Customer Reviews

One Silent Night

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

I have loved Stryker's character since he first began in the series, but this book was a total let down. The series has become too full of otherworldly characters and lost that bit of human contact that made the series great.
Now, every time one of the lead characters fall in love there is an easy out their HEA(Happily ever after for those unfamiliar) Stryker's heroine is his exwife from 11000 plus years ago and not worth my time she was so unlikeable. The fact that she tortured one of the characters Jared that we fans know is to be another Arc of the story was just a yawn we just went through that with Ash for years dealing with Artemis.

War was the best part of the book and it became kind of bland in the end. There was a bit of interesting dynamic in which Stryker, Ash and Nick had to work together, but it was much too brief.

Also, Savitar another character I adore basically got his whole HEA set up with the basic love/hate thing S.K. has started to make her central theme with what I am sure will be his relationship with Ash's mother Apollymi.

There was promise but the story just seemed as if it was an after thought, as if the author, said, well since we are beginning a new section of the story let's just throw out the whole history of the series.

Unlike others I personally adored the once great play between the Dark Hunters, Dream Hunters, Were Hunters and now even the baddies like Stryker, I'll base this on the male leads but it seems to me that it was much better when the women they came across weren't all superwomen who all knew Judo, Karate or could kick butt with the guys. I don't have anything against it but it's almost like I preferred the opposites attract angle she began the series with like in the first 6 or 7 books. Although there was the supernatural elements the heroine wasn't always perfect. They had depth and I loved to find out what happened next.

In Stryker's story I found it hard to sympathize or even care of his relationship with Zephyra. Yes, they once loved each other and although a bad guy Stryker was always one to go by his Honor. But adding his HEA as a demonic hit woman for Artemis who keeps a slave to torture and do her bidding just was too unlikable for me.
Even the similar story line from Devil May Cry where Ash finds out he has a daughter with Artemis and now we have Stryker finding out the same thing was a big yawn. All, I could think was how pitiful it was to read about the basic story of Ash's life.

What would have been good? More of the history of Stryker that was mentioned the horrors that he went through. It was mentioned that he'd been torn apart or something similar and then never mentioned again, by who and when?

And Zephyra yes they loved each other, but she can't forget or forgive what happened those 11,000 years ago? Just too much of nothing. There was not much empathy to the book at all which was so prevelent in previous books.

Between Ash's miracle heroine Tori who became powerful too it's just too many easy outs for a series that was once wonderful with intrigue, twists and just a great spirit.

It always made me happy to read a Sherrilyn Kenyon book because even though I am not those characters the women in the beginning were likeable and unique.

One Silent Night like Acheron has fallen into what appears to be a fill in the blanks style of writing.
A. Hero is this and can't have a human love interest for whatever reason.
B. Female either is supernatural already or has to get great powers too.

I am not against the Gods, Goddesses and other otherworldly creatures getting their happy ending but make it exciting, wonderful, not just a repetition of old ideas.

Bad pun but bring back the magic. The days of Bride and Vane, Tabitha & Valerius, Grace & Julian, Zarek & Astrid, Talon & Sunshine and Kyrian & Amanda.

I'm not going to go into a lot of plot detail because its been explained before, but I will warn you this, you have to have read at least 80% of the other books in the series in order to know whats going on. As it was I still couldn't remember half of the old plot details from books I've read in the past. If you've read any of the Dark Hunter Series before this you know that Stryker is the evil leader of the Daimons who once partnered with Apollomyi to destroy the human race and is now trying to become the ruler of the world. Son of Apollo but cursed to walk in the darkness like his Daimon brethren he is at the end of his desire to live. He summons War, a demon that does in fact cause War to break out, to kill both Acheron and Nick Gautier, two of his nemesis. In the meantime his ex-wife the equally evil Zephyra is asked by Artemis to kill him but he cons her into living with him for two weeks so he can win her back.

The romance was lukewarm, the character of Stryker as a loving man seemed forced to me. Zephyra, the love interest was mean and cold, which should be a perfect match for Stryker the king of evil, but unfortunately she just seemed like a whiny, ungrateful brat. She also introduces several new characters and plot twists that just add more confusion to an already weird plot. I'm starting to have a hard time keeping up with all of the otherworldly beings and their powers and weird names they have, but maybe I'm just slow. Oh and did I mention that the book is only 310 pages long, which would usually take me a little while to read but it looks like she increased the size of the typeface and spacing to make the book seem longer then it actually is. In total it took me three hours to read, which makes me want my money back. I used to love the Dark Hunters but this book seemed like a forced effort to produce more novels rather than something that took time and heart to write. If this was the first book in a new series I wouldn't have even made the effort to finish the first half of the book. This may be my last Sherrilyn Kenyon novel, but being the stupid person that I am I'm sure I'll buy and read the next crap she produces. If you want to try a new paranormal series that is pretty interesting I would try Kresley Cole's "Immortals After Dark" series.

