The cover says ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Sex and the City’. There is some definite Buffy-style action, but don’t expect any cosmopolitans or designer shoes.
The story is about Talon, a Celtic warrior who made a deal with the Greek goddess, Artemis, after his family was killed, in order to take one last act of vengeance against those he thinks betrayed him. This deal meant giving up his soul and eternal service to the mortal world as a Dark-Hunter (which is basically a Vampire Slayer). He must fight the vampires, which are called Daimons, and release the human souls they capture. This is all fine, and he lives a simple life of killing and casual sex, until he meets Sunshine Runningwolf. She is the girl he falls for, who is a reincarnation of his wife in his past life. As anyone he loves is destined to be destroyed by the gods that be, Talon must find a way to protect Sunshine, and to keep protecting the humans, and find happiness again. I think that’s how it goes, anyway. So, they run around, slaying vampires, teaming up with werewolves, battling gods, and having lots of dirty sex.
Boy, does this book have some good sex. My favourite scene involves Talon hanging upside down from a beam. Sunshine approaches Talon with her head at his crotch level, then they proceed to perform a more risqué version of the famous Spiderman kiss. You’ve got to hand it to Kenyon for creativity. She refers to the female anatomy as ‘cleft’ and ‘core’. Why is it OK to say ‘balls’ and ‘erection’, but offensive to say ‘clit’ and ‘vagina’? Literature needs to get off its high horse, and embrace its true pornographic nature. This book would definitely make a great porno.
Overall, the book has terrible continuity, ridiculous similes and metaphors (‘the attention span of a sick flea’!), bad scene setting, a way too complicated plot and the introduction of unnecessary characters, but plenty of hot steamy sex. A modern day Goth’s Mills and Boon.
If this sounds like your cup of tea, then there are plenty of other Dark-Hunter novels out there, each with its own delectable male on the cover. Titles include ‘Night Pleasures’, ‘Kiss of the Night’, ‘Night Play’, ‘Unleash the Night’, ‘Seize the Night’, ‘Sins of the Night’, or simply, ‘Fantasy Lover’. Take your pick.
By Sherrilyn Kenyon
Publisher: Piatkus Books $24.99