Posts Tagged ‘Were-Hunters’

Bad Moon Rising: A Dark-Hunter Novel
Lily is dancing in her underwear and talking about Fang…

Oh hello, guys. I didn’t expect you back already. Ok. Let me turn off the music, put some pants on and put these jazz fingers away. Let’s try this again, and please don’t tell her about the stain on the center pillow on the sofa. I swear that bottle of blood was empty when I fell asleep.

So anyways, Hello Maryse’s followers. Since she’s out of the house, I am going to talk about books behind her back! Muhahaha . This is a warning of sorts; we don’t review books the same way. Her’s are always pretty and elegant and NEVER anything outrageous. Mine are more rambling and outlandish. You have been warned. Now *queue theatrical voice* PREPARE TO BE AMAZED!

If you have not read the Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark Hunter series you have been missing out. Bad Moon Rising is the 18th book in the long standing series and takes a spin on things. We were introduced to the Kattlatkis brothers back in Night Play, where we met Vane a wolf Were-Hunter that fell madly in love with a plus sized human named Bride. After a crushing betrayal that resulted in the death of their sister, Vane and his ever smart mouthed brother Fang are strung up and left for death. After an attack (which they barely survive) Fang falls into a coma and Vane is left with some serious problems to clean up. Including finding out Fury (a pack member that could not get along with Fang at all) is one of their brothers. In Night Play we get a glimpse of Fang in a coma and Vane’s attempts to bring him out of it. I thought Fang was being a ninny. Boy was I ever wrong.

Bad Moon Rising kicks off with the introduction of the pack to Sanctuary. Aimee Peltier (a bear Were-Hunter and the crown jewel of her family) gets attacked by some Jackal Were-Hunters. The wolf pack disregards the laws of Sanctuary (where everyone is welcome and safe, no fights ever – in front of the humans anyways. Come in Peace or leave in Pieces is the motto) and jumps to save her. Wolves are known for their protection of their females (and for having disgusting manners and being savages). To their surprise they are not thrown out but told they will always be welcome with the bears for their willingness to help save Amiee.

We also get to spend more time with Fang. He is a jerk. He is loud mouthed, quick to fight, impatient and rude. He is also tall, dark hair, beautiful eyes and a stomach you could do your wash on. The line I think of when I think of Fang is a line from Shrek 2. Donkey, Puss in Boots and Shrek have all been arrested. Donkey is screaming and carrying on and on and yelling no one told him he had the right to remain silent. Shrek replies “You have the right, what you lack is the capacity.” Fang just lacks the capacity to shut his mouth.

Aimee and Fang are finding themselves hopelessly attracted to one another and some really good scenes come of it. Tons of tension, and boy do I love tension. There are major problems with this match though. With the weres there is always a more dominant side – either human first animal second or vice versa. He is an animal first (Kattagari), which means he is more wild, more like a creature in the woods and is quick to act like an animal. She is a human first (Arcadian), which means she is more repulsed by the animal nature of him, and her human side is always running the show. Oh there is also the problem of them not even being the same species and her Kattagari family doesn’t know she’s now Arcadian.

Fangs mind:

Put her out of your thoughts. His father hated him enough. If he ever found out Fang was turned on by a bear… they’d call out a hunt and he’d be slaughtered.

Aimee’s thoughts:

Then what was Amiee? Katagari bear who became Arcadian at puberty. One with the tracking powers of a goddess who was currently attracted to only a wolf. You don’t get more unnatural than that.

We continue to travel with them on their journey to each other. Once Fang comes out of the coma (of which he only got out of by agreeing to a new job), him and Amiee are trying to ignore each other but still give us some panty melting moments with them (If this gets back to her – calm down Ma, just a hint).

Setting the beer aside, he pulled her to him until she was standing between his spread knees. Her scent wrapped around him like a warm cloak as he imagined her sliding her T-shirt over her head and freeing her breasts. “I’ve never wanted a woman as badly as I do you.”

Wow Fang, that’s hot. If the whole species thing wasn’t bad enough there is the small problem with his new boss:

I should probably warn you that I’m not real big on fairness and I have a below zero tolerance on most things. Do your job. Do it right and we won’t have any problems. F it up and I’ll most likely kill you. F up bad enough and I’ll torture you first.

