A little about the series (as per the author’s webiste):
Welcome to the world of Kendrians, a diverse vampire race that has existed for centuries. Five clans comprise these sensual creatures of the night.
Melina Morel – Series Reading Order
Book Review – The Renegade Hunter by Lynsay Sands
I was very pleased with this one. It was an excellent chapter in the Argeneau saga, and it was nice to get back to the familiar Rogue Hunters and Argeneau clan 🙂
Once a Rogue Hunter, now turned rogue, Nicholas Argeneau (Lucian’s nephew, and brother to Thomas Argeneau) has been on the run from his family and ex-colleagues for over 50 years (since the accidental death of his life mate). Now he himself is being hunted for murdering a human. While he has no real memory of such, (but was discovered in quite a predicament), he has been avoiding capture, and helping ease his guilty conscience by continuing to hunt rogue (evil vampires) on his own time.
A character in recent installments (by having unwittingly helped Lucian’s crew in past dangerous escapades) he continues evading his own capture while mysteriously helping the crew from a distance. In this book, Nicholas pursues a Rogue right into the Hunters’ headquarters, and ends up saving a human female (Jo – Samantha’s sister, life mate of Mortimer). Discovering that he can’t read her, he realizes that this beauty is his life mate.
“What’s your name?”
Nicholas stiffened and glanced over his shoulder with surprise. The woman should be halfway to the house by now; he pushed the thought at her to go back inside. Instead, she was standing right behind him, peering over his shoulder at Ernie.
He saw her frown and squint to see better and then she asked, “What’s that in his chest?”
Cursing, Nicholas stood and caught her arm to urge her toward the house. This time he actually tried to slip into her thoughts rather than simply send out a general thought. However, his footsteps came to an abrupt halt when he came up against a blank wall in her mind.
“What is it?” She asked, peering up at him curiously.
“I can’t read you,” Nicholas admitted with bemusement.
“Read me?” She asked with confusion.
Nicholas merely shook his head and tried again to penetrate her thoughts, but again he came up against a blank wall… which could mean only one thing: She was his life mate.
Unable to resist each other (the love-nanos are at work) they share a very passionate moment, but he reluctantly realizes that he must let her go, as he is unwilling to have her live a dangerous life on the run with him.
He was in the middle of enemy territory with a temporarily disabled rogue just feet away and a party full of enforcers just inside the building behind him… and he was stopping to kiss a life mate he could never claim. Nicholas had never realized he was such a masochist. This was like tasting the frosting of the cake he could never eat, he thought unhappily, and slowly eased and then broke the kiss. When he lifted his head, Jo’s eyes were still closed and her lips still slightly parted and damp from his kiss. He was hard-pressed not to kiss her again, but resisted, and when she opened her eyes, he growled, “Consider me thanked.”
A small smile curved her lips, and then Joe reached up to caress his cheek, saying, “Surely saving my life is worth more than one little kiss?”
Mortimer and the crew find the two in an embrace, arrest Nicholas and place him in a holding cell, while erasing Jo’s memory of the Rogue attack on her, and meeting Nicholas. Jo, being somewhat strong willed, senses something isn’t right with her memory, and after overhearing the hunters discuss the issues at hand, forces herself to remember…
Jo stayed where she was for another moment, her mind spinning a little. Most of what had been said made no sense to her. Decker had wiped her memory and put it in her head that she was tired? She’d been attacked by a rogue, whatever that was, and some fellow named Nicholas, also a rogue, had saved her… apparently risking himself in some way to do so? And she’d been kissing him?
It was the bit about wiping her memory that bothered her most. What did that mean? And how could it have been done? Oddly enough, however, while she wondered about that, Jo was also having strange flashes of memory in her head, just bits of memory that were very disjointed and didn’t make a lot of sense. Mostly she just kept seeing the dark-haired man’s face.
…finds Nicholas, and helps him escape.
