I've been reading sherrilyn kenyon's books and I need people to talk to.
I have a lot of feelings.
There needs to be a discord or something. How is her books popular but its hard to find the fandom. I even rped in the world and it was hard to find people to rp with.
So, of all the Peltiers (and there are a lot), I have taken a liking to Remi. He got such a raw deal it wasn't even funny. So... naturally, I wrote him his own story. So here he is. Remi, one of the quads, sequestered to the kitchen most of the time.
“Remi! You can’t kill Daimons at the front door!” Dev Peltier shot across the main bar floor of Sanctuary at a dead run, with his wolfwere brother-in-law Fang Kattalakis hot on his heels.
“Sure I can,” his identical brother snarled in his earpiece. “Watch me!”
Dreading the scene of his shapeshifting twin ripping the heart out of a demon on the busy streets of New Orleans underneath a closed circuit police camera, Dev considered teleporting to stop the coming disaster, but that would only worsen this fiasco.
And guarantee them both some special quality time in a high security government lab some place where they’d never be seen or heard from again.
He and Fang barely reached the open front door in time to grab the tall, muscled mountain that sometimes passed as a human being before Remi ate the petite blonde standing nonchalantly under the outside streetlight.
And that bastard fought them with everything he had as they pulled him back from his would-be victim. A victim who didn’t appear concerned at all that she’d narrowly escaped certain death.
Remi even bit Dev in the shoulder as he struggled against them.
“Dammit!” Dev snarled. “You better have had your rabies shot, boy!”
Growling in that unique way that only a shapeshifting bear could, Remi continued to try and throw them off so that he could reach the woman who still hadn’t moved.
In fact, the Daimon yawned. Then checked her watch as if the entire event left her bored out of her mind. “Can I go in now? You two have him leashed, right?”
Fang’s jaw dropped at her nonchalant tone. “You know, Medea, given what happened the last time a bunch of you showed up here, you’ve got a lot of nerve.”
“‘Course I do. It’s what makes me the bad guy. And I’m told my half-brother’s upstairs, playing poker with your little brother. So if you don’t mind …” She headed inside as if she didn’t have a bar full of shapeshifters who’d love to make her their lunch.
Remi continued to curse them both. “They killed Maman and Papa! How could you let her waltz into our bar like that?”
Dev kept his brother in place with his forearm across Remi’s throat. “Because if you harm one hair on her head, we’ll lose our sanctuary license again. Think of your nieces and nephews!”
All of them had lost too much during the last battle that had shattered their family.
Finally, the fire went out in Remi’s eyes as he stopped struggling against them.
“We good?”
Remi nodded.
Releasing him, Dev stepped back to eye Fang. “So what idiot put hothead on the door tonight?”
Fang cast him a disgruntled glare. “I be said idiot. Thank you very much. Thought he was you. Could one of your bastards cut your hair so that I can tell you apart?”
Dev rolled his eyes. Then pointed to the double bow and arrow tattoo on his biceps. “I do have one mark that distinguishes me from the other idiots, you know?”
Fang scoffed while Remi started for the door.
“Hey, hey!” Dev caught his arm. “What’cha thinking, punkin?”
“That Maman should have eaten you when you were whelped.”
Dev snorted. “You can’t go in there and start a fight with her. Need I remind you there’s a shit ton of human tourists in that bar and Max is a bit preoccupied tonight with his dragonswan. That boy ain’t been up for air in days so we can’t count on him to help us out with the humans.”
Remi’s nose twitched in that way that said he was hellbent for blood. “Can’t his brother mindwipe them, then?”
Good question. Falcyn might have the same powers as Max. Then again, he might not. Even if he did, there was no guarantee he’d use them as helping others wasn’t exactly the surly dragon’s priority. “No idea. You want to ask Falcyn?” That shapeshifting bastard was the only creature alive with a worse attitude than Remi.
Unless you counted the former Dark-Hunter Zarek. Though to be honest, Dev would run Falcyn up against Z any day. Thrice on Sundays.
Proof to the point? Remi backed down immediately at the thought of speaking to Falcyn, and that was something his brother never did.
