“Sherrilyn Kenyon has a knack for creating beautiful love stories with just the right touch of steamy passion. NIGHT PLEASURES, the third Dark-Hunter story, is no different. I found myself drawn to this book and over and over again regardless of the fact that I had other books begging for reviews. I tried, honestly I really did, but discovered that I just couldn’t leave this story until I had finished it. Kenyon develops so much tension in her world of the Dark-Hunters that to turn your back on the story is like carrying a taught rubber band around with you just waiting for it to snap.
NIGHT PLEASURES tells the tale of Amanda Devereaux, a woman with hidden talents, a crazy family and an uptight ex-fiancé. Bound and determined to make a normal life for herself away from her Voodoo family, she encourages her mind to ignore her instincts and fall in love with Cliff. During their engagement, she makes the one mistake that so many couples make in their relationships; at his insistence, she introduces Cliff to her crazy family. With a vampire hunting sister and fortune telling relatives, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that Cliff ran as fast as his snobbish legs could carry him and quickly broke off the engagement. Distraught by finding herself along yet again and angered that her family can’t seem to grow up and quit pretending, we find Amanda at the beginning of the book, bitter and lonely.
Enter Kyrian of Thrace. In FANTASY LOVER, Book One of the Dark-Hunter series, we are introduced to Kyrian’s character only briefly through Julian of Macedon’s tales. In his time, Kyrian was a fantastic warrior, holding back armies with practically nothing but his own sword, sharp tongue and brute strength. Alas, a perfect life can never last and when the unthinkable happens, Kyrian finds himself thrown into a world of danger and above all, darkness. As a Dark-Hunter, he finds strength in his continued existence as a warrior and lives year by year content with caring for himself. Well, that is until the night he awakes to find himself handcuffed to the prim and entirely disbelieving Amanda.
I found the tension between Kyrian and Amanda to really be the best aspect of NIGHT PLEASURES. There really is not a lot of free space where we as the reader are allowed to wind down. Kenyon keeps the tension growing and ebbing, pulling us along and creating depth to the story. Just when we think that Kyrian and Amanda might get over themselves and come to find peace in each other, another roadblock is thrown up and we find that they are separated again. I won’t tell you how the story ends, but rest assured your emotions will get quite the workout as you turn the pages.
In NIGHT PLEASURES, we do get to meet a few new characters, but as a series should, Kenyon only gives us enough information about each character and their background to make them a substantial part of the story, leaving the rest for us to discover through future books. I love how she introduces us to the Dark-Hunter world, giving us enough information to learn about this new, intriguing set of circumstances and yet leaving us begging for more.
Fair warning time: With a title like NIGHT PLEASURES, there is no doubting that this is an adult book. There are some graphic scenes but they all add something special to the story. Kenyon has a wonderful way of writing, expressing feeling and working with our senses. Her words are well placed and really help to bring the reader down into the action.
Overall, I found NIGHT PLEASURES to be a very enjoyable read. If it weren’t for the other books that require my attention I would already have my nose in the next installment of the series, NIGHT EMBRACE. I do highly recommend this book to anyone that likes their stories mixed with romance, action and the perfect touch of the paranormal. ”
Cinnleigh wrote this review Thursday, June 18 2009.
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