Realizing what Jo has done, the hunters decide to keep watch on her (in hopes that Nicholas will come back for her), so they can capture him. Due to certain events, everyone concludes that Jo continues to be the latest evil vampire/rogue’s target. Nicholas realizes he has been the only one who has consistently managed to save Jo from abduction attempts, and they both realize that she might simply be safest, hiding with him.
A quick excursion in hiding allow the two to discover love again, and while Nicholas expects that circumstances will force them to eventually part, Jo is insistent on getting to know him, understand his past, and release him from the virtual and eventual real prison he has relinquished himself to.
Unfortunately, that meant he couldn’t explain the situation to her. Not that Nicholas had it in him to tell her the truth anyway. He had no desire to see the horror and disgust in her eyes when she learned what he’d done 50 years ago. If she even believed him and didn’t simply decide he was on drugs or just plain crazy. After all, he didn’t look like he could have been around 50 years, and explaining the whole I’m-a-vampire bit wasn’t likely to be that believable to her.
Nicholas smiled faintly at the thought of her expression if he tried to explain that.
Really, I am a vampire, but a good vampire… except for that one time I murdered an innocent.He grimaced. Yeah, except for that one inexplicable evil deed he performed while in the throes of grief, he was a swell guy.
This was a book that I found quite satisfying. A bit of action, danger, love and a nice bit of humor once the Argeneau clan convened for a meeting (loved that part!!). So many good parts to quote from the Lucian/Argeneau family encounter, but here’s one (where Jo was pleading to Lucian for Nicholas’s life) that had me laughing, and will give you an idea of the humorous side of the book:
“And you can’t let them shake and bake Nicholas.”
Thomas rolled his eyes. “Its stake and bake, Jo. We aren’t pork chops.”
The author is true to her books. Her dedication to her characters, their personalities, touching moments between family members, and the tone of the stories recounted is unfailing. I always finish her books, smiling!
4 stars
Jeanne C. Stein – Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles Series Reading Order:
- The Becoming (The Anna Strong Chronicles, Book 1)
- Blood Drive (The Anna Strong Chronicles, Book 2)
- The Witch and the Wicked as found in the Many Bloody Returns Anthology
- The Watcher (The Anna Strong Chronicles, Book 3)
- Legacy (Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles, Book 4)
- Retribution (Anna Strong Vampire Chronicles, Book 5)
Book Review – Sins of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Sins of the Night
Book eight takes us out of New Orleans (where most of the past books have occurred), and introduces us to a new team of Dark-Hunters in Mississippi. While they have also been trained and lead by Acheron, it appears that they are not as close to him as the Louisiana team. Problems are arising, and some Dark-Hunters are being lead astray by other team members who are certain Acheron has an ulterior motive for the Dark-Hunters. The same cycle occurs every hundred years or so, (losing many dark hunters to love and a few to traitorous Dark-Hunter rogues that decide to defy Acheron).
Acheron realizing that something is amiss, sends his enforcer “Alexion” to earth to infiltrate the group and weed out the bad seeds (essentially, extinguishing them for good).
Alexion shook his head at the irony. It was time for him to return to the dimension of the living and do his duty once more. Marco and Kyros were drawing together Dark-Hunters and trying to convert them to their misbegotten cause and they wouldn’t stop until he forced them to.
Their plan was to rebel against Artemis and Acheron. And Alexion’s job was to kill any who refuse to see reason.
Alexion used to be a Dark-Hunter turned “Shade”, but continues to exist in Acheron’s world (Katoteros) only because of, and for Acheron. Devoid of mostly any feelings, he has had to adapt to an eternity without human senses and emotions that had once given him a passion for life.
But he felt nothing. He always felt nothing. Just a cold, horrifying logic that bore no emotions whatsoever. He could only observe life, he couldn’t live it.
Residing in Katoteros with Acheron, he has helped raise “Simi”, essentially being her more stern but adoring second “Daddy”, and it is through his connection to Acheron and Simi, that he has been able to feel any form of happiness.
