Customer Reviews

Kiss of the Night

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

In this latest of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series, we meet again Wulf Tryggvason, whom we encountered very briefly in Talon's story - in fact, we have the same phone conversation again, only this time from Wulf's point of view. A tiny bit repetitive, but I can live with that. Wulf is a Viking, tricked into becoming a Dark-Hunter twelve centuries ago, and one who carries one additional curse: no-one who is not a Dark-Hunter or an Apollite or of his own family can remember him five minutes after they leave him.

Then he meets Cassandra Peters - who does remember him. They share several highly erotic dreams - and then he discovers that she's half-Apollite. An Apollite, who is destined to die on her 27th birthday, unless she decides to become a Daimon. And she's already 26...

If she becomes Daimon, Wulf will have to hunt her down and kill her. If she doesn't, then she'll die. And, as if those aren't difficult enough things to contend with, two more problems get thrown into the mix: Cassandra is the last living heir of Apollo, and if she dies, or dies without leaving an heir, the world will end. And then Acheron informs Wulf that Cassandra is pregnant - and he's the father.

The fascinating thing about Kiss of the Night is the insight we get - as does Wulf - into the Daimons. Thus far, the equation has been simple: Daimons are demons. Killer vampires who must be eliminated for the safety of humankind. But what makes an Apollite turn Daimon? Well, could it possibly be the thought of dying a long and painful death at the age of 27? And are all Daimons evil? Well, we meet one who isn't - and that's a story I sense hasn't finished yet.

Of course, there's also more Acheron, and yet more intriguing hints about who he is, the kind of powers he has and the real power-balance between him and Artemis. In previous books, he's had to dance to Artemis's tune rather more than the other way around, but here he's more forceful than he has been. I have the sneaking suspicion that Kenyon intends to wait as long as possible before giving us Acheron's own story, though.

Good book - not a five-star like Zarek's story, but very readable.

wmr-uk

It didn't take me long to finish reading KISS OF THE NIGHT by Sherrilyn Kenyon, which is the fourth Dark-Hunters novel (not counting the prologue FANTASY LOVER). It was entertaining and action-packed, and included appearances from favorite characters like Zarek, Julian, and (yummy!) Acheron.

The plot of KISS OF THE NIGHT revolves around the Viking Wulf Tryggvasen, whom nobody can remember five minutes after meeting him. Wulf, a Dark-Hunter, saves Cassandra Peters from a Daimon attack, only to discover that Cassandra is a Apollite - one of a race that Wulf hunts and kills to protect humanity from is evilness. Not only is she the enemy, but she is also the last direct descendant of the Greek God Apollo, so if she dies, the whole world will die with her. As if that's not enough, Wulf and Cassandra become lovers - with some interesting results.

As a Dark-Hunter novel, it wasn't one of my favorites. While it made the Daimons more interesting in that it "humanized" them through Cassandra's point of view, I felt the overall story was rushed. I also would have appreciated more background and detail about other characters that played important roles in the story, such as Kat, Urian, and Stryker. Kat was a big enigma to me, especially since Acheron didn't know who she was (I also was curious about the identity of her father). Speaking of Acheron, I read this book with the express purpose of seeing him, so I was disappointed that he only played a small role in the end.

Also, going back to the background issue ... Kenyon played up the hero's backgrounds big time in her last 4(5) books, letting us "see" how they lived, who they loved, how they died, etc. Wulf's past wasn't brought up much. I wish it had been, since he was tricked into giving up his soul by the Norse god, Loki. I'm a big fan of Norse mythology, so I would have LOVED to have seen Loki play a role in the story. After all, he owns Wulf's soul. But he never appeared. Not once. That surprises me, since Kenyon loves to write about the gods.

Anyway, if you are a Dark-Hunter fan, you'll find this book fascinating just for the detail it gives you about the Daimons. If you've never read a Dark-Hunter novel, DON'T start with this one, for you will be confused. It' best you read the books in order, beginning with FANTASY LOVER, NIGHT PLEASURES, NIGHT EMBRACE, DANCE WITH THE DEVIL (the best one, in my opinion), and KISS OF THE NIGHT.

