The Dark Heroine: Dinner With a Vampire

The Dark Heroine: Dinner With a Vampire

We've all heard that publishing sensation Fifty Shades of Grey came about via an online publishing website, and now lightening has struck twice – this time for British teenager Abigail Gibbs.

The 18-year-old, who lives in a small village in Devon, England, began posting chapters of her now-to-be-published book Dark Heroine: Dinner With A Vampire on online writing platform Wattpad at the age of 14. Spurred on by a huge and exponentially growing raft of readers around the world, Gibbs continued with the story for the following two years – until she landed a literary agent who advised her to hold off posting the conclusion for the published book.

Dinner With A Vampire, which like Fifty Shades is inspired by Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, is being billed as the sexiest vampire story yet, and combines the dark romance of Twilight with added passion, edginess... and gore (a paradox given Gibbs is a committed vegetarian!).

The book centres on protagonist Violet Lee, who is the only witness to a horrific mass murder, London's Bloodbath. Shown unexpected mercy by the culprits, Violet must make an impossible choice: face the possibility of never returning to her old life, or joining these powerful creatures of the night. As she discovers the past behind her captors – the Varns – Violet unwittingly finds herself drawn to the turbulent ways of the Varn's handsome fourth son Kaspar, the heir to the Vamperic throne.

HarperCollins Publishing Director Shona Martyn said: 'We are hugely excited about The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire. Abigail is a huge talent – her storytelling is pacy and vivid; her characters and plot are sexier than Edward and Bella. Her existing fans are out there waiting to see what happens next and I am confident that word-of-mouth and social media sharing will bring her quickly to a whole new audience."

Abigail Gibbs was born and raised in deepest, darkest Devon. She is currently studying for a BA in English at the University of Oxford and considers herself a professional student, as the real world is yet to catch up with her. Her greatest fear is blood and she is a great advocate of vegetarianism, which logically led to the writing of her first novel, Dinner With A Vampire. At age fifteen, she began posting serially online under the pseudonym Canse12, and after three years in the internet limelight, set her sights towards total world domination. She splits her time between her studies, stories and family, and uses coffee to survive all three.

The Dark Heroine: Dinner With a Vampire
Harper Collins Australia
Author: Abigail Gibbs
ISBN: 9780732294533
Price: $14.99