“I’m going to go watch her,” Remi grumbled before he headed inside.
Dev growled low in the back of his as he met Fang’s irritated smirk. “I know. Dev, go watch your brother.”
“And find me someone else to guard the door.”
“Where’s your ear p …” Dev’s voice trailed off as he remembered that one of Aimee’s favorite things was to nibble Fang’s ears in the backroom when no one else was around. Disgusted with the thought of his baby sister touching anything male in a sexual way, he grimaced. “Never mind. I’ll grab Cherif. You can’t miss him. He’s the one who looks like me, but isn’t.”
“That could also be Quinn.”
“Don’t remind me.” It was hell to be one of four identical quads. Only Aimee and the Dark-Hunter Acheron had ever been able to tell them apart.
And Dev’s wife, Sam. She’d never once confused him with his brothers, which was one of many reasons he loved her.
“Double time, Bear!” Fang snapped. “Don’t need your brother starting some shit while we’ve got humans around to witness it!”
Letting out a bear growl in his throat, Dev went to find Remi before the bear really did eat the Daimon, and start another war they didn’t need to fight.
###
Medea screwed her face up at all the humans in the dark, noisy bar as they swayed to the music of the Howlers. Gah, how she hated them. Though to be honest, it would be quite a feast for her should she choose to indulge, not that she needed their blood to feed— unlike the others of her kind.
For her, it was just fun payback …
More tempted than she ought to be, she forced herself to ignore all the throats that would be so easy to rip open and searched for her half-brother’s familiar face. Though she and Urian were technically enemies who fought on opposite sides of this war, he was still one of the few people she considered her friend.
Right now, she had dire news he needed to hear.
“Hey baby! You looking for me?”
Medea curled her lip at the cheesy come-on line. Worse? The filthy human stank of cheap alcohol and some cologne he must have bought off a clearance drugstore aisle. “Out of my way.”
“Ah, now, why you want to do me like that?” He put a rough grip on her arm to hold her by his side.
Laughing, she bit her lip seductively. “Sugar, you have no idea what I really want to do with you …”
His eyebrows shot north. “Oh yeah?”
“Ummm-hmmm.” She stepped into his arms as she dreamed of gutting him on the floor.
An instant later, he was snatched back and shaken like a dog would do its favorite toy. “Take a hike.”
The human started to attack, until he caught sight of the man who’d grabbed him. That took every bit of bluster out of him and he quickly dashed away.
Not that Medea blamed him. This Were-Hunter was huge, even by their inhuman standards. Tall. Well-muscled. His caramel skin would make any woman’s mouth water. And to her instant horror, she wasn’t immune to his charms.
In fact, she was strangely breathless as her gaze went to a pair of silvery blue eyes that practically glowed. Between that and his black hair, she’d almost think him a Dream-Hunter. Indeed, his powers were strong enough to be godlike.
The air around her was rife with them. It crackled in a way that was reminiscent of Acheron Parthenopaeus— an Atlantean god who pretended to be a Dark-Hunter for reasons only he knew. More than that, she couldn’t even tell what breed this particular Were-Hunter belonged to. Bear, wolf, bird, lion, leopard, panther, tiger, dragon, jaguar, cheetah or jackal. He was that powerful.
“What are you?”
Falcyn felt an odd half smile curve his lips. A rare, rare thing for him. But then it’d been a long time since he’d seen a morsel as tasty as this one. Her white-blond hair was an unusual shade, but natural. And it contrasted sharply with her black eyes.
And she wasn’t just a Daimon. There was something a lot stronger inside her. Something he could taste and smell. The scent of it was like honey to his tongue.
“Hungry,” he whispered.
She actually rolled her eyes and stepped around him.
A sound rumbled out of him that was even more rare than his smile. Took him a few seconds to realize it was a laugh.
No one had ever been so dismissive of him. Mostly because he ate those idiots and picked his teeth with their bones. And before he even realized what he was doing, he was after her.
She paused in the crowd to turn around and glare at him. “Oh, I see. You’re a dog. Well, Fido, I’m sure there are some nice little humans over at the bar who’d like to take you home and pet you. I’m not one of them. So go on, boy.” She clicked her tongue like a human would do their pet or a stray they were trying to get rid of. “Go on! Shoo!”