After several books in a successful series, you sometimes fear that the books will fall into a predictable formula, but this book proves that Sherrilyn Kenyon continues to be an original! First, let me tell you that I have every one of her Dark-Hunter books and I LOVE them. But Kiss of the Night was the first of the series to make me cry! (and as a life-long reader, that doesn't happen very often at all). I laughed, sniffed and cheered the entire time. The moving story of Wulf and Cassandra shred my heart and put all the pieces back together, but I loved every minute of it. All of the previous books are fantastic, but this book goes beyond the surface story and deals with the darker emotions of despair and anguish that exist below the surface of the world of the Hunter. This is the first of the stories that took me on a roller coaster ride with the book in one hand, and a box of tissues in the other - keeping me enchanted every single minute! This time Kenyon raises the stakes even higher, teasing us with a glimpse into new background characters and stories, and shows her readers that we have only just begun to explore the world of the Hunter Legends! The journey has only just begun!

Super plotting, dialogue, characters... It's a great series, and I swear this is the best yet. Intense. We finally get a chance to get up close and personal with the Apollites and Daimons, the prey of the DARK HUNTERS, and learn new and fascinating information about them. Very cool.

The bare bones, the Dark Hunter Wulf must keep the Apollite Cassandra safe from the many factions who want her dead. She is the last in a bloodline that must survive or the world as we know it will perish. She is fast approaching final birthday, and the dark choice of dying in agony or becoming a Daimon is hard upon her. For Wulf and Cassandra, love between them is a bittersweet wonder. Even if they can keep Cassandra safe from assassins and vengeful gods, time itself will claim her.

New characters, lots of interaction with ones we've already met. New mysteries added to the wealth of intrigue already built up in previous books. This stands alone as a suspenseful drama, with heated romance, but it also is a part of a larger story arc with the other novels that slowly build up a gripping backstory and create a brand new mythic soap opera of ancient gods caught up in passions of love and hate.

My eyes are recovering from crying buckets from the 'grab you by the heart and squeeze' drama that was so well worded ... really gorgeous dialogue, thumps hard in a good way.

Good stuff!!! Way good stuff!!! Lots and lots of new characters to purr over and hope get their own novels soon. Strong, potent read on every level. All the others have been really good, but this is Dark Hunter novel kicks it up a notch.

I read it straight through. It's almost 4am my time, and I'm getting my review in now while it's fresh. I'm so pleased with this read.

>^,,^<

I agree that this story is the best one yet of the dark hunter series. I really liked the way the writer showed us who Daimons actually are, they are not all evil. Very nice job Ms. Kenyon.

I don't think I can say it better than lunafelis' review (great review lunafelis)!!!

This was, to me,the most complex of the Dark-Hunter books, and I loved it. So many new insights into various species (is that the right word for these people) that encompass this series.

I can't say it better than lunafelis did, so read her review, she did an outstanding job of saying exactly what I would say about this book!!!

Half Apolloite Cassandra is with her friends and her bodyguard when the Daimons arrive. They recognize her and go after the kill because they believe that her death will free them from the curse that has forced them to either die or become vampires. However, Wulf a dark hunter arrives and kills the Daimons. Afterward he and Cassandra kiss, but he leaves because his curse is that no one except his blood remembers him five minutes after he leaves.

Cassandra forgets Wulf until she shares exotic dreams with him. She begins to remember the dark hunter who saved her life and the advice of her deceased mother to avoid that deadly species. To his chagrin the first person outside his nephew and his peers who remembers him is from a species he has pledged to kill. Making it worse is that this duo falls in love sharing not only their respective species, but the gods of several Pantheons.

Sherrilyn Kenyon's latest Dark Hunter tales is a superb romantic fantasy that has the extra twist of the hero's plight that is great for one night stands, but very lonely. The story line is the ultimate star-crossed lovers theme as a warm loving relationship between the lead couple will probably result in the wrath of Gods. The support cast, especially his nephew and his New Orleans based peer and her Amazonian bodyguard, add depth to a fine story. Those sub-genre readers tasting their first Dark Hunter novel will seek the previous winners.