I found this book a terrible read. Not a worthy addition to Sherrilyn's writing. She's introducing so many characters and so many wild explanations about what is occuring in her Dark hunter world that I can hardly keep up. How the heck is Nick a gallu demon clothnian, Malachi or whatever the heck he is. Things have gone just way to far off kilter even for Sherilyn's world. I realize that authors evolve, but man this is just ridiculous. I long for a good old fashioned dark hunter novel now or even a werehunter novel. Too many characters have crowded into Sherilyn's world.
In this book, stryker, Ash's mortal enemy (aside from Nick) has found his soul mate some gallu demon woman from 11,000 years ago. (rolling eyes). More torture as Jared (yet another strange character) is beaten mercilessly for an unknown reason.
I tell you, after this novel, I'm taking a break from Sherilyn's writing and perhaps she needs to as well. I read Ash's novel (I liked it except for the first depressing 400 pages of torture), and the novel before that with Simone a gallu demon and the introduction of the demon broker character.
Now I can't keep up, too many characters, underdeveloped. No indepth story line. Something got lost in her journey towards the 'ever crazy'.
I miss stories like Zarek, in my book, her best dark hunter story to date.
Get back on track Sherilyn.

Stryker (the villain in several previous stories) is finally given his own book and his own HEA. The book opens with Stryker plotting revenge against two of his biggest enemies: Acheron Parthenopaeus and Nick Gautier. To achieve this, he brings back some ancient beings that even the greek gods had problems destroying. Yet, when Zephyra, Stryker's ex-wife and one true love enters the picture, all of his carefully thought-of plans go awry. Her presence into his life and his current machinations, has the propensity to turn dangerous situations...deadly chaotic.

Sherrilyn Kenyon's "One Silent Night" has given us even more "beings" for an already overpopulated world. In earlier books, Sherrilyn shaped her world with a myriad of gods, dark-hunters, daimons, werehunters and "others" that created a comfortable balance of "good and evil." As the series progressed, Sherrilyn added even more powerful beings, blurred the line of "good and evil" and started to turn the series into something a "little confusing." Well...the "little confusion" has turned into "full-fledged disorientation," and there is no line between "good and evil." As someone who has read the series from the beginning, even I'm perplexed on the events and the hierarchy.

I did not like this book for several reasons. It didn't flow well. The transitions between scenes was really choppy and the pacing uneven. Unfortunately, that does seem to be a trend for many of Ms. Kenyon's stories. The language in these stories always throw me for a loop. These are people who have lived for thousands of years and yet they talk like teenagers, complete with bad slang. While the plot in this book was fairly original, it just wasn't enough to save this story. Something else that didn't change was the publisher's propensity to make this book seem longer than what it really is. While this book may have numbered 310 pages, it WAS NOT 310 pages. The font was large, and the spacing extensive.

The characters were also problematic: 1)Stryker, who was the villain in most of her previous books, was just not leading man material. Here is a man who killed his own son, and yet, we are to now view him in a different light. A light such as loving husband and doting father...uh, I don't think so. 2) Zephyra didn't inspire "warm and fuzzy" feelings either. She was so evil and cold-hearted that I found myself wishing that she DID NOT get a HEA.

Because I have followed these books from the beginning, I feel compelled to continue to read the series. But quite frankly, Sherrilyn has not written a good solid story in a very long time. I've read her last few books thinking, "Wow. She must have rushed to finish it, trying to beat some deadline!" Unfortunately, "One Silent Night" does not break the trend, as I thought the same thing about this story. I do not recommend it to any readers, whether you are a fan of the series or not.

What a disappointment! So many things were off about this book, I'm not bothering to write a synopsis in my review. I read the first half, then got so bored that I skimmed the second half. Then again, with a type font large enough for my third grader to read, the book was a quicky anyway.

Why the book lost my interest:

1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Stryker the mean bad-a** Daimon who slaughtered his own son, Urian, in cold blood? How can it be that he is now a teary-eyed sentimental sap, with too much honor to stomach the torturing of slaves? How is it that he is now a voluntarily whipping boy for his ex-wife, Zephyra?

2. The total lack of basis for Zephyra's blood thirsty hatred of her ex-husband. (She wasn't Urian's mother.) I understand... he left her. Yeah, that's it. He walked out on her... 11,000 YEARS AGO! You would think time would have calmed her anger a bit by now. No, she is salivating at the thought of ripping his throat out. Ummmm.... we've all had a relationship go bad, but how many of us wanted to commit violent murder over it? The whole thing was beyond ridiculous.

