Night Pleasures

An imaginative extension of Greek myth, the Dark-Hunter series is truly fantastic and Night Pleasures is a really great read. The sun god Apollo created his own race, the Apollites, but they are cursed to die at the age of 27. A short life by any standards, some of these Apollites turn Daimon and start stealing the souls of unsuspecting humans to stay alive. The Dark-Hunters are Artemis’s soulless and immortal warriors who walk the streets at night to kill the Daimon’s and protect humans.The Dark-Hunters live a fairly lonely existence. They are prohibited from searching out love as that generally impacts their ability to make sound judgments. These are warriors who fight for their lives, especially since the fact that they are soulless means that if they die they are doomed to spend an eternity as a shade, a horrifying existence.

Night Pleasures while being based partly on Greek myth, is first and foremost a romance. Amanda Devereaux and Kyrian of Thrace meet after Amanda has been mistaken for her sister and kidnapped. When she finds out what Kyrian is, Amanda is taken aback because she tries very hard to live a normal life which is difficult with her family of sorceresses and “vampire” hunters. When Kyrian figures out that extremely powerful Daimon Desiderious is the one who is after them he takes her in to protect her. While Kyrian is protecting Amanda, the two begin what can only be called a forbidden romance.

There is so much that happens throughout this book, and I’m no Sherrilyn Kenyon, so I can’t really do the story justice. I also don’t want to give anything away, because the reading the book and learning the world and background of the story is a part of the experience.

My thoughts:

When I read Night Pleasures I was sucked in from the first chapter. I was glued to the story for hours. Kenyon is extremely creative in her extension on Greek myth and the story as a whole is fantastic. It was easy to relate to the characters because there were so many real world elements to the story I couldn’t help but nod my head and give an uhh-huh while reading. The craziness of Amanda’s family and the fact that she tries to deny her own powers in an attempt to live the average everyday life… well who hasn’t been driving bonkers by their family at one time or another, or tried to deny something that’s a part of yourself before you were truly ready to embrace it? Kyrian on the other hand had suffered a serious injustice (which is what brings Artemis to you when you die to become a dark-hunter) on the part of his wife when he was human. After all these years, he still isn’t able to trust anyone with his destiny. Trust problems? Again, relatable.

I could go on, but I won’t. I say read the series. Meet the people, learn the mythology, and enjoy.