Ok so I am going to take it this is not the kind of boss you can pour out your career plans too or offer a nice dental plan. This story progresses over 3 other plot lines from the series and maybe that’s what made it so special to me. We got to go back and see multiple plot lines evolving in time with each other, and some of the questions I had before suddenly were answered.

I loved Fang because of his never ending snark and mouth. He was a jerk that talked first and thought about his words second. I loved Amiee for trying to be the good daughter, without being a total martyr about it. Her choices in life were made for her at the end of the day. This book is pivotal to the plot line and if you liked the hints of Fang you got with Vane’s story please revisit him and get his side of the story with Bad Moon Rising.

Also you get a better look at the bears, with a shocker at the end that had me going “NO WAY”. This is going to change the course of the Were-Hunters in the next book, which will be the older brother and one of the quads Dev, in No Mercy.

Dev the bouncer brother is going to get a heroine, and I personally vote for myself. I mean a new vamp and a were, it’s not like it hasn’t been done people! 

That’s it get out, Maryse told me I wasn’t allowed to have guests. Best get on out of here. Maybe next time we can talk about the queen – you know Betsy!

My grand-maker is coming over soon, so I got to straighten up again. Whoever brought the shifter needs to make sure he is housebroken before he comes over again too! Bye!

This was a book I was anxious to read simply due to the dark, mysterious and unbelievably sexy model on the cover. He must have mesmerized me so much, because I accidentally purchased the book twice! In this case I DID judge a book by it’s cover, and it didn’t disappoint. 

This book takes place in Seattle, and is about a male Were-Hunter/Leopard named Ravyn who is also a Dark-Hunter (the best of both worlds – although I’m sure he begs to differ). His family want nothing to do with him, specifically because they blame him for the death of their loved ones, and even more so, now that he is a Dark-Hunter (instead of just dead).

One evening, while patrolling for Daimons, he is tricked (his libido getting the best of him), kidnapped…

One minute he’d been hiding in the shadows of Pike’s Market, waiting for his Squire, Erika, to come get him, and the next thing he’d known that puta in the red skirt had grabbed him and snapped the collar around his neck before he could fight or sense her intentions. Once the collar was in place, he’d been powerless without his magick.

and brought to an animal shelter (operated by Daimons). In cat form, he is imprisoned in a cage, sporting a “special” collar that will not allow him to change back to his human form, while he awaits his death.

He becomes unintentionally involved with “Susan Michaels” when she “adopts” him. She is an ex-reporter, now working for a trashy publication (due to a past reporting error that has blacklisted her from working for anything respectable). She receives a call from her best friend (Angie) who works at an animal shelter requesting she come see her immediately as she has a tip on a very important story. So they are not suspected of anything out of the ordinary, her friend hands her any old cat (in this case, Ravyn) and insists she act as if she is there to adopt the animal. Privately, her friends (Angie, and her husband Jimmy, a police officer) let her in on a story that seems absolutely preposterous, and she now fears for their sanity.

Susan sighed at the fear in her friend’s voice. “Did he tell you what was going on?”

She shook her head. “Not exactly. He said too many people were missing and dying and that he’s terrified that the ones responsible will come after him next. He wants us to head out for his parents’ house in Oregon.”

“Did he also tell you about the vampires?”

“The what?” By Angie’s face, Susan could tell that Jimmy hadn’t shared that bit of information with his wife.

“Yeah, according to him, the vampires are out to kill all of us off. No offense, Ang. I think Jimmy needs some help. Has he been doing a lot of overtime?”

Anger flared deep in Angie’s eyes. “Jimmy’s not crazy, Sue. Not by a long shot.”

Maybe, but she didn’t want to argue with her friend. “Yeah, well, thanks for the hot news tip.”

As she started for the door, Angie stopped her, “Here. Take the cat with you.”

She gaped. “Excuse me?”

“Please. For whatever reason, Jimmy is terrified. Take the cat to keep up appearances and I’ll come by and pick him up after work.”

Shortly thereafter, unbeknownst to Susan, the clinic is attacked, and her friends (amongst others) are killed. Arriving home, under the illusion that she is safe (and thinking nothing of what Jimmy has told her), she attempts to remove the cat’s collar…

At first the collar seemed to tighten even more, causing the cat to wheeze and choke. Susan pulled at the collar with all her strength. Just when she was sure it was useless, the collar snapped in half with a foreign surge of electricity so powerful it actually knocked her back three feet.

