Night Embrace (Dark Hunter #3) Review

Night Embrace (Dark Hunter #2)   

Author: Sherillyn Kenyon

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

American release date: April 1, 2010

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/fantasy/romance/419 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

Though Mardi Gras in New Orleans is a fun time for many, for the Dark Hunters, it means a lot more work than usual. While many people descend on the city to celebrate the occasion, their presence is quite attractive to the Daimons who live to harvest their souls, in order to live another day. Acheron is forced to call in extra Dark Hunters, and he has to be careful to keep them apart for various reasons, not least of which is that too close proximity to one another tends to drain them.

Talon just knows this Mardi Gras is going to be worse than usual, and not just because of the Daimons. Since Kyrian is no longer one of them, Artemis has relocated another Hunter as a replacement, none than than Valerius, who looks just like the man who crucified Kyrian all those years ago, and won’t Kyrian and Julian both lose their minds over that when they find out? Then, Ash is bringing down the psychopath Dark Hunter from Alaska, Zarek, whom no one likes or trusts. And he’s got that whole crazy thing going on.

Talon is a loner who lives out in the bayou, with a couple of gators,  and likes it that way. Like all Dark Hunters, he has a story, of treachery and betrayal, and failure to save the sister he loved. He does his job and he does it well. But sometimes the gods have ideas of their own. Such as Talon being run down by a huge Bacchus-shaped Mardi Gras float. Luckily for him a good Samaritan spies the accident and runs to his aid.

Sunshine Runningwolf is an artist who lives above her family’s bar, after coming from a bad divorce and swearing off men. But she can’t resist helping someone in need, so against her better judgment, she takes the injured man back to her apartment, when he refuses to go to a hospital. She has no idea what she’s getting herself into.

These two are poles apart – she’s a health food fanatic with a big heart, while he considers coffee and beignets major food groups. He’s a Dark Hunter and she’s human. And yet there is something between them… something deeper than the length of their acquaintance would explain.

Something bad is going down this Mardi Gras. Can the Dark Hunters set their differences aside in order to work together to defeat it? And can two stubborn people such as Sunshine and Talon come to realize what it is they have together?

This is another great Dark Hunter book, with a really great plot, and more of the characters we love, including those we’re going to get to know better, such as Zarek and Wulf, Fang and Vane. There is more of Acheron in this book, which I’ve been wanting, and hints at someone I know is coming.  I love the glimpses we start to get into Acheron’s story, and can’t wait to read his book. We also see more of the squire Nick and meet his mother. Nick is a smart-mouthed punk who sometimes needs his ears boxed, but he serves a useful purpose, even so.

The Dark Hunter series is an intricately woven story, rich with detail and great characterization. There is never a dull moment with these books. The love scenes are both tender and sensual. Talon and Sunshine are a great couple. I swear, each Dark Hunter is sexier than the one before. I don’t know how she does it.

Highly recommend this book and look forward to the next one.

Fantasy Lover Review

Fantasy Lover    

Author: Sherillyn Kenyon

Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks

American release date: February 2002

Format/Genre/Length: Paperback/fantasy/romance/352 pages

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

Julian of Macedon was once a great and fierce general whose exploits were legendary. But all of that is forgotten now. He’s been reduced to being a love-slave, stuck for all time in an erotic book, waiting the summons of the next woman who desires him, hers to play with for exactly one month before he must return to the book. His imprisonment is due to his jealous brother, Priapus. You would think with Aphrodite as a mother, Julian would get the help he needs, but that isn’t happening.

Grace Alexander is a sex therapist. Ironically, she has no sex life to speak of. Her one and only relationship was a sham, and the cruel man who used and abused her left her with no desire to try to love again, although she can dispense advice to her patients without difficulty. Grace’s best friend Selena is a practitioner of certain arts, and practices her magic in a public square in New Orleans. She hates to see her friend so alone, and when she accidentally stumbles upon the ancient-looking tome with the hot hunk on it, she gets a scathingly brilliant idea.

Grace doesn’t really go along with what Selena does, and she certainly doesn’t believe. But after a few drinks, anything is possible, so she tells Selena to bring it on. But when Selena intones the words to produce Julian of Macdeon, nothing happens and Grace is not surprised. However, in the middle of the night, after Selena has gone… things do happen… and Julian arrives looking more naked and glorious than a man has a right to.

