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Night Pleasures (Dark-Hunter, Book 2)
written by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Studio : St. Martin's Paperbacks
by St. Martin's Paperbacks
Release Date : 2002-10-13
Publisher : St. Martin's Paperbacks
Released : 2002-09
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780312979980
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 129 reviews)
List Price : $7.99
Our Price : $3.95
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Product Description |
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Dear Reader:
Have you ever wanted to know what it's like to be immortal? To journey through the night stalking the evil that preys on humans? To have unlimited wealth, unlimited power? That is my existence, and it is dark and dangerous. I play hero to thousands, but am known to none. And I love every minutes of it.
Or so I thought until one night when I woke up handcuffed to my worst nightmare: a conservative woman in a button-down shirt. Or in Amanda's case, one buttoned all the way up to her chin. She's smart, sexy, witty, and wants nothing to do with the paranormal--in other words, me.
My attraction to Amanda Devereaux goes against everything I stand for. Not to mention the last time I fell in love it cost me not only my human life, but also my very soul. Yet every time I look at her, I find myself wanting to try again. Wanting to believe that love and loyalty do exist.
Even more disturbing, I find myself wondering if there's any way a woman like Amanda can love a man whose battle scars run deep, and whose heart was damaged by a betrayal so savage that he's not sure it will ever beat again.
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Another Good Read |
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Didn't enjoy as much as the first but kept my interest enough. LOVE Sherrilyn's humor as well as romance and action. Lead characters were likeable but not as much as the first book. Will keep reading the series. |
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It was ok, but I wasn't thrilled. The plot was illogical. |
A few times while reading, I wanted it to be over. If a reader loves paranormal and doesn't mind a weak plot, then they might enjoy this more than I did.
CAUTION SPOILERS:
The illogical plot follows. Kyrian is a dark-hunter who kills evil diamons. Desiderius is an unusually powerful diamon who wants to kill Kyrian. Desiderius kidnaps Kyrian and has him unconscious. He should have killed him then, but he doesn't. He sets Kyrian free and says you have one day and then I will find you and kill you. A few days later, Desiderius catches Kyrian, ties him up, and leaves him outside so the sun will kill him. However, a friend is able to free Kyrian before the sun rises. Desiderius gets Kyrian a third time, ties him up, and stabs him in a way that does kill him. Why would Desiderius not kill him the first two times? There was a reason offered for the first time relating to Amanda, but I didn't buy it. The Amanda objective could have been accomplished in other ways. (By the way, there is a happy ending, meaning Kyrian will come to life again.)
I also question the author's creature rules. The diamons can fight in groups against dark-hunters and others. But, dark-hunters are not allowed to help each other fight diamons. The thinking is the gods don't want the dark-hunters to become too powerful. It's obvious that Kyrian wasn't even powerful enough to take on one diamond, Desiderius, which didn't sit well with me. Granted, Desiderius was more than a straight diamon, but the gods knew he existed and should have allowed for a change in rules.
The separation of the hero and heroine after they fall in love didn't make sense to me. Kyrian keeps Amanda with him for safety when her life is threatened. After they fall in love, Kyrian leaves Amanda because he feels they can't be together because he is immortal and she is human. Their separation at this point puts her in danger.
Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: nine. Setting: current day New Orleans and the back story from over 2,000 years earlier in Europe. Copyright: 2002. Genre: paranormal romance.
As of 6/19/08, I have read 4 Sherrilyn Kenyon books, as follows.
5 stars. Turn Up the Heat (in anthology Playing Easy To Get). Copyright 2006. My review posted 3/26/07.
3 stars. Night Pleasures. Copyright 2002. My review posted 6/19/08.
2.5 stars. Fantasy Lover. Copyright 2002. My review posted 6/19/08.
2 stars. Captivated by You (in anthology Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down). Copyright 2005. My review posted 4/02/08.
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An extra star for trying |
Ok, so this book definitely deserves an extra star in comparison to the Fantasy Lover, but that's really not saying much. My personal experience with the Night Hunter series so far reminds me of going to a trendy new restaurant with rave reviews and absolutely hating the whole thing. The ingredients you usually enjoy are all there (chicken, fish, etc.), but all the visually delectable combinations fall completely flat in taste. The spices you usually love taste like grass and it's almost laughable how absurd the whole experience ends up being. This series is just like that, even though the second book is a little better then the first.
Night Pleasures is almost identical to the Fantasy Lover in its structure. Two for two we've got:
- a heroine of average physical appearance with emotional problems and low self esteem.
- an average Joe ex-boyfriend who mistreats the heroine.
- a tortured, gorgeous, famous and rich hero who only wants to be loved.
- a horrible but drop-dead-gorgeous ex-wife that ruined the hero's life.
- the hero falls in lust with the heroine at first sight, even though tons of beautiful women throw themselves at him.
- the hero can't believe his luck and is tormented by wanting to be with her from day one, even though his terrible past is making it difficult.
- the average heroine can't get enough of the "yummy leather hunk" and his "yummy package".
- they do a lot of hissing and growling in pleasure.
- the hero shows the ex-boyfriend what a gem he threw away.
- the heroine makes the hero believe in life and love again.
- they live happily ever after and start reproducing as soon as possible.
That about sums up the book with addition of repetitive emotional mumbling from both the hero and the heroine. The reason I gave this book 2 stars is because there is a bit more story here and the author is trying to set up the Dark-Hunter brotherhood scenario for future books.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good fairy tale and I enjoy a well written love story, but I do like it to be at least somewhat believable even though it's fantasy. Why does every heroine have to be overweight, not very attractive and have men issues? For that matter, why does the hero have to be so beautiful? Weren't there normal looking men two thousand years ago? And how is it believable that a Macedonian general would fall madly in love for a boring accountant three days after meeting her? They have nothing in common and no real explanation for such immediate passion. And why is the first wife always so beautiful and horrific? It's like the writer is subconsciously trying to show that beauty queens are awful and plain Janes should always get the hunk. Also when a woman writes from the point of view of a male character (and vice versa for that matter), she has to be extremely careful not to come out feminine, especially when the character in question is a mucho-mucho man. Almost at the end of the book when our hero is confronting his nemesis he says "You're a bully..." Can you really see a two thousand years old Greek general saying something like that to another guy? He is not trying to reclaim a stolen toy in the school yard, but wants to exterminate that individual, so this is really the best he could come up with under the circumstances? Things like that occur throughout the book and make it almost impossible to read with a straight face.
I gave this series another try by reading this book, and I can't do it to myself anymore. If you want a well developed story with interesting characters and similar plot try JR Ward's black dagger brotherhood series. The story is well developed and the couples are actually well matched. They are all normal looking people and the writer actually concentrated on character development vs. physical perfection/flaws.
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So good! |
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I really love this book. Sherrilyn Kenyon is one of my favorite paranormal romance novelist. She really rocks. I love the wise cracks from Nick, however I didn't care for Tabitha or Esmeralda. I just didn't care for these two characters, they were just so annoying in their views on vampires. They could have been kept from the book. But all in all this book was super. |
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Oh My Gosh!! |
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I'm so loving this series. I'm at a lose for words to describe Ms. Kenyon's writing style. It's great. I love the humor in her books. The characters are to die for. A fast read. You won't be able to put it down. |
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