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

Acheron
(Dark Hunter Series)
Sherrilyn Kenyon
ISBN 978-0749908669

Blurb

Eleven thousand years ago a god was born. Cursed into the body of a human, Acheron endured a lifetime of hatred. His human death unleashed an unspeakable horror that almost destroyed the earth. Brought back against his will, he became the sole defender of mankind. Only it was never that simple…
For centuries, he has fought for our survival and hidden a past he never wants revealed. Now his survival, and ours, hinges on the very woman who threatens him. Old enemies are reawakening and uniting to kill them both.

Review:

Finished reading the book. Now… I have mixed feelings about it.

First, let me tell you about it.

I have wanted Ash’s story for a long time. Now that I have it… In a way I wish I didn’t.
Not because I didn’t like it. It’s a heartbreaking story and one worthy of him, but… It brought a character who was larger than life down to the realm of mortals. I don’t get tired of Sherri’s writing. It’s sassy and out there, it always has been and I’ve loved everything she’s ever written, even before this series was ever born. I’m biased where her writing is concerned, that’s why — although I truly love her books — I don’t usually put my thoughts about them to paper. (Or screen, in this case.)
With that in mind…

I read the book, all 700+ pages of it, in (almost) one setting. Us mere mortals have to sleep when our eyes start to droop. It starts before Ash is born and continues through the horror of his childhood. If you’re squeamish, this isn’t a book for you. If you want to know what makes Ash tick, it’s a book you should read. The betrayal, the pain and suffering that have shaped the character are laid bare in a horrendous chain of events. You get to see Ash’s soul, his pain, his lack of self-worth. It’s there, in brutal detail. You get to see Artemis and how their unfortunate relationship starts and develops into supreme hatred. But to hate something, you have to love it first.

I loved to read about the interactions between Ash and his DH’s, loved seeing Talon miss at basketball. As heartbreaking as the story is… I think I grinned as much as I cringed.

I won’t tell you the story, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. But I can tell you that, while I liked the heroine, I hated her at the same time. Because she takes Ash out of the equation. I’m happy for him, but that doesn’t mean I like her.

I guess we have to get used to Savitar and Jaden as being larger than life in place of Ash, and that’s why I have mixed feelings about the book. No, he’s not any less powerful or potent, he’s just different now. The book changes him from the Ash we know and it’ll take a while to get used to that thought. I’ll reserve judgement until I read some more books first. I want to see where Sherri goes with this. I know she can do it, I’ve always believed in her, even way back when, when she didn’t really believe in herself. Sherri, if you ever trip over this, let me tell you — I see you in Ash. A lot. You’re a survivor. Don’t ever change that.
And for what it’s worth… one day we will meet up and then I’ll give you that hug I wanted to give you 11 years ago, when you told me some dimwit told you that you’d never get published, that what you write isn’t publishable. The woman was wrong. I told you that then and I’d love for you to know that you’re my heroine. Because you gritted your teeth and did it anyway. By any means you could. And I truly, truly want you to know how good it makes me feel to see you go from strength to strength and leave that dark time behind.
Back then, when everything dropped around me, and I hit rock bottom… I didn’t think I’d ever write again. Then I saw YOU rise from the ashes. And you made ME believe it can happen. Thank you for that.

I have a few gripes though. (When do I not?)

There are a couple inconsistencies. (Sorry, I read books not just as a reader, in my mind I crit the dang things and edit…) There are bits the editor should have caught, but I can forgive them. The book is very long. Things get missed. Or maybe I missed it and skip read, but I re-read the previous pages and it was still there. It’s the hospital scene after Tory wakes up… I won’t elaborate, but… hello. She just woke up. When did she get a chance to speak to her friends? It’s a little thing, but it made me go "Huh?". A couple of others, too, but really, I can live with it and fill in the blanks.

Overall, it’s a riveting read. It’s not like the other DH books, but at the same time it is. It’s a lot darker, more painful. It took guts to write that. It’s a story of survival.

Most of all, it’s a reluctant keeper. Reluctant, because of what I said above: Ash is out of circulation now.  We need a new mysterious badass to root for and worry about, now.
(So get on with it! Chop chop, back to that keyboard, break time is over!)

And BTW… I want Styxx’s story. Yeah, he’s a bastard. A total and utter… yeah. That.
But something tells me he’s not quite as bad as you paint him and that he’s saveable. You hinted at it. Grr. Something tells me there’s more to him, and that while he was a total and complete vindictive, evil bastard to Ash… he had his reasons. Everyone had it in for Ash, yet there were still some who rooted for him.
Who did Styxx have? That waste-of-space father of his, who wouldn’t know love if it bit him? The mother who more or less abandoned him, too?
I might be wrong. I might have him all wrong and he’s supreme evil. I might have completely misunderstood. But…
It makes me wonder.
No one is born evil. We’re all the product of the events that shape our lives, the product of the actions of other people toward, or against us.
So yeah… Make me like him, I dare you.

Highly Recommended — if you can stomach the torture.

Tags: Acheron, Dark Hunter, Sherrilyn Kenyon