There was something innately compelling, endearing, and ultimately sweet about the demon. Something that made him love her like a daughter. In all the worlds, she and Acheron were the only two things that still made him feel human emotion. He loved them both and he would die to protect them.
On earth, he finds himself intrigued by his Dark-Hunter host “Dangereuse” (a female from the French Revolution era who no longer trusts any man in her life due to a terrible tragedy from her past). While at first, she is resentful of Alexion and his assignment,
“That’s not how this works. When Acheron sends me in, he places me with a Dark_hunter he would like to see saved. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way, but in theory, if you cooperate, you should survive this last uprising. I use you as a friendly, trustworthy face to introduce me to the traitors so that I can decide who among them is worth saving.”
“And if I refuse?”
“You die.”
she begins to comprehend Acheron’s concerns and deduces that there could be an evil force at work trying to get them to betray the one whom they had always believed had humanity’s best interest at heart. Working together, they develop a trust, soothing each other’s emotional scars.
He kissed her gently, then urged her back down on the mattress. “You should get a good day’s sleep.”
She wrinkled her nose at that. “It’s kind of hard. I haven’t slept away from my home in centuries. I’m not sure about the daylight that’s starting to spill through the curtains either. It’s making me a little nervous.
He wrapped his arms around her and snuggled close.
“I won’t let it hurt you.”
Warmth spread through her. “It’s a nice thought, but even with your powers, I somehow think Apollo might win.”
The room went pitch-black. There was no sign of a single ray of sunshine now. “Sleep in peace, Danger. I won’t let anything hurt you. I promise.”
And that was the kindest thing anyone had ever done for her. Her eyes tearing from the strange tenderness that flooded her, she moved her head to kiss his arm, then snuggled down to rest.
While this wasn’t my absolute favorite of the bunch (I found myself cringing at the name “Danger”, and with mostly all new characters, I wasn’t already familiar with, it took me awhile to warm up to them), there was one scene in it that stole my heart, and a few errant, free flowing tears took me by surprise. Basically, Alexion and Danger’s time was coming to an end (he would have to render his final judgement, and return to his ethereal form back to Acheron’s realm), they are trying to make the most of the time they have left together. For once, Alexion is feeling true emotions again, and Danger wants to make sure she doesn’t spoil their last day together with sadness. Worst of all, once he is gone, her memory of him and their time together will be fully erased (as is always the case when Alexion completes an assignment).
“We have to go,” Alexion said, his voice deep and husky.
“I know.”
Reluctantly, she pulled away and forced herself to concentrate on anything and everything other than Alexion.
Neither of them spoke as they showered and dressed.
What was there to say? Even worse, she was afraid one of them would say something to set off her tears. It was much easier to keep herself together if she were silent.
She couldn’t even tell him that she wouldn’t forget him. And that hurt most of all.
“I don’t want to forget…”
She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until Alexion gathered her into his arms. “It’s better if you do. I couldn’t leave you if I knew you were in pain because of me. The only thing that makes this bearable to me is knowing that tomorrow your life will be back to normal.”
A tear fled past her control. “I’m sorry,” she said, brushing it quickly away. But it was too late. That one tear started an avalanche of sobbing.
Her mind and heart shattered at the thought of the days to come, when she would never even know he existed. She’d no longer know his touch…his scent…
God, how she loved the smell of his skin. The caress of his hand on her face. The feel of his body under and over hers…
How could she love without him?
“Don’t leave me,” she said, her voice breaking.
Alexion closed his eyes as he felt his own tears swelling. If he could have one wish…
But all the wishes in the world couldn’t make him human and they couldn’t keep them together.
“I won’t leave you, Danger. I will be here for you anytime you need me.”
She looked up at him with pain in her eyes that made him ache all the way through his being. “But I won’t see you.”
“No. But I won’t ever leave you alone. I swear it.”
Danger tightened her hold on him. She didn’t know who had it worse. The one who had no memory at all or the one who knew and couldn’t speak of it.
I’ve gotta stop…the lump in my throat is back… 😉
3.5 stars