As she started to leave, Falcyn licked his lips. “So you’re the queen bitch of the Daimons. They told me you were something else. But how many of them know you have demon blood inside you?”
She quirked a brow at his question, then gave him an insidious smile that made his cock jerk. “Before or after I kill them?” Her gaze narrowed as she swept a gimlet stare over him that said she was sizing him up for battle. “And you’re wrong about my title. The queen would be my mother.”
“Then what would that make you?”
“Daddy’s most precious little girl.”
He belly-laughed. Something that made every Were-Hunter near them step back and gape.
That finally took some of the bluster out of her as she caught sight of their uncharacteristic actions.
And fear. Especially since they never feared anything.
Except him.
“Who are you?” she asked with a note of reservation in her voice.
“Wrong question.”
“How so?”
“It’s not so much who am I … as what am I.”
Medea felt a tremor of fear finally roll down her spine. “You’re not one of them, are you?” The Were-Hunters had been created aeons ago by the king of Arcadia in a desperate attempt to save the lives of his sons from a curse placed upon their mother’s race by the Greek god Apollo— Medea’s own grandfather. Seeking to elongate the lives of his sons, the king had bargained with a Sumerian god to magically splice their DNA with animals.
It’d worked and the Sumerian god and Arcadian king had created two races of shapeshifters. Those who held human hearts, called Arcadians. Human in their base forms, they could take animal form. And the Katagaria who had animal hearts and were able to shift into humans.
The “man” in front of her shook his head slowly to indicate that he fell into neither group. As he said, he was something else entirely.
Yet he bore the scent of a Katagari warrior. An animal at heart and in base form. She knew the raw, preternatural musk that permeated their breed. It was unlike anything else in the world. And though tinged with something else, it was unmistakable.
This wasn’t a man she was dealing with, but a creature of immense power.
“Like you, princess, I’m something much, much older that those half-Greek byblows… Deadlier. And unpredictable.”
“I know you’re not a god.”
He approached her slowly, and while it wasn’t in her to ever retreat, she found herself stepping back to keep from being overwhelmed by the sheer size of him. By the magnitude of his arcane powers that seemed to grow stronger the longer she was here.
“Nay, love,” he breathed in her ear with that deep, resonant baritone. “But there are things in this world that even the gods fear.”
And he was definitely one of them. She knew it with every single molecule of her being.
The quote: You can take my life, but you'll never break me.
So bring me your worst...
And I will definitely give you mine.
I'm going to start with what is usually my closing statement. I have a love-hate relationship with this book. I don't like Samia much, I don't like Dev's arc and as a fan of the Chronicle of Nick (book one Infinity), I always struggle with Dark-Hunter canon Nick (who I regularly refer to as Ambrose for my sanity). But this is a book that adds a lot to the canon of the Dark-Hunter verse. With Bad Moon Rising it forms this odd kind of duology you technically could read one of the two without reading the other, but they make so much more sense read together especially given the closeness of Amy and Dev. It's valuable and interesting as part of the Dark-Hunter canon but I'm not a huge fan of the story.
Samia Savage was born an Amazonian warrior she sold her soul to become a Dark-Hunter. More than that she is a machiskyli, a Dog of War an Elite DH soldier her gifts were gifted to her on one of Artemis's one of bad days, empathy, psychometry and telekinesis. They are a pain in the ass, she can not touch anything without getting memories off it. Devereaux 'Dev' Peltier is an Arcadian werebear. After the death of his parents at the ending of Bad Moon Rising he's developed a severe case of wanderlust. As one expects from a series where love has power, Dev is immune to Sam's powers.
Sam has a serious history with one of the other Dogs of War, Ethon. To say too much gets in to spoiler territory. It is a smart play it does add some humanity to the hunters which is sometimes missing from their eternal lives. Her humanising feels weird with Dev's character alteration there is a line about halfway through that is slightly out of line with what was known of his character already, it turns his character on its head. He goes from being family driven to insular.
