Dance with the Devil (Dark-Hunter Series, Book Seven): Sherrilyn Kenyon UPDATED

Here's another updated review!  You can find my original review from 2008 HERE.  My feelings about this book seem to have stayed the same.  I still find Zarek to be one of the most psychologically and emotionally complex characters of Kenyon's.  He truly does evolve on so many levels.  He starts off so animalistic and then you realize there's SO much you don't know about him.  At all.  You have NO idea what he has been through, what he has endured, and the demons that still haunt him even many centuries later.  There are so many nuances to his character that I don't feel as if I caught them all or even appreciated them to the degree I do now -- either this book is worth reading more than once, or I'm just a lot more mature in the last 10 years...could be both.

Astrid is a great counterpart to Zarek.  I will, however, say that I don't see much point to her blindness if she's just able to use Sasha to see.  For example, she held off looking at Zarek until he was conscious, but wouldn't it have been a hell of a lot easier to tend his wounds if she could see his back?  No one said she had to look at his face.  Then, when he was awake, that was the first thing she looked at...  Seems a bit pointless.  Unless the reason is so she can seem helpless to those she is judging and, in turn, see how those men treat someone they view as helpless.  This is something in which I can see some merit, but, if it is the real reason, it isn't explained well.

Thanatos is a good bad guy with nothing to lose, and this makes him all the more dangerous.  I was more than a little frustrated by Acheron's inability to help or keep an eye on his Dark-Hunters, the way in which Artemis is so flippant (though I suppose that's in character for her), and the degree to which Acheron went to hide things from Zarek.  Simi is also a point of contention for me.  I found her more annoying than funny -- like she's a parody or an inside joke with Kenyon and her friends and I just don't get it.  I love the idea of Acheron having a "daughter," just not her.  Her speech and obsession with barbecuing (and barbecue sauce) all really rub me the wrong way...  Maybe it's just me, though.  There were times when I felt something similar for Sasha.  While I loved the fact that his crabby butt was a part of this story, he sometimes went a little bit overboard.  Once again, it could just be me.

Overall, I do think Zarek is still one of my favorite, most tragic Dark-Hunters.  I didn't cry this time around, but I did get slightly choked up.  I recommend this book, but be prepared to have your heart beaten to a pulp by Zarek's backstory.

Night Embrace (Dark-Hunter Series, Book Five): Sherrilyn Kenyon UPDATED

I actually finished reading this book about a week or so ago, but I've been hemming and hawing over how to handle these updated reviews (especially since I've been reading so many of them lately).  It's not a "problem" I have had to address before.  On one hand, I like adding my updated information to the original reviews themselves so the information is all in one place and it's easy to see how my writing/reviewing style has changed over the years.  On the other, I don't get "credit" for reading the book in this year's "book tally" on the right side of this blog.  I ended up going with creating a new review, marking it "UPDATED" and I plan on including a hyperlink to the original review for those of you who want to see what I thought of the book the first time around.  Now, I have to figure out a way to go back and update those reviews I previously just tacked onto the original reviews.  Some of those happened in 2017, so I'm trying to see if there's a way to post-date reviews...  I'm sure I'll figure something out!

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.