Book Review: The Guardian

How long has it been since we've seen a legitimate Dream-Hunter novel?  Dream Warrior came out in 2009 I believe?  Two years is a while.  Nonetheless I was really looking forward to this one and if anything, after reading the back cover, wanted to know once and for all.....What the heck happened to D'Alerian?!  I mean you would think that the "missing God of dreams" mentioned on the back cover is D'Alerian right?  That's what I thought.  And I got extremely excited for this book.

One thing I love about Sherrilyn Kenyon's books is the fact that she doesn't just stay with one character concept from book to book.  There's always the introduction of new races, pantheons, orders and hybrids.  I mean granted the first few books had the same idea, but as the series went on, characters became more and more...different.  In this case, Egyptian demigod hero and a Dream Huntress/Katagari Jackal/human heroine.  Yeah, took a while to get that straight.

However, despite the complexity of genetics, Lydia and Seth made this a truly light and enchanting read.  Like most romance novels, there is clear attraction and chemistry between the two main characters.  Unlike most romance novels that I have read in this day and age, there was more lightness to their chemistry.  What I mean is that they took it really slow, which made it realistic in a way.  This book felt a lot lighter to read than most romance novels.  There was a lot more story to it than just getting these two together in the end.  As much as this book served to introduce and develop two more characters to our ever-growing Dark Hunter family, it also moved the plot further and pretty fast too.  But I really really do hope that we will be able to tie everything together later on.

In addition to the protagonists, we also get to re-visit characters that we all know and love.  I mean, when was the last time we saw Jaden and Solin?  And some new things that we learn about those two in this book too.  It really was great to see them again and to actually learn more about them.  I really hope that Solin will get his book sooner rather than later.  With fully back story.  He truly deserves one and I think his character needs to develop any further.  Jaden, well, I hope that we will see more of him.  I know that Sherrilyn Kenyon is weaving his character the same way she wove Acheron's so it'll be a while before we finally get his whole story.  I just hope that she writes it the same way as Acheron.  With every detail.  It's what I love about this universe.

And then there was D'Alerian.  I first blogged about him here.  Since Night Pleasures, he has been one of those characters who have been showing up here and there, doing something small, helping out and so forth. He's been around for a while.  We learned about him the most in Dream Hunter; his family, parentage.  We felt his sorrow for his life.  Honesty, the last time we saw him, he was captured and we don't know what happened to him.  We learn what happened to him in this book, but we just learn what happened to him.  I just don't think that telling the readers in a paragraph really does this guy justice.  At the very least he deserves a more dramatic exit, but I really hope that there's some way to bring him back for a later book.  He was one of my favourites and I think that he deserves a book no matter what.  So please please, if you read this Sherri, please!  Thank God I got that out!

And just as a bonus, there is also a bonus scene released for this book.  It's a single chapter scene that complements the book and should be read AFTER you read The Guardian.  Not joking there.  Redemption can be found at Heroes and Heartbreakers.  And you want to read this.  Savitar makes an appearance.  (You will need to register to the website in order to view it, but it looks like you can link your Facebook account as well).

Happy Reading!!

*side note: just as I was writing that bit about D'Alerian, my playlist just happened to start playing A Million Tears by Groove Coverage.  How appropos...  It's really strange how the world works.

Acheron's Heroine

Let's admit it.  Most of us were hoping that Artie would be reformed and would be the perfect heroine for Ash.  Okay, well, I admit I was one of those people.  It just made sense.  It was the perfect way to get her to learn the lessons of her past.  And she and Ash looked like the perfect couple.  Even Tory might have thought so at the very beginning in Nashville.

I was so wrong.  In the many reviews and testimonies I have heard and read on forums, I saw that many people asked why Tory was Ash's heroine.  I personally didn't see that when I read Dream-Hunter, in fact I didn't even think about Ash getting a heroine.

Then Acheron came out and when I came to read part two, I was very surprised.  I asked myself why a random woman would be his heroine...but then I remembered Dream Hunter. As I was reading the subsequent books, I was getting a better feeling about her but I still wasn't convinced.   


After re-reading Acheron, I did get a better feeling about her after realizing that I was skipping over the really fine details. She really was perfect, especially given Ash's past.  Of course he would be curious about the woman who didn't want to jump him.  Maybe that's the mark of an arrogant guy, but Ash is far from arrogant deep down.  We all know that.  While outwardly he is a leader who doesn't want to be messed with, he is unsure on the inside.

She`s smart and sassy and more than slightly OCD.  She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to tell it like it is.  Maybe a lot of the people in Ash's past did tell it like it is, but they also made it sexual.  Tory told him to eat his breakfast and that she makes killer baklava.  And the best part is, she isn't afraid to tell the entire world that Ash is her's.  That honestly sealed the deal all on it's own.

Ash is extremely complicated.  Tory is simply straightforward.  Maybe that's all that Ash needed at the end of the day, someone who cared enough to really let into his life.  Maybe Artie would have made for a more interesting story on paper, but Ash never would have had the happy ending that he ultimately deserves.