One Silent Night
(Dark Hunter Series)
Sherrilyn Kenyon
ISBN 978-0312947064

(No, I’m not kidding.)

Blurb:

It’s the Christmas season and all hell’s breaking loose. Literally. While humans shop, an angry demon lord is plotting an all-out onslaught against his enemies, which -unfortunately for us - includes the human race. But as Stryker gathers his forces, he discovers a grown son he never knew existed and an angry ex, Zephyra, who’s as determined to end his existence as he is to end ours. The ultimate predator is about to meet his match as new battle lines are drawn and the Dark-Hunters are rallied for a blood bath on Christmas Eve. The only question is this: can Stryker survive his oldest enemy to fight the ones he really wants to kill ? or will Zephyra finally have her shot at the husband who abandoned her?
 

Review

First of all… I was hoping this one would see Sherrilyn get back to pre-Acheron form.
While I liked the story in Acheron, I thought it deviated too much from the previous ones.
It was not a romance, as far as I’m concerned. At least not until the second half of the book.

So yeah, my hopes were high that she’d got it all out of her system.
Epic Fail, darling.

For starters — the blub is shoddy, really shoddy, but not Sherrilyn’s fault. That one is down to copy editors, editors, marketing people and whatnot at St. Martin’s Press.

That blurb…
The angry Ex who wants to kill him is there, yes.
Everything else in the blurb is wrong.

1. There is no angry demon lord, but a demon/ex god type creature Stryker sets loose.
2. War is not going after humans, he’s going after Ash and Nick, at Stryker’s request.
3. Stryker doesn’t discover a SON he never knew existed — but a daughter. (who the hell didn’t spot THAT one??)
4. The Dark-Hunters barely get a mention, let alone join the fight.
5. It has nothing to do with Christmas, other than the culmination on Christmas Eve.

The entire book feels backstory and setup for future books, basically.
She’s written herself into a corner with Ash out of the picture now, the big enemy Artemis is relegated to the sidelines — she needed new big guys, bigger than she had before. (That’s where Savitar and Jared came in a few books ago, it started back then, so I knew this was coming.) Suddenly Nick turns into some ultimate being. There is all manner of setup of the new world as it is forming (with the new powers and stuff, and an explanation thereof) and in the middle of all that you have a lackluster love story which isn’t really a love story at all.
This is not a romance. It’s nothing like previous books, except that you get tons of past — and not enough present. She keeps touting Stryker as the ultimate lover — well. SHOW would have been better than TELL. Wow. I would have seriously handed this book back and told her to make me love the characters. I didn’t see Stryker come across as a likeable guy. Yeah, he has faults, yeah, he has to overcome them — but it happens way too fast, way too easy.
Stryker suddenly has a heart. I suspected he did, but he deserved so much better than this book. He deserved better than Zephyra, too. It didn’t make me perceive him as the strong, unshakable heroes I’m used to from Sherri. Instead my sense of strength that I got from him in previous books, evil and malicious as it may have been, transformed into a sense of "What kind of spineless weak git is this?". We keep being reminded what he’s capable of — but it felt more like "Remember, he’s really evil".
I didn’t like Zephyra. (to the point  have to double check how to spell her, and I can’t remember what she looked like — and I finished the book an hour ago…) It was bland and boring, because the "I hate you, you left me" "I had to or daddy woulda killed you" got old real quick.
I mean pa-lu-heeze. Get over it already!
The story lacks the passion of previous books. The characters lack depth and purpose. They came across whiney, spoiled and irritating. As well as too powerful. Too much "I hate you" followed by "I’m sorry" to really have a conflict. Yeah, I like a heroine who can kick the hero’s behind, but I don’t like all powerful. It made me dislike her.
There is way too much backstory and setup to get any sense of the people whose story this is supposed to be. And they deserved better than being thrown into this hodgepodge of storylines.
There’s too much Ash, Savitar, Nick, Jared, Artemis and whatnot involved, along with a whole slew of new and old gods.
Too many things smack of deus ex machina, or at least a serious cop out.
Too much tell instead of show.
Too much explanation where I could have done without, not enough where I needed to know.
And throughout — there is a lack of the tension that made the previous books keepers.
When I’m more interested in the gay bodyguard than in the hero… that’s not good!
First time I give Sherri a lackluster two stars. The reason for the pervious ones being keepers is because they were about the people in the story, not about the world around them. This time it’s more about the world and the powers in them and who does what — with a bit of gratuitous sex thrown in — than about the people.

All in all, I’ll only recommend it to keep on track with the series, but other than that… I kept getting bored.
I was more interested in reading about Davyn than Stryker, more intrigued by Medea than Zephyra — and that’s bad, when it’s not their story.
I know I’m a harsh, brutal, critic, but I also know Sherri can do better than this.
I’ll still get the next one, in the hope we return to previous keeper books, but chances are slowly running out. Stop worldbuilding and start writing about people again.

Man I hate slam-dunking Sherri, but this one doesn’t deserve to stand next to the others.

Tags: Dark Hunter, Kenyon, Review

I’m off to London today, to show the husband of a fellow Critter around.