Although he’s incredibly sexy, Grace refuses to use him to scratch her itch, and for the first time in a very long time, someone sees Julian as a man, and not a sex-slave. He finds himself falling for Grace, hard. But what purpose does it serve to love her, when at the end of the month he’s cursed to return to the book?

Not if Grace has anything to say about it.

I’ve read this book three times and loved it each time. Technically, this isn’t a Dark Hunter book, but I consider it a must-read if you wish to read the series because it introduces important characters. Plus it’s just damn hot.

I fell in love with Julian and Grace and wished only the best for them. The writing is amazing and very emotionally charged, as well as visual. I love the author’s sense of humor, and her turns of phrases. You can’t help but love these people, as well as their friends and family. Who doesn’t love stories that involve the gods and Greek mythology?

It’s hard to believe Ms. Kenyon can top this, but I already know she has, as I’m re-reading the series. If you enjoy romance, if you believe that love will find a way, and if you like to see people get what’s coming to them, this is a great book for you! This book has a lot of heart and soul. It’s a definite keeper.

Tease Me Thursday #10: Dark Love

Happy almost Friday! Welcome to another edition of Tease Me Thursday!

Today, I'm giving you something a little bit different. This is an excerpt from Dark Love, my paranormal m/f romance. Samantha Kane works at the McHenry House of Horror and Museum of the Supernatural, and is an expert in the Tarot and vampires. Eric Vargas is the museum's wealthy European investor, newly arrived to see his investment - and he's also a vampire. This is their first meeting. Enjoy!

Eric turned to gaze up the steps at the front of the building.  The sign over the entrance read McHenry House of Horror and Museum of the Supernatural.  On the glass doors were posted the hours of operation as well as all admission fees, except for private performances such as séances, tarot readings, etc., in which case the prices were available upon request inside.  “Come, Raymond, let us meet these McHenry brothers,” he started to say, but the words were immediately forgotten in the next breath as he stared in amazement at the most beautiful girl he had ever seen – and that was saying a great deal, for he had seen many beautiful women over the course of his long life – come hurtling through the front doors.

She seemed to be annoyed, although that might well be an understatement.  Her eyes were blazing a bright blue and her brows, which were of the same gorgeous red-gold hue as her hair, were drawn together over her nose in a fierce scowl.  She was paying little attention to the path which her feet were taking, intent upon some inner monologue, and it was with some surprise that she walked head-on into Eric just as her feet left the steps of the Museum for the city sidewalks before her.  Just as he planned it in the split second after sighting her.

Samantha looked up into the blackest pair of eyes she had ever seen, her mouth dropping open to form an o of astonishment.  She hadn’t recalled seeing anyone in front of her, but perhaps she had been too distracted to notice.  She felt like a clumsy fool.  The man gripped her arms closely in his efforts to keep her from falling to the pavement.  “Are you all right?” he asked concernedly, knowing full well that he had done her no actual harm.

“Yes, yes, I’m just fine.  What about you?  Are you okay?  I’m so sorry.  I don’t know what I could have been looking at.”  She couldn’t keep from babbling like a blasted idiot and she cursed herself mentally for her stupidity.

He laid one slender finger upon her lip in a gentle motion.  “Not to worry,” he assured her, “I am fine.  Now.”  And the implication in his voice was so apparent that it caused a deep rose flush to suffuse Samantha’s cheeks.  She gazed up into his impossibly dark eyes and felt as if she could drown in their impenetrable depths.  She took a deep breath.  It required some effort to remove herself from his firm grip, for a part of her didn’t want to let go of him.  Her pulse was racing and all of her senses seemed to be overloading in a way that was unfamiliar to her.  She knew that she shouldn’t be standing here with this man, especially with her fiancé so close at hand.  “I must go,” she mumbled, sliding reluctantly from his grasp.

“Please,” he pleaded with her, “I have just arrived and …” But she allowed herself to listen no further, for even the sound of his voice was setting off alarm bells deep within her soul.  She shook her head, not trusting her voice not to betray her, and walked quickly away, leaving him standing on the sidewalk looking longingly after her.

“We shall meet again,” he murmured softly, although she was much too far away to hear him.  That was a promise, he vowed to himself.  When he turned back to the van, Raymond was waiting patiently for him, a hint of a smile on his normally implacable visage.  “Back to the business at hand,” Eric concurred and gestured toward the front door which he was sure now would lead to his new life.

           

Now see what is happening in the rest of the hop!