metal karaoke somewhere between Chicago and Milwaukee. Her daytime persona is a college professor in the American Midwest. Jessica's recent releases include “Playing Hooky” (Unnerving Books), and “The Dangerous Miss Ventriloquist” (Evil Cookie Publishing). Follow her on Instagram or Threads (@j.g.writes), where she hosts the #WeWriteHorror challenge.
https://jgwrites.carrd.co
https://jgwrites.carrd.co
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
Review of advance copy received from Author
Just finished my final read through of the production proof. It's been a long road to get this book out to readers. I hope you enjoy it and I hope to write the final installation sometime this decade. ♥️
Displaying 1 of 1 review