Of course, I just broke my camera — figures. I might grab one on the way in, and make Paul carry the box after we meet up with him "At work".

Things on the agenda:

The High Court

Temple Church

Holly Village / Highgate West

Waxy O’Connor’s (The pub!)

St. Pauls (I’ve lived here all this time and I’ve never been inside.)

Old Bailey

Maybe a trip on a "Duck".

We’ll see!

Tags: London, Sightseeing, Travel

I was sent this and thought it was simply hilarious.

Enjoy!

Phase 1

You are listening to jazz — Your first day at work is great. Your coworkers are wonderful, your cubicle is cute, and your boss is the best!

Phase 2

You are listening to pop music — After a while you are so busy that you are not sure if you’re coming or going anymore.

Phase 3

You are listening to heavy metal — This is what you feel like at month end.


Phase 4

You are listening to hip hop — You become bloated due to stress, feel sluggish and suffer from constipation. Your coworkers are too cheerful for your liking and the walls of your cubicle are closing in. You have started thinking ‘WHATEVER’ about your boss.


Phase 5

You are listening to GANGSTA RAP — After more time passes, your eyes start to twitch, you forget what a ‘good hair day’ feels like as you just fall out of bed and load up on caffeine.


Phase 6

You are listening to the voices in your head — You have build a makeshift door on your cubicle to keep people out, You have a dartboard with your bosses picture on it in your cube, You wonder why you are even here in the first place.

Tags: Cat, Funny, Joke

Title: Cursed Legacy - Vezien
Words Total Previous: 55,679
Words Written: 1847
Challenge Total: 5348
Word Count: 57,526
Hero Mood: Worried
Heroine Mood: Worried
Story Snippet:

    "There were kids in purgatory?" Sabriel gasped. "Good God, what did they do to end up there?"
    Of course. She had no idea how it worked. "Everyone goes to purgatory, Sabriel. It’s where your fate is decided. Purgatory is just another word for waiting room. It’s what you imagine it to be. I saw it for what it is, a vast empty space, but when I touched one of the souls there, I saw their version and shared it for a little while." He’d spent a lot of time there, almost all of his childhood and part of his adulthood. First he’d played, then he’d talked. "It’s not the devil’s waiting room, it’s the only waiting room. Some souls like it there and don’t move on for a long time."

Tags: November Challenge

Title: Cursed Legacy - Vezien
Words Total Previous: 52,178
Words Written: 3501
Challenge Total: 3501
Word Count: 55,679
Hero Mood: Sleepy
Heroine Mood: Slightly shocked
Story Snippet:
    She quietly opened the door and stepped out onto the porch. With a bit of luck she’d even see some wildlife. The moon was high and she smiled when the scent of mown grass and cool earth drifted into her nostrils. God, there was something to be said about quietly sitting on the porch with a cup of hot tea, enjoying the night. Her gaze drifted along the railing and she gasped when she became aware of Vezien sitting on her porch swing. He didn’t move, just sat, turned sideways, stretched out, his long legs crossed at the ankles. Talk about seeing wildlife. They didn’t come much wilder than him.

Note:
I deleted a good 5k words, because they didn’t work.
Part of this was already written, but never counted.
So yeah, I still have some catching up to do.

Tags: November Challenge

I’m editing the blog at the moment — as you may have noticed.

While I was doing that, I realized my list of the Nocturne Series was getting WAY out of hand; I had to do something about it.
Yes, there was a longass list on one page, which you could just scroll (and scroll, and scroll…) down, but it made it difficult to read.
It’s still there, but split up now.

I may do it to the others too, if they get out of hand, but I doubt they will.

I also had J.V. Jones’s Book 3 in the "Sword of Shadows" series delivered today.
Talk about a slow writer! I only had to wait 6 years for this one!

Tags: Authors, Blog, Books, Reading

Daily Writing Tips had a nice post on [sic] the other day, and I figured it was worth repeating… but I won’t [sic] it.

So, what does it mean?
You see it all the time in articles in the newspaper, or on the web.

Sic is the Latin word for “thus,” or “such.”

It means, something is exactly as it was said, or appeared. Spelling and all.

For instance, we had a lively discussion about submissions, and how we’re prone to triple check — even after the thing is already out of the door — whether we attached the right file.
In reply, Debora said, I do think "neurotic" is just another word for "writer" [sic]

Those were her words, exactly as they appeared.

If I’d said Deb responded saying neurotic is yet another word for writer, then that would not be [sic], because I’m paraphrasing.

So, is it becoming any clearer?

Tags: Meaning, The Written Word, Words

If only it were that simple.

I blogged on my blockage woes over on Passionate Critters, because it drives me mad when it happens. When everything stops. When the words won’t come and the characters fall silent.

And a hearty thanks to Cathie Linz, who makes me laugh and tells me I’m not crazy — just a writer.

Tags: Writers Block

It’s on again.

Starting November 10th, we shall write like crazy (like we don’t always do that) for 70 days.

Tags: 70 Days 4, Challenges, Sven