Kiss of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Dear Reader,

What do you get when you have one immortal Viking warrior no one can remember five minutes after he leaves their presence, a princess on the run for her life, and one seriously annoyed demigod? Basically, you get my life.

It started out simple enough. One night I went to save a woman in trouble. The next thing I knew, the doorway to hell had opened and out stepped Daimons-vampires the likes of which I'd never seen before. Led by the son of Apollo, they are out to end the curse that has banished them all to darkness. The only problem with that is they have to kill Cassandra Peters to do it and if she dies, so dies the sun, the earth and all who dwell here. Life's just a bowl full of cherries, ain't it?

Brought together by fate, it's now my job to protect a daughter of the very race I have been hunting for centuries. Neither of us dares to trust the other. But she is the only one who remembers me... More than that, with her courage and strength, she is the only one who has ever touched a heart that I thought had died centuries ago.

The only way for a Dark-Hunter to regain his soul is through the love of a woman. But what happens when that woman isn't exactly human?

Wulf Tryggvasen
'

After really liking the last Dark Hunter book Dance with the Devil, I was very much looking forward to reading this book, However, right from page 1 I wasn't as invested in this one as I was for Zarek's book.

And that doesn't mean to say that it was a terrible book because it wasn't. There were many moments were I was moved, and even a couple where I cried, but overall Wulf's story was good but not great.

Wulf was cursed hundreds of years ago so that only a member of his family can actually remember him. Everyone else forgets him the moment they walk away, so it is very unusual when he meets a woman who actually does remember him from one day to the next. Of course, it isn't easy to forget a man who you have amazing sex with, even if it is only in your dreams....or is it!

Cassandra is no ordinary woman though. She is an Appolite, destined to either die on her 27th birthday, which is only months away, or to make the choice to become a Daimon, and she holds the future of the world in her hands. If she is to die without having children, then according to legend the world will end as well - and there are quite a few out there who are willing to test the legend to see if it is actually true or not!

Cassandra and Wulf meet when she and her bodyguard are being attacked by several Daimons, and events are quickly orchestrated so that he has to protect her, especially seeing as though she is now pregnant with his child. Wulf struggles a lot with the thought of the future - how can he love a woman who is destined to become one of the Daimons that he must hunt in his role as Dark Hunter, or she must die.

Some of the more emotional scenes for me were around the thought of the baby not knowing Cassandra as it grew up. I loved the memory box where she was placing little bits and pieces so that the baby would know something about her, as well as her family. There were a couple of interesting twists in this one, including the actions of Urian, who I am sure we will get to meet again in future books.

Whilst this one was nowhere near as good as Zarek's book I am still looking forward to the next one!

My only question is - do other people out there find all the mentions of DarkHunter.com, and yet another character reading a Kinley MacGregor novel, distracting? I have to admit that at times I do!

Strangely enough, even though I felt more invested in Zarek's book, I ended up rating them both the same. How does that happen?


A solid 4/5 for this book for me!