Trained as a slayer and predator, I've learned to become a tool for evil. Until I was sent to kill the one woman I couldn't. My hesitation cost her everything, including her life.
Or so I thought.
To save her, I need to trust enemies and friends I'm not sure won't betray me, including a woman born of an enemy race who hates mine bitterly.
And maybe become the monster of my past.
Comment: This is the 27th installment in the world known Dark-Hunter series by author Sherrilyn Kenyon. I've been a fan of the series since I first discovered the first book, years ago, if not for more than one decade... and although things are no longer as appealing as they used to, I still read the books. However, these days I just wait until I can get the cheaper paperback, such as happened here.
In this book we were promised Urian's story and HEA. He has been a recurrent character through the series with two main ideas connected to him: his hate for his father Stryker and his mourning of wife Phoebe. He is looking for revenge while living his days with his group of friends, such as Ash and the others part of his current family, even if not directly related.
This book follows along the lines of Acheron and Styxx, in the sense that it beings back a lot of background and explanations for why some things happened and for why some decisions were taken, at least in relation to the events that have been known since the release of the first book in the series.
Will we finally be able to see Urian happy?
I suppose anyone who is a fan of romantic stories, of all genres where romance is included or of the similar types of stories in which also the books of Sherrilyn Kenyon are included, so often known as the "romancelandia" in internet, probably already knows about the real life situation she recently revealed to the public.
Sherrilyn Kenyon is as human as we are and she has real problems too but the fact they are now affecting her professional persona is a big negative. Selfishly, I'm thinking this influences her release dates and the plans she had for the publishing of new books. I do hope things get calmer and solved her but with so many series, so many promised plans, something is certainly not going to work out...
This brings me back to this book. As the previous books in the series have demonstrated, the recent tactic mrs Kenyon has used is to present the same story line, the same situations we already saw in other books, coming back to live under a different character's perspective. This means, the majority of the book is not an advance in the already known story of Urian. It's his whole life again, seen through a different look, like the characters of Acheron and Styxx were in their respective books.
For some this is just laziness, for others it's just copy paste but I must say a lot of work certainly has gotten into this because many things are the same but if someone else relates it, many words were changed.
Recognizing the author's effort and work into giving the readers an emotional punch however, doesn't clear her from, plainly speaking, of short cutting what one assumes the story is about: the HEA of Urian.
Urian is a fascinating, beloved character of those who have followed the series. It was a bit disappoint that his HEA, so long ago inferred but until now never accomplished actually took place in such a short amount of pages, with a character his emotional connection wasn't as vibrant or specially done as I'd have liked and all the problems he faced in relation to his suffering over Phoebe were dismissed as easily as one can breathe.
The current setting of the series takes place in the 10's of this century so it's quite updated according to the real world events. It's just so weird to think we got to "bond" with Urian through more than 800 pages in my edition and just 100 of those were related to current events, with some about things already taking place in the 80s and 90s if one things about the chronology of the series. So unbalanced.
All this considered, why did I appreciate this book more than the average? Basically, the emotion connected to specific scenes, to specific moments, whether we've seen or not, is compelling. I liked how reading about certain things made me feel. It reminded me of when I started the series and how amazing and special and unique it felt. How much hope I invested in caring about the characters and imagining them as real people living those lives... Times passes by and although I don't really foresee an end to the series that will feel right if the state of things keeps as it is nowadays, it's nevertheless always gratifying to imagine the opposite and hope for the best.
Grade: 7/10
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