3. Way too many new uber-powerful characters are popping out of the woodwork. At least three of whom are so powerful they can wring Ash out like a wet rag. That much power, and none of them were heard of until now? It seemed like Kenyon was desperately throwing new faces into the mix to revive the DH storyline.

4. Nick's new found identity... Oh please.

5. Total lack of any actual DH activity. Nothing but gods and demons/Daimons.

6. BORING story. No part of this book got my adrenaline pumping. I was never worried for any of the characters. Never really cared what happened to any of them.

7. The ending... Ugh! Is Kenyon joking? In less than one page, the Daimons are suddenly able to walk in the daylight? After 6 years of this series, one of the main species is rewritten. Unbelievable. Even for fiction.

Stryker revives War, the most powerful war god, without rival, to kill Ash (Stryker accepts he can't to it by himself), and Nick (because he murdered Satara).
To stop him, Artemis calls Zephyra, Stryker's ex-wife. She accepts happily her mission, because Stryker left her 11.000 years ago and she still hates him. The opportunity to kill her ex-husband is like a dream come true.

The book is a little longer than a novella, too short for all the plot twists and characters it has. Again we have an invincible character that ends not being quite so, because there's someone with more power. This is starting to annoy me. Kenyon is introducing out of nowhere mega powerful characters, in a way that Ash is starting to look weak. Also, if you didn't read all previous books, you will be truly lost.

We learn more about Stryker, because part of his past is shown, but we don't get a very deep insight of him. He seems another character in some aspects. In previous books he never cared about his minions, but in OSN he does. He kills without remorse (he even killed his son Urian), but loathes torture. I never cared a lot for him, and by the end of the book my opinion didn't change.

Zephyra was very unlikeable. She has spent 11.000 years hating Stryker because he abandoned her when they were 14 or 15 years old, and married some months. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned", yes, I accept that, but for 11.000 years?? Not believable at all. Also, in the book she is always whining, fighting with Stryker, making out with him or torturing Jared (new character who seems a carbon-copy of Ash). Not very heroine material. I miss the women of the first Dark-Hunter books :(

They don't make a bad couple, but I didn't found very believable their love story. They are so horny for each other they almost don't spent time trying to get reacquainted.
There are also some things that don't make sense. For example, Zephyra was a human and mortal woman, but Stryker sees her alive after 11.000 years, and until half the book he never thinks of asking her why she isn't dead. It's as if Zephyra being alive wasn't strange...
The end of the book was also a little WTF? One never would have though some important things could change in a few days after being 11.000 years in the same way...

The book has secondary characters such as Simi, Ash (since when he is Chthonian???), Tori, Alexion, the demon Kessar, Nick (big revelation included!), Menyara (Nick's aunt), et cetera. Too many characters for a book so small.

The only part I truly enjoyed was the banter between Apollymi and Savitar. I hope to see them together in the future. They would make a great couple. As for the rest, a weak book, with too many characters, confusing plot and a not very likeable lead couple.

I have read all the "Dark Hunter" books since " Fantasy Lover " I loved the character, plot and world development, the banter, the humor, the intensity...on and on I could go, However over the past two years her direction has changed and I have grown dissapointed where Ms. Kenyon has taken us with her writing. She use to be on my auto buy list....no more. I wait untill the reviews are out and hear what customers have to say before I will purchase another one of her books. I could not get through One Silent Night...did not care for the characters....not a likeable sort of crowd...Stryker had never been a favorite character...Heroine ? I dont think so..they deserved each other.
I really miss the human interaction with the Dark Hunters....what happened ? You shouldn't fix what isn't broken.

I've been reading all Kenyon's Dark Hunter, Dream Hunter, etc books in the order that she recommends and it's becoming very repetitious. The Man, of the book, is the most gorgeous man to walk the earth, the woman is the most gorgeous woman to the man (no matter what she looks like), conflict, they end up together, blah blah blah... I really enjoyed 'Acheron' and was determined to get through all the stories to read his. I'm glad I did, it was a great book.

But before I got to 'Acheron', it was getting monotonous. And she's pulling characters out of the woodworks so she doesn't kill or give all the Dark Hunters their souls back. I keep reading her stories wanting to enjoy them the way I enjoyed the beginning ones but something's lost. By giving them all a story, the character's mystery is gone. And in some ways she changes them after telling their stories...

For example, if I read one more time about those with Acheron in his "paradise" all sitting around, laughing, eating something and when a crisis hits - they all look at him like puppy dogs waiting for his infinite wisdom before saying or doing anything - I just might scream and throw the book away from me!

As she tells the characters' stories, they suddenly become perfect and sappy. They hold no more grudges (or they easily put them aside) and all the passion, fight, anger, etc that made them such enticing characters to read about - that's all gone once she tells that character's story!

