amazon / b&n

Amanda is an accountant whose life gets turn upside down when she is kidnapped and awakens to find herself chained to one of the most gorgeous men she has ever seen. Hot and sexy, Kyrian turns out to be a Dark Hunter--an immortal similar to a vampire but who chooses not to drink human blood. Instead, he hunts down the vampires who do, and it's one nasty vamp, Desiderius, that has chained the two of them together and set them loose so he can hunt the Hunter and Amanda. Amanda finds herself attracted to Kyrian in a way she's never been attracted to a man before. Charged with protecting humanity from Desiderius's kind, Kyrian keeps her with him, only to get tangled in an attraction he doesn’t want as he tries finish of Desiderius once and for all--which can only be done if he can regain his soul from Artemus. Determined to defeat Desiderius, Kyrian must face his past, conquer his fears, and trust the woman he loves after centuries of not trusting anyone, and somehow get his soul back from a goddess who is not known for relinquishing what's hers easily.

Impression: As mentioned in my previous review, I'm not big on romance novels. And my biggest problem with the majority of them is how they suppress any common sense in a plot to forward the romance. So even if there's an interesting plot, it gets squashed in the favor of romance/sex even when the romance/sex makes no sense. I was kind of hoping the paranormal stuff would be a little different. If this book is any indication, the only difference is that one or more characters is paranormal--vampire, werewolf, whatever, and that's it. The rest is pretty standard: romance/sex at any cost. You just cannot convince me that a person "running for his/her life" who is getting all hot, hard, and horny for the person running with them is truly afraid that his/her life is truly in danger.

And that happens A LOT in this book. I can get being attracted, and getting hot, hard, and horny when the danger has passed, but while you're fleeing a blood sucking killer? Um, no. I read this book because several people said her writing is wonderful, but the most interesting plot--the cat and mouse between Desiderus and Kyrian--doesn't get the attention it deserves until the later 1/4th or 1/3rd of the book. Before that, it is all backdrop for the relationship developing between Amanda and Kyrian even when the it doesn't make sense. The writing itself was generally okay, except for the constant (and usually unnecessary and annoying) pov switches, but nothing all that "wonderful". All the characters are inhumanly beautiful--tall and elegant, sculpted gods and goddesses. I could probably overlook this if the rest of the book wasn't so flawed, but, in this case, it only made a bad book worse.

I suppose readers of standard, fluff, who-cares-if-the-characters-make-sense romance will love it as long as they also like the paranormal. As for me, it's most definitely NOT on my recommended list. I like fluff as much as the next person (though, admittedly, I do like a little depth to my reading), but my fluff has to make sense.