Customer Reviews

Knight of Darkness

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Kinley Macgregor has written an entertaining, warm, romantic story. I loved it and I am glad to see her return to the roots of her best writing.

Varian is a dark, brooding, intensely attractive male. He is half dark and half light due to his heritage. Lancelot is his father and Narishka, one of Morgan's allies is his mother. Because of his mother he has never been trusted as one of the Knights of Avalon. Arthur made him a knight against the wishes of every one of the other knights. He has learned not to trust anyone and never to love. He is the Merlin's assassin. His mother is determined to turn him to the dark and provide information and help in overthrowing Avalon.

Merewyn was a beautiful princess. She made a deal with Varian's Mother to escape marriage to a man she detested. But as with all bargains with the Adoni, she lost everything. For hundreds of yrs she has been condemed to a hag's body and a servent to Narishka.

When one of the Grail Knights, of which there are only six, is killed. Varian is sent by Merlin to find out who killed him and what they found out from him. ONly Varian can cross the borders of Camelot and AValon easily because of his blood. He is captured and tortured by Morgan and his mother.

Narishka offers Merewyn her beauty and freedom if she will capture his attention and force him to join Morgan's Circle of the Damned. Merewyn jumps at the chance, but when she finds the kindness and nobility in Varian she schemes and takes a chance to help him for his promise to help her escape from Camelot.

Joined by the mandrake, Blaise, they make their way into Val sans Retour, the valley of no return. Many adventures and forgotten people make for a wonderful journey only to face the army of Morgan again.

I loved it. Such a wonderful journey I didn't want it to end, and there are few books that good out there now. Do not miss it. I can hardly wait for her next book in this wonderful series. I have to say I usually do not like books set within the arthurian legend but this one is totally fantastic and the first book SWORD OF DARKNESS was also excellent.

Last but not least the cover is awesome. This is what a knight should look like not so pretty but handsome with a very rugged face. I loved the cover.

I actually liked the first novel, Sword of Darkness, more than Knight of Darkness because Kerrigan was such a rascally demon that it was entertaining to see him as evil. Also, Seren from the first novel also had more personality then Merwyn of this novel who got caught in a bad contract when she tried to trade in her looks to get out of a betrothal.

Varian has almost the same tortured backgroun as Kerrigan except he supposedly grew on the good side, but was treated poorly by his father Lancelet, Galahad's mother who bore Varian, and his biological mother who is from the bad side.

Morgen, the evil scorceress wants to find the grail. The grail is protected by 6 secret grail knights. Morgen assigns Varians mother the task of finding the grail. To do this, she wants Varian to finally join her side after she abandonned him at 7 on his father's doorstep many centuries ago. To help in converting Varian to the dark side, she bargains w/ Merewyn to seduce Varian, and she will give Merewyn back her beauty. After centuries of being a hag and a servant, Merewyn agrees. But is the price of her agreement to high? Afterall she was tricked by her first agreement of freedom in return for her beauty the first time. The story progresses into the Varian, Merwyn, and Kerrigan's old mandrake, escaping the clutches of Varian's mother and Morgen only to get stuck in a valley where there is no escape.

The overall story was good, but the heroine, Merwyn, was still concerned about her looks all the way until the end. She didn't really learn her lesson on vanity until it was too late.

The most hilarious part of the book however was pit of despair scene. I don't ever remembering such a funny scene in all of the authors previous books. Merwyn babbling on and on how Varian was such a bore, and her other companions were so dumb that the ferret was the smartest one of the bunch were vastly entertaining. I'm surpised all her companions didn't gag her.

I was disappointed that Kerrigan didn't appear in this novel, I would have expected for both Kerrigan and Varian to have a lot in common.

The one thing that bothered me from the first book and continues to bothers me in this book were the constant pop culture references and all the Monty Python dialogue. For me all the pop culture inuendo really doensn't fit in this fantasy avalon world. This more than anything dropped my rating to 4 stars because it just plain irritated me.

I try to stay away from all that Arthur and the Roundtable rubbish. There are so many out there that it has just become repetitive and boring. Yet, the cover of this book really grabbed me in the local bookstore and so I bit my tongue and bought it. I have to admit I was pleaseantly surprised. These books are nothing like the King Arthur we know. Especially, since Arthur is dead and so is Geneviere. (Thank goodness, I really despised that two-faced tramp). Granted, in the book, the whole Lancelot/Geneviere thing was all a misunderstanding thanks to a few gossiping men. This book takes on all new characters and basically covers a war being fought between good and evil. The two main characters find themselves stuck in the middle of a tug-of-war between the good and evil.

Those of you interested in reading this book might like to know that I have not read the first in the series and it did not effect the reading of this one in any shape or form. This is definitely a stand alone book. Also, I would recommend it to anyone for a refreshing fun read.

Okay fans of Sherrilyn Kenyon/K. MacGregor we can all exhale. Ms. Kenyon has redeemed herself from the mess that was her short story in "MyBigFatSupernaturalWedding." I almost gave up on the DarkHunter series due to that story. As a Black woman, I felt slighted. Finally, a black DH and his story bites. BUT, I digress, Varian and Merewyn's story is so very entertaining, exciting and fun. Blaise is back and so are a host of new interesting characters. This book is funny, sexy, heart-breaking and just plain wonderful, it is on the level of Kyrian's book. THE LORDS OF AVALON's series is awesome. Both books are absolutely Can't misses.