I'll probably keep picking up the stories - From the Library - but it's getting old fast. And I have to point out that it seems that Kenyon is just as fascinated by Nick as she was by Acheron. I've never understood Nick's appeal and I'll probably stop reading the stories if she does write his book. She's been telling his story all along, he's the only one that still moody, morose, and a general pain - because she hasn't given him his own book yet - and I don't want to read 'his story'. I don't want to like him, by reading his story, and I don't want him to suddenly become some starry eyed likable hero because he found the 'one for him'. Look at what she's doing to Stryker right here.

You can tell this is Kenyon's idea of paradise. The Ultimate Bad Boys being reformed by the "one woman for him". Vice Versa for the women. And of course none of them are having any problems, no divorces, no issues...

OK - Spoiler - so don't read this if you don't want spoilers -
I'm also annoyed by the sudden 'revelations' concerning Nick and Acheron. Namely that Nick is something called a Malachai and Acheron is actually one of the Chthonian?!? Acheron seems to suddenly know this revelation about himself but there's no real explanation about how it happened, came up, etc. I can see that Nick's 'revelation' is to add more suspense to the story but for me, Acheron's 'revelation' should have at least been a part of his big huge, 736 page book, which was just the last one that I finished reading before 'One Silent Night'... Acheron's 'revelation' that's in 'One Silent Night', wasn't in there. And that annoys me.

And Jared, in the past stories, he'd shown up when called/summoned. Or even play video games every Saturday morning... (see 'Acheron') And now suddenly he's been chained to a wall for centuries... that doesn't fit.

So I can only give this a 3 star and I don't know how much more I can take... I enjoyed the beginning stories and 'Acheron' was worth waiting for, but I don't know how much more I can take.

It pains me to write a bad review but I feel I must. I loved all the DH books...dream hunters well thats another story but the Dark hunters are my loves! This book...this one was...interesting. I felt cheated yes cheated! like she wrote this book on a whim an after thought. after I read it I was like is that it? At least we learned something new about Nick that was about the only thing interesting about the book...
*sigh*
I will be waiting patiently till my Dark hunters book return in all there glory!
...I hope

Sherrilyn Kenyon needs to start reading the reviews here and doing something about her writing, or about this series. It's been obvious for a long time that the quality of books in the Dark-Hunter series has nose-dived. They've become repetitive and formulaic, and each new set of characters is far from sympathetic. For a long time, I've found it difficult to care about the characters, and the only reason I've kept reading is Acheron, whose story I'm still waiting to read *because I don't read books in hardback*.

So a word of warning here to anyone else who hasn't read Acheron's story: THIS BOOK CONTAINS A MAJOR SPOILER FOR THAT BOOK. Yes, Kenyon's done it again - or her publisher has: a book has been issued in paperback before the paperback issue of a previous book in the series, and it gives away at least one enormously important part of the plot of the previous book. I was furious when last year's (very poor) Christmas instalment in the series revealed Kat's identity before Kat's book was released in paperback, and now this book has spoiled the plot of Acheron's book. There are good reasons why I won't buy the book in hardback: hardbacks are heavy and awkward to hold for reading in bed, for a start. They're also about three times the price of the paperback - and given the quality of Kenyon's last eight or so books in this series I'm not wasting that amount of money on what could very easily be another stinker.

Anyway, spoiler complaints aside, why else did I give this book one star? First, yet again readers are being gouged. For the second time in this series, we're being sold short: this isn't a book; it's a novella. It's half the size of a normal book, and the print is also almost twice the size. No, we're not fooled.

Second, while Stryker has the potential to be a very interesting character, and I like the occasional attempt to show us that this world isn't simply a question of black and white, this novella is far too shallow and short to do justice to what would be needed to redeem him - or, rather, make us care about him and see him as properly three-dimensional. A book as short as this can only skim the surface of what seems to be a very complex character, so we're left with a superficial caricature instead of what Kenyon did with Zarek, for example - another character who had been introduced to us as evil personified, and turned out to be much more complex, and much more deserving of sympathy, than we'd been led to believe.

So, too short, too superficial, and too many new characters and revelations thrown in. The major danger, too, is resolved far too quickly and too easily. The threat to the human race as they prepare for Christmas? What threat? It certainly wasn't shown. And it was Christmas? Really? Could've fooled me.

I did like Jared - but, again, new character thrown in with very little development. Medea? Could be an interesting character for a future book, but far too little depth here. The development as regards Nick? That needed *far* more explanation, far more analysis and more time spent with Nick working through what he'd discovered and its implications. Many parts of this book felt more like an outline than a novel.

So, yet again, another dud from Kenyon. Acheron's story comes out in paperback at the end of this month and, unless that reaches something close to the standard of the first books in this series and that Kenyon hasn't matched since Valerian's story, it'll be the last of hers I bother reading.