Moving on to this review! I seem to have been on a Sherrilyn Kenyon kick as of late. I made my husband dig out my enormous box of books from under the stairs (where they're stored only because we haven't put of a bunch of shelves for them yet) and it was like a treasure chest. I ended up having to read the UK version of this book and the English nerd in me was interested by the fact that it used apostrophes as quotation marks. It drove me crazy at first, but I got over it (after regaining my husband about the oddity and having him roll his eyes at me, of course).
I originally read this book in 2008 and you can find the review here (along with the official text from the back of the book - it seemed silly to include it on this review too). Clearly, I felt as if it was one of the most amazing things I'd read and I fell in love with Talon. While I still enjoyed it (especially the lively sense of humor Kenyon manages to weave throughout), I didn't cry this time. I think it's because my reading material has been inundated with heartbreaking, gut-wrenching backstories lately, and I'm slightly desensitized. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it. I found Sunshine charming, but I got a very different visual image of her this time around -- not sure why. I love seeing recurring characters and I appreciate when an author is able to incorporate them into another character's book. Seeing Julian and Kyrian again was a treat (especially when they had to come rescue him from Sunshine's apartment). I loved Acheron in this book. While we see him in Kyrian's book, I don't think he played as big a role and we certainly don't get to see as much of him or learn as much about him as we do in this book. His relationship with Artemis is insanely complex and twisted (and I will now say that House of the Rising Son makes a little bit more sense to me...if only a little...). The biggest comment I will make is that some of the dialogue was jarringly awkward. One perfect example is when Nick and Acheron are drinking and Nick is grabbing a bite to eat. Nick's mother orders food for Acheron (being the loving, concerned mother she is). When Acheron gives the food to Nick, Nick realizes he's never seen Acheron eat (which is an odd time for the realization after his years of working with Acheron), and then he flat out mentions it to Acheron. It's just awkwardly formulated and I think Kenyon is a much better author than that. In addition to this, the use of "baby" endearments was a bit off-putting. I'm not saying it can't be used, it just didn't feel like it fit the characters well, and it felt overused at times.
Overall, I think Kenyon has a knack for creating characters with brilliant gravitational pulls. We feel drawn to them and are instantly empathetic. Talon's backstory was rich and his tragic history coupled with his unique abilities and life as a Dark-Hunter made for an interesting story. I liked Sunshine, but I found myself a little bit annoyed by her - I can't quite put my finger on why. There were great plot twists in the story that kept it fun and exciting, so much so that I finished it in just a couple of days. While I can appreciate that Kenyon was setting up a few other books with her inclusion of Vane, Valerius, and Zarek, I think she spent quite a bit of time on them - more so than I'm used to with her other books. She usually introduces them, but doesn't really spend entire chapters in their point of view. Part of me wonders if this was due, at least a little bit, to a need to fill in more information when Talon and Sunshine's story was a bit shorter than she wanted. I certainly don't feel like the book suffered for this, but a noticeable amount of this book was dedicated to other characters.
This was a dark, yet oddly light-hearted read (oxymoron much?). We're introduced to complex subplots and other rich personalities and characters. I definitely recommend this installment in this complex, creative Dark-Hunter series.
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