Cursing, she righted herself, then froze as she caught sight of the cat, which was growing on the carpet, right before her eyes. In a matter of heartbeats, it went from small house cat to full leopard size.

And still it writhed on the floor as if it were agony.

“Run!”

She flinched at the man’s voice in her head. Far from a coward, she moved forward…at least until all hell broke loose. Lightning shot from the ceiling and rebounded all over her room, shattering frames and breaking light bulbs. The hair on her body stood up on ends as the air was rife with static electricity that snapped in her ears.

The leopard let out a feral snarl as it clawed her carpet.

Unsure of what to do and unable to get to her gun since the cat was between her and the staircase, Susan took cover behind her couch as more lighting flashed and the windows rattled so badly that she wasn’t even sure why they hadn’t shattered. She shrieked as a bolt came dangerously close to her, making her hair stand on end in what she was sure was a truly attractive sight.

Just as she thought her house would ignite into flames from the powerful bursts, the lightning stopped abruptly. It was eerily quiet as she sat cringing with her hands on her ears. So quiet that all she could hear was the pounding of her own heart. The heaviness of her own breathing.

She half-expected the lightning to return.

But after a minute of waiting with nothing else running amok, she dared a glance over the back of the couch to discover the most incredible thing of all had happened…

Her leopard was gone and in its place was a naked man.

…and her whole world (and belief system) is turned upside down.

The Daimons, realizing their prisoner is missing, track down Susan’s residence and attack them (forcing Susan to see Ravyn in true Dark-Hunter action). The police become involved and the news report that Susan and Ravyn are responsible for the deaths at the clinic. They now become wanted fugitives.

Needing to protect Susan from the police and the Daimons that are after them, Ravyn realizes that their only option is hiding at the Sanctuary (unfortunately, run by the very family who hates and has disowned him). While in hiding, they try to uncover the conspiracy that has them being hunted (by both the police and the Daimons).

“Are you okay?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said as she sat down. The leather creaked under her weight, which really just made her feel so much better about herself and her situation. “I just woke up this morning, had my cornflakes and coffee as usual. Went to work for my sleazeball paper and saw my prize story had been butchered and turned to crap. Had my boss crawl all over my butt because I can’t leave reality behind me. So to help me with that, he gives me this assignment to track down some kid writing about a catman who prowls the market. Then while I’m contemplating the total absurdity that is my life, my best friend calls and tells me she has a lead for a real story that could get my reputation back. Only that story turns out to be one about the cops helping vampires eat us. I adopt a cat that I’m allergic to because my girlfriend is paranoid. I take him home to have him become the very thing I’d been told to find by my eccentric boss. And the next thing I know, my house is blown to shit. The Catman eats a guy in front of me, and my two best friends on the planet are now dead.

I enjoyed this book because it introduced us to even more characters, with deep emotional ties that make this tale tangible. There are some incredibly funny moments (when Ravyn first assumes Susan is a Squire, and my favorite part, when Ravyn was “tranqued” and loopy), and some very touching moments when Susan and Ravyn connect. 

He dipped his head down so that he could inhale the scent of her hair. The soft strands tickled his cheek even as the warmth of her body calmed him. He laid his other arm over her and held her close in the darkness. Like a lover. This moment awoke a long forgotten dream inside him. A dream of family. Of love. Of having someone he could love, who would love him too.

God, it’d been way too long since he’d just held someone…

We even get a glimpse of Nick (in his new ”bitter” format)…

“Yeah, and two years ago I thought Ash was a friend of mine. You know what that got me? A bullet in the brain.”

“I don’t know how you died, but I know Ash didn’t kill you.”

Nick gave a bitter laugh. “I wish I still had your blind faith. Unfortunately, mine was stripped from me the night I died.”

… and the first meeting (or should I say confrontation) between Nick and Ash (this one hit a nerve!)

Well worth the read, and definitely in the true spirit of the Dark-Hunter series.

This book focuses once again, on the Were-Hunters, in particular, a Katagaria male (part human/part animal), Wren Tigarian. He was ostracized as a child, by both of his parents, for being born half snow leopard and half white tiger, and ridiculed for the difficulties he had achieving and controlling his powers. Read the rest of this entry »