Persy -- Born Of Fire by Sherrilyn Kenyon

If you're familiar with my reading preferences, you know about my six absolute favorite authors. I will buy and read anything by these six authors and so far, I have failed to really dislike a single book by any of them. Sure, a few haven't been up to the standards, but they were still good. One of these authors is Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Okay, so maybe she shouldn't be lopped in with my six favorite authors (who I may unveil in the future for those of you who don't know) since I've only read three of her many, many books, but I love those three books so much that I'm willing to take a chance, and say that Miss Kenyon is a favorite.

Last year I reviewed Born Of Night, the first book in Miss Kenyon's League series. Born of Fire is the second book, and is about one of the more minor characters in 'Night', C.I. Syn, a bloodthirsty, alcoholic filch (hacker). Well, he's not that bloodthirsty. Or at least, not as bloodthirsty as they all say. He'd rather drink some Tondarion A-Grade Hellfire (you know I'm obsessed when I know the names of all the alcoholic drinks in a book) than anyone's blood. I mean, ew.

Anyway, back to the book.

Shahara Dagan is a Seax, sort of like a cross between a bounty hunter and police officer. Seaxes are bound to uphold the law and keep their honor, and they do this by signing contracts for specific criminals. Shahara is the best of the best, the only one to pass the Seax test in the last generation. But despite being an amazing Seax, she comes from a poorer than dirt family, with a younger sister with a gambling problem. When Tessa gets into trouble again, Shahara must come up with some money fast, not only to pay of her sister's debts, but to pay the hospital. And the only contract that'll pay enough is Syn's, so Shahara goes after one of the scariest criminals known to the Ichidian universe.

But what she doesn't know is that Syn is Caillen Dagan's best friend. Shahara's brother's best friend. They didn't tell Shahara because they knew she'd throw a hissy fit because hey, she is a police officer.

It gets even more interesting when it's revealed that many years ago, Syn discovered evidence of a dangerous secret, and now "they" have found out where he is. Before she can properly sort everything out, Shahara finds herself signed up to trick Syn into leading her to the evidence, betraying him in the end. But as she gets to know C.I. Syn, she discovers that he may not be the villainous criminal she's always heard about...

Unless of course, he steals her heart!

Sorry, couldn't resist. *suitably ashamed*

I recently read this book for the second time, and to my surprise, it was almost just as good as the first time through. When I reread "Night", I found lots of things that bothered me a little, but it looks like Miss Kenyon's writing gets better and better. True, it's a bit heavy on the love-at-first-sight-oh-my-stars-she's-the-most-beautiful-woman-I've-ever-seen-why-am-I-so-attracted-to-her thing, but that's okay. Syn and Shahara are still some of my favorite characters, and Shahara is stupid in all the right ways. As in, she doesn't really know what she's doing half the time because she hasn't done it before, but she picks up fast enough. The only thing that bothers me about her is that she seems to have some deep-rooted fear of everything. Heights, tight spaces, men. I mean, seriously, girl, get a grip. One phobia is enough, two is pushing it.

My favorite part of Sherrilyn Kenyon's writing is how unafraid she is to seriously beat up her characters. Almost all of them have some of the worst pasts you can imagine, which makes the Ichidian Universe a seriously miserable place. You start wondering how it could get any worse, and booyah, you find out. Just once, I'd like to meet a Sherrilyn Kenyon character who had a happy childhood. Thinking, thinking...no, can't think of one.

Another thing I like about Sherrilyn Kenyon is her website. Best author website. Ever. It gives you the reading order for all her books (very nice), character bios (nice), and book playlists! I LOVE playlists! And Miss Kenyon obviously has very nice taste in music (except that Bauhaus song. That was just painful).

Okay, so maybe this isn't much of a review, it's more of me gushing about Sherrilyn Kenyon, but I'll just sum it up real quick in a cheatsheat: If you like romances but aren't afraid of gore, horror, and various other R-rated scenes, this is the book for you! And if you like lots of action and science fiction atmosphere and can take lots of romance, this is still the book for you! But if you don't like any of the above-mentioned things, don't even touch it.

--Persy

Persy -- Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon

I know, I know, it's Arty's turn. But she's got a lot going on right now, so I'm doing this week's review. She'll be back next Saturday.

Born of Night is the first book in the League series by Sherrilyn Kenyon, a science-fiction series about assassins.

In the Ichidan universe, no one is really safe. So the League was formed, a group of ruthless assassins are formed to help create order. They're trained and tortured from a young age, making them more than a little psychotic, and very, very dangerous. None of the assassins can quit the League. They are only done when they die.

Many years ago, Nykyrian Quikiades turned his back on the League when he was given a mission he would not complete. He has been the only one to survive such a rebellion. He went and formed his own group which takes on its own assignments.

His newest assignment is protecting Princess Kiara Zamir, a dancer who suddenly everyone seems to be after. It may be one of Nykyrian's toughest mission, not only because of his troublesome attraction to the princess, but also because one of the original League is after Kiara, a man who is just as ruthless and dangerous as Nykyrian himself.

Science-Fiction assassins with an author who absolutely adores to give her characters awful and terrible pasts. Needless to say, I loved this book. It had space-battles, fist/sword/gun-fights, and that little bit of romance that ties just about every book together.

First of all, Nykyrian is probably my favorite character of the book. He's not terribly chatty and doesn't have a problem killing the bad guys. Kiara, on the other hand, didn't make a good first impression to me. She was a typical "strong" female character, often described as "fiercely independant", which is just a euphemism for "annoyingly stubborn and irritating". As the story continued, though, she gained a little more depth and didn't turn out to be too bad. I suppose her being a dancer also appealed to me, since I'm one as well.

And those are just the main characters. There's also Syn, Hauk, Jayne, and others who complete Nykyrian's team, all of whom are plenty interesting. You don't find out a lot about them (with the exception of Syn, and we still don't get all that many details on him), but you can tell they have pasts and are completely round characters.

The second book in the League series is called Born of Fire, and is about Syn and Shahara. I think it goes on at the same time as Born of Night, but I'm not positive. There's a bit of a complication about Born of Night: It was originally published in 1996, but was then later republished with edits and revisions. Sherrilyn Kenyon has a fantastic site (http://www.sherrilynkenyon.com/index.php) which gives you the reading order of all her books, plus interesting character bios. This is awesome for people like me, who love to know little bits of trivia about the chars.

NOTE: This book is an adult novel and does contain adult content.

Another quick note concerning something quite different: from now on we'll also be posting on Wednesdays about new going on in the book-world. New books by authors, book-movies, the occasional author-interview when we can get them. This Wednesday will be featuring an interview with Ann Mauren, author of the Mayne Attraction series.

-Persy