The plot didn't make a lot a sense to me. Essentially Stryker one of the overarching series big bads wants Sam for unknown reasons. When she is taken it isn't as simple as it seems, because when is it ever? But when Stryker does eventually get his slimy little hands on her there isn't a real reason for it. It does feel more like this story was written as a carrier for the lore revealed rather than the characters. I mean we do meet some fun characters but the plot is a bit okay why are we doing this. I love Sherri but some plots definitely make more sense than others.
Some random note from my reading (which largely relate to characters given the interconnected nature of Sherri's writing):
Simone sounds fantastic as does her husband. "She's a half demon married to a half demon demigod and they live with two ghosts" The associated story is Dream Chaser.
El Escorpion is easily the best of the Dogs. A medieval Spanish knight whose speciality weapon is throwing knives and he doesn't speak much. He's a contradiction, he likes to kill but he's also their medic. I want to know his story.
Cael is a badass. I'm fully on board with him eventually getting his own book. He's a hybrid Dark-Hunter/Daimon and is now a Hellchaser. Sherri hasn't confirmed him getting his own book though.
Wait The Morai are Ash's sisters? Exactly how connected is he? (I haven't read Acheron)
Oh... Sherri you spoil us, Manticores. Even if they are slightly off the traditional.
The quote: We have three kids of family. Those we are born to, those who are born to us, and those we let into our hearts. — Simi Parthenopaeus
I have nothing but love for Bad Moon Rising, This is not the first time I've read it, the first time would have been around when it was released. This was certainly one of my first Sherri books, at least in the Dark-Hunter universe.
Fang and Amy are charming. Fang is my favourite type of hero, haunted, scared and a little bit broken. Amy is a powerful female who can defend herself and has her own secrets all while maintaining a rare true kindness. Their attraction is instantaneous and doomed due to their species, a Katagaria wolf and an Arcadian bear and their positions within the were universe both come from highly prized family lines.
The plot is long and hard to talk about without spoilers. It is essentially two star-crossed lovers doing everything including defying family and death to be together. And it is effective it tries both the character, nothing is handed to them, and the reader, you don't know what is coming next and the end feels like a bittersweet reward. I will note though there are character deaths in the story, they are impactful and feel necessary but they are there.
I know Fang's is a story the Paladins had asked for for a long time and reading it you can see why. The timeline is insane when you stop and think. Weeks and months are skipped at a time as characters play the wait, watch and learn game. It covers virtually the entirety of the books published to that date. But I picked Unleash the Night, Night Play and Dark Bites. No Mercy, the next book in the series is Dev's book and follows on from this one, knowledge of events from Dark Moon Rising will certainly help reading that.
Some random notes from my reading
The section on the origin of the were-hunters is necessary, it may be in a lot of books but it is deeply impactful to the plot of Dark Moon Rising.
Without intending to cheapen the experiences of the LGBT community what Fang and Amy are experiencing may be relatable for them. There is a lot of questioning, attraction where it is unexpected and high stakes if they act on their emotions.
Making the fate villainous in a series heavily featuring Greek and Roman mythology is an interesting choice. They are traditionally neither good nor evil. But making them vengeful bitches also works well.
There is a lot of the wonderful Wren because of his friendly relationship with Amy. His scenes with Fang are endearing. I always miss seeing my fave Tigard.
Bad Moon Rising shows the three big guns in their respective positions. Ash as leader of the Dark-Hunters (helluva an intro too), Thorn as the leader of the Hellchasers and Savitar as the 'peacemaker' among the Were-Hunters.
Even as a casual reader I knew so many of these names that keep popping up. Jaden, Wynter, Menyarra, Adrian (obviously). Sanctuary itself is a major character
Sasha is interesting. Ties into other stories definitely. The main story for him is Dance with the Devil, he isn't the hero but he is close to the heroine.
There are some minor editing issues. But I'm reading a first edition, I would suggest they were fixed.
- No creo que haya una diferencia entre ellos. Creo que un eamoramiento es un jardín. Si lo cuidas con esmero, crece hasta convertirse en amor. Si lo descuidas o maltratas, muere. Para conseguir el amor eterno es necesario recordarle siempre al corazón lo que es vivir sin él.