Harriet Klausner

Before I start this review let me just state for the record that this is the first ever DH story I've read so a lot of my confusion may come from the fact that I jumped into the series late. I'm waiting for Amazon to send me the other books now so I can get a more complete picture.

However, I've been a fan of Sherrilyn Kenyon for a while now due to her many helpful books for writers, including "The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook" and "A Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages". Both of which I use religiously. So when I was browsing Amazon one day and found out she actually wrote vampire romances (my favorite) I couldn't resist!

That said, I decided to start with "Kiss of the Night" because it won me over as soon as I read the synopsis. What a great idea for a dark romance! A gorgeous, brooding (they're always brooding haha), immortal Viking warrior named Wulf Tryggvason (still can't figure out how to pronounce the last name LOL) no one can remember five minutes after he leaves the room ends up saving an Apollite princess, Cassandra Peters, from a gang of soul-sucking vampire thugs (it took a while for me to realize what Daimons actually were LOL). The thing that blew me away is that Cassandra, being an Apollite, is destined to die on her 27th birthday like the rest of her accursed race. The problem with that is since she is a direct descendant of the God Apollo himself if she dies without heirs so does the Sun and obviously the rest of the world.

OK, now that I had the basic stuff down I dived into the book with relish. Unfortunately the first few pages did more to confuse me than anything else. I have to admit I am a mythology buff and some of the back-story Sherri reveals about the gods and how the curse came about could have used a bit more detail. I actually had to reread it several times before I got it all straight; partly because I kept comparing it to other myths I've read. Granted they didn't make much sense either (most myths never do) but let me assure you if you're still confused after a few rereads then just go on with the rest of the book. Like me, you'll eventually pick up enough to catch on.

**WARNING: SMALL SPOILERS AHEAD**

The writing style also threw me off at first. It's so in your face today -- with modern slang and references included -- that it honestly took a minute for me to get use to but once I did I found it very refreshing and fun. The fight scenes were good too. Very Matrix/Buffy/Angel style. Especially the drag down, knock out fight between Acheron and Stryker. Talk about edge of your seat action! I've become an instant Ash fan! Which also leads to one of my complaints. Ash seems way too convenient to have in this series. Especially when he helps Cassandra at the very end. It felt more like a cheat to me than a true happy ending. Not to mention, I really didn't feel it made much sense but maybe that's because I'm unclear on exactly what Cassandra becomes. Because, as far as I know, once the lips turn blue a body's dead. If that happens the system shuts down and having babies for the undead womb is literally impossible. However, it seems to me Ash has the power to grant a lot of things. I'm starting to wonder if he's some form of Death incarnate or a God himself, which would really explain his scenes with Artemis and the whole Simi thing. The problem is it breaks the rules Sherri sets for the series in my opinion. If Ash can just set things right whenever they go wrong then all the struggling and angst Wulf and Cassandra went through seems rather pointless to me, if not downright unkind. However, she did do a very good job exploring their angst at losing each other and Cassandra's fear of dying. I shed a tear a few times.

**END OF SMALL SPOILERS**

The only other complaints I have are the Dark-Hunter.com web site name dropping every five minutes (which seemed more like shameless self-promotion to me and got annoying after a while) and the sex scenes. I know -- what? I hate to say this but I'm afraid they just didn't turn me on much at all and that's bad for a romance novel. Honestly the sex always felt kind of dumped in there between the main plot and the rest of the story. Of course, the dream sequences were part of the main plot but even they left me high and dry. I never got to focus on them long enough to get involved. There was no lingering, teasing passion building to a climax. Basically, it never felt like they were making love. It always felt like they just... I dunno... f@#$ked. In fact, I actually found myself skimming sex a few times just to get back to the main story which, now that I look back, is a bit disappointing. A romance novel is supposed to make you hot and I have a few novels I've read in the past that had no problem turning my crank so to speak. This one just... didn't.

