This book sounded so promising, it was my first read by Sherrilyn Kenyon and I'd heard many people raving on about how great her Dark Hunter novels were; and as a fan of paranormal romance and urban fantasy, I couldn't wait to find another sexy, dark series to get into, complete with the usual array of vampires and mythology.

The problem with the paranormal romance genre, and even more so the urban fantasy genre, is that after you've read a few of them they all start to form a similar pattern with characters you begin to recognise from other books plus the same old storylines and ancient mythology (I'm getting so good at remembering greek gods). So, the trick is to give the reader what they came to get but put a unique twist on it, don't write the same story a thousand writers have churned out and surprise them with different characters (note: broody men aren't even that hot - sexy Spike always did so much more for me than sulky Angel). This story, unfortunately, had nothing new or exciting, it's hard to pick the plot and characters out of masses that I've read that are chasing each other round my brain. I couldn't get into the story or take much interest in either Amanda or Kyrian, their dialogue wasn't the cute, sarcastic banter that I love in good PR and UF but rather it was cliched and annoying - who actually says the words "made hot, sweet love" without laughing afterwards?

I also had so many problems with Kyrian (the dark hunter guy), I really don't care to be told a hundred times how gorgeous he is, when an author does that it makes me think that's all there is to the character and I immediately lose interest. He's so beautiful, so well-muscled, so this, that and the other. Shallow. The author seemed to care far more about his "cute butt" than the rushed-out back story of his wife's betrayal and his weeks of torture at the hands of her new lover. It was almost as if Kenyon decided at the last minute that Mr Perfect sounded very two-dimensional (which he did) and she came up with some weak pity story that just didn't work. And, as for the brooding I mentioned, please stop feeling sorry for yourself - it's been 2000 years, nobody realistically pities themselves that long.

I thought about giving it one star but decided that it wasn't that bad. It just didn't stand out from any other, and I know I'll find it easy to forget about. For that reason, I'm not going to bother with the rest of the series. But, I will say, I loved the Buffy references; if I met a vampire that didn't drink from humans, I'd say something like "oh, so you're like Angel!"