Dance with the Devil
Dance with the Devil by Sherrilyn Kenyon has a great cover which I first of all apologise for not being able to portray properly here. My scanner will only pick it up as you see it here and won't show the array of colours it gives off as it catches the light. Sorry about that.
For those who have read Night Embrace, you will have already "met" Zarek who had been let out of exile in Alaska for the Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans.
However at the end of that novel he finds himself being flown back to Alaska and back into isolation and exile. Having completely disregarded the rule book (or rather the Dark-Hunter handbook - which incidentally you can read online at Sherrilyn's site) he is now being sent back with no hope of being allowed back into civilisation again.
Banished centuries before for killing everyone in a village he was sworn to protect Zarek is sent to Alaska where he is away from civilisation and few people live even in the modern world. Isolated so much he is even ignored by the other Dark-Hunters when he goes online to their website. His only friend is a young Dark-Hunter who was not around to remember what he had done. Befriending Jess before he found out about his past even so he is alone. Though this reader can't help thinking that in some ways Zarek is his own worst enemy - after all he came across Jess in a Myst gaming room. If you want a game that is all about isolation that one really takes the prize.
After 900 years in exile already he would almost welcome death. But death for Dark-Hunters is not just death for without their souls they are doomed to walk the earth as Shades, always hungry, unable to eat, always thirsty but unable to drink....a living hell that Zarek cannot imagine would be that much worse than his life anyway.
After the events in Night Embrace Acheron is forced to plead with Artemis not to kill Zarek right away and at least let him be judged.
Artemis agrees to this and chooses Astrid, a Justice Nymph, to be the one to decide whether Zarek is safe enough to be allowed to live. Acheron agrees to her choice of judge and believes that Astrid will do what is right. For while Artemis believes that Astrid will find him guilty like she has found every other being who has come before her, Acheron believes that the only reason she has done so is because they are all guilty. He alone believes that Zarek is not as bad as he first appears.
Astrid has judged many men, including Dark-Hunters, some have tried to bride her, some have tried to hurt her, and one had tried to kill her. The last thing she expects when she goes to judge Zarek is a rude and angry man who has so many contradictions she knows she has her work cut out to find out what has made him as bitter as he is.
Blinded whilst doing her job Astrid goes to Alaska with Sasha, a wolf who is also more than he seems.
Keeping him trapped in her house Astrid gets to know him as much as she can but still cannot decide how to judge him. She has only two weeks and Artemis is pressing her to decide her verdict and so she calls upon the Dream-Hunters to help her navigate the memories of Zarek whilst he sleeps.
It is through this means that we learn much about Zarek's life before he became a Dark-Hunter, which I personally thought was very fitting as had he just opened up fully to Astrid to tell her about his past I for one would have thought it very contrary to his character.
And Zarek's past is one of brutality and betrayal which will move you close to tears. If ever a man was given a reason to be bitter, this is the man. But even with all of his bitterness there is still humanity in him as shown by the deeds of his current life that he hides from the rest of the world, human and Dark-Hunter alike.
But the most important memory for Astrid is the memory of the night he killed those he was to protect, a memory that is fragmented and broken and hidden from both her and Zarek. And until she can discover the truth about that night she cannot decide whether he is too dangerous to be allowed to live.
With her deadline approaching and Zarek with no idea of who she is Astrid finds that events are overtaking them as the executioner sent to kill Zarek is out in the world before she has reached her verdict and no one is able to stop him. All accounts say that Acheron is the only one who can destroy him but he is mysteriously absent.
Again this novel tells us a lot more about Acheron and his relationship with both the devious Artemis and the refreshingly literal Simi. Once more the complexity of this world is expanded upon and the reader is pulled into the story with no difficulty at all.
In an entirely new setting with many of the previously introduced characters absent you might sometimes find that a story cannot keep your attention because the familiarity is missing. This is not the case at all in Dance with the Devil and I look forward to new settings about the Dark-Hunters who appear to be spread across the whole of the world.
And like Night Embrace this novel ends with something that surprised me. For an author to surprise me completely twice is unheard of, at least before now. I won't spoil the surprise for anyone who has not read the book yet but it is really a good one and, I am sorry to have to admit, one that I should have seen coming as with the benefit of hindsight all the clues were there.
RATING : 
(if you need an explanation of the hearts ratings see my homepage)
Available on both Sherrilyn's website and as a bonus at the back of Dance with the Devil with the Devil, a Dark-Hunter Christmas is another short story, this one about a younger Dark-Hunter named Gallagher.
Gallagher is young enough to still have living descendants in the world and his wife, or rather his widow, has recently died. Travelling to New Orleans for Christmas he recalls his too short life and the loneliness of his existence.
This is the first Dark-Hunter story which is not about the story of an ancient warrior and in that way is a unique introduction to a modern-ish Dark-Hunter.
This story also shows us more about Acheron and Simi in their very amusing festival roles.
Short and sweet this story is worth reading if not for any other reason but for the Simi revealing yet more about Acheron that she shouldn't and an unknowing doctor revealing more about Ash's powers.
RATING :
(if you need an explanation of the hearts ratings see my homepage)
Also by Sherrilyn Kenyon: Link to the Complete Dark-Hunter series List. (at least to date)
Links to Online Stores
Visit Sherrilyn Kenyon's fantastic Website