I'm still very excited about the series and can't wait for the other books to arrive. I have a feeling they'll become my favorite in vampire romance. This book is a light, fun read but BUYER BEWARE -- this is not Anne Rice so if you're a Rice fan and looking for the next Queen of Darkness you'll probably do better elsewhere. However, if you love Buffy and Angel then this series will definitely do something for you. I, personally, can't wait to find out what Ash is!

This is the 5th book in the Dark-Hunter series.

Boy, does Kenyon ever believe in torturing her heroes! And she's very inventive at it, too. Dark-Hunter Wulf Tyrggvason has an unusual problem--nobody who's not of his blood, or a Dark-Hunter or Daimon can remember him 5 minutes after they leave him. And there's only one of his descendants left: Chris, who works as his squire.

There's some wonderful stuff there between Wulf and Chris. Wulf is seriously overprotective, because if something happens to Chris, there'll be nobody who remembers him--Dark-Hunters can't be together because they drain each others' powers, and Daimons are the enemy. He's also constantly nagging Chris to procreate--a problem when the college-age young man drives a Hummer and has bodyguards, making prospective dates think he's a drug dealer.

Then Wulf saves a young woman, coincidentally a classmate of Chris's, from some Daimons, and she can remember him. Turns out Cassandra is an Apollite. Not only that, but she's a 26-year-old Apollite. (Apollites die on their 27th birthdays unless they steal a human's soul by drinking their blood and becoming a Daimon.) And she's also the last direct descendant of Apollo himself. As such, if she dies without procreating, so does the sun, destroying the world.

There's also some wonderful stuff between Cassandra and her father, who had to watch his wife and older daughter die and knows Cassandra is next. There's very much a family theme going on here, especially when Cassandra gets pregnant and has to face knowing she'll die not long after the baby's born.

And the Apollites... well, that's just hideous. We've known about them from the beginning of the series, but, as with Wulf and the other Dark-Hunters, we just didn't think about them very much until they became Daimons, in which case, they were evil and had to be killed. The concept of dooming an entire race to being forced to make a choice between becoming an evil killer or dying an agonizing death at such a young age... all because of some quarrel between gods... made me seriously angry. I'm avoiding a rant about people with power destroying regular people's lives without a second thought, but only just.

It's a decent story, heart-wrenching as I'm learning this series tends to be, but I'm thinking maybe there's just a little too much going on in this one. All the explanations about the history got very confusing, and I'm not sure whether it's because it wasn't written very clearly or if it's that there was just so much of it.

And then there was the back-and-forth between Wulf and Cassandra. I always hate that in romances. They argue, seemingly come to an agreement, then in the next chapter they're having the identical argument. Her pregnancy solves the problems of both of them needing heirs, but I was angry that she refused all suggestions of ways she could live. On the one hand, I could understand needing to feel at peace with imminent death, but to me it felt more like we had to veto all these suggestions so the magical solution at the end would be necesary.

The self-sacrifice theme irritated me a lot, too, as it always does. I think it's because I am not one for self-sacrifice, and this whole town full of noble people who willingly spend 24 hours in agony rather than taking a quick slit of the wrists or something because they think it's what the god wants... just makes me want to puke. I have a really hard time believing that it's only a small minority who's angry about this.

Unfortunately, I think this is the last Dark-Hunter book in my TBR pile. It's not making me eager to search out the next ones, especially given the size of my TBR pile and the plethora of great paranormal romances out there.

At this point I am undecided about this whole series. Once I get over the poor writing style, the overused cliches and simpleton dialogue, I can usually get through her books. Usually her ideas are phenomenal, but the execution tends to be mediocre. It is so frustrating-think of what a good writer could do with these story lines! This book is no different. The idea is awesome-a Dark Hunter falls in love and impregnates a half Appollite who is destined to die. But once again, the execution of this idea sucks! And it doesn't even make sense half the time. For example, Wulf is squeamish about drinking Cassandra's blood and initially refuses. Even though it would save her life! And Cassandra accepts this. Come on, give me a break. Plus the "out" that Ash gives them in the end is way too convenient. I will try a couple more books in the series because I did like Night Pleasures and Dance with the Devil, but if they are anything like this I'm done.