I get the feeling that this is the branch of the Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGregor franchise that is supposed to be a simple read - simpler than the Dark Hunter Novels, for example. The font was even larger in the Kinley MacGregor book than in Sherrilyn Kenyon books. I found the characters lacking depth, and the story - though littered with references to Camelot & all the paraphenilia, to be lacking in the development of these aspects of the story. It was as if you were supposed to know what all the stuff meant, and if you didn't there was a glossary in back to help you. In my mind that makes for a not well-written story. Sherrily Kenyon can do much better.

So this is the last Kinley MacGregor book I'll pick up.

I particularly found it annoying that the herione, Merewyn, was so invested in her own beauty. She won't allow anyone to get close to her when she becomes 'ugly,' and that is actually an ugly turn of events. I lost a lot of sympathy for her. Another annoying part was when a new hero showed up out of the blue near the end of the book to help Varion. It smacked of Deus es Machina to me - or at least a writer who likes to crank out new stories based upon the fascinating characters she manages to introduce. Merlin was not a sympathetic character - at one point he shows up pissed because of an event taking place. I didn' see enough of him in the story to be able to relate to a pissed-off Merlin.

There are lots of well-written Camelot stories out there. This is not one of them.

This, the second book in the Lords of Avalon series was very good. As good as the first one, there is something to be said just for that. Sometimes a new series can run out of steam during the second book. However, that's not the case here. Ms. MacGregor has created a rich alternative universe for us to tour. I love how she has taken everything we thought we knew about Arthur, his knights and even Camelot, and completely turned those ideas upside down. The Lords of Avalon, (the men themselves), are wonderfully in the grey area of good and evil. After living for over 1500 years, even the best of them have some really nasty traits. This creates some great conflicts for them. The villains are not all black and white either. They are deliciously evil and some are downright psychotic, but are they all as they seem? I look forward to finding out.

I loved this simple tale of good versus evil. Varian de Luc knew who he was, accepted it, and his fate. The "Knight of Darkness" (aka Varian)was mistreated all of his life by those who were suppose to love him and those who should have respected him. Determined not become the one thing that everyone expected (evil), Varian set out to save his kingdom and everything that he believes in, Avalon and King Arthur. Born of deceit to Lancelot (thinking his wife was Guinevere) and his wife, Varian was always the one symbol of Lancelots weakness and his wife's betrayal. Never loved or respected by anyone, including his natural mother Narishka, or his fellow Knights, Varian worked tirelessly to fulfill his destiny. Although throughout the novel, we (the reader) know Varian's true heart but we see him struggle with the fact that he is unsure if he will become a Dark/Evil knight, or a good one. Sent to discover who has killed one of the Grail Knights, Varian returns to a time where his mother, Narishka, now rules Camelot with the evil Morgen, who has risen to power following the death of King Arthur. While hoping to attract her son to the dark side, Narishka uses Merewyn to tempt her son. Merewyn once made a pact with a Adoni in an attempt to circumvent her father's desire for her to marry someone she did not love, and who she feared only loved her for her beauty. As they grow to know each other, he vows that he will protect her, no matter what! He is trying hard to return Merewyn to Avalon to Merlin so that they can determine who the traitor is. Along their way, Merewyn and Varian meet a caste of characters (among them Blaise, a half blind/half dragon; triplets who use to be the lovers of Morgen; a loving rock/gargoyle named Beau) who all accompany them on their journey. While fighting those things that they can see and not see, the dynamic duo find love. Read this whimsical tale and I am sure it will leave you wanting more. Enjoy!

I didn't realize until about halfway through that I was reading the second in a series. It didn't detract from the story, and I didn't feel like I'd missed anything.

Sherrilyn Kenyon (writing here as Kinley MacGregor) continues to surprise me with her depth of imagination and skill at taking well known stories and bending them just enough to be unique yet still familiar.

This series revolves around the knights of the round table and King Arthur's tale. It exists both in and out of time which threw me when the opening scene is a knight solving a Soduku puzzle. The anachronisms later cause some of the funniest scenes in the novel. Not only did I get used to the "timeless" idea of the setting, I appreciated it's novelty.

Both the hero and heroine are well developed characters with believable backstories, although the heroine does seem (at first) a bit vain even after having centuries to reflect on how that vice got her into trouble.

I found the hero amazingly sexy, attractive and just the sort of hero I like in my romance. Protective, but not overbearing. And very hot.

I mentioned the humor, but I prize an author's ability to make me smile and laugh as well as keep me on the edge of my seat with action and plot and this book delivers.

I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Sword of Darkness, the first in this series.

This was without a doubt, a can't put it down read.....I absolutely loved it. I am an total DarkHunter junkie but agree with some of the other reviewers that recent DH stories have been lacking, but definately not this series. It is a great storyline with very well developed characters. Awesome book, I think it was better than the first book in the series.

Kinley Macgregor does not disappoint with this novel. I loved Sword of Darkness and I loved Knight of Darkness. Fast paced novel that you do not want to end.