Night Embrace by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dark Hunter #5, St. Martin's, July 2003, Rating: A

In this installment of Kenyon's Dark Hunter series we get to know Talon of the Morrigantes better. We'd met Sunshine Runningwolf briefly in previous books as the artist who has a booth near Selena's. We get a glimpse into the lives of those characters we've met in previous books and get a taste of more characters. It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans and an evil plan seems to be underfoot by the gods. When the calm, cool and always collected Acheron starts acting differently and Talon & Sunshine realize that they aren't complete strangers things really start to go strange.

Cursed to have anyone he loves killed by the god who's son he killed, Talon has spent the last centuries living in seclusion. As a human, his entire family including his beloved wife and stillborn son were taken from him. He refused to risk anymore blood on his hands. He is content living his life as a Dark Hunter, protecting humans from the things that go bump in the night. When he meets Sunshine Runningwolf after getting rundown by a parade float suddenly keeping his distance is not so easy a task. The fates have different plans for them, even Eros cannot help him when he wants Sunshine to stop loving him.

Sunshine Runningbear is an artist. She's single after a brief marriage with another artist who wasn't looking for a competitor in his field but a woman to bend to his will and take care of him. She lives above the night club her family runs in a studio apartment decorated in pink. When Talon saves her life from muggers and then gets rundown by a Mardi Gras float she feels obligated to bring him home. A day of mind blowing sex turns into more than she imagined as their lives begin to get deeply intertwined, dreams of a past she doesn't remember and a Talon that looks the same despite the setting being years and years earlier mystify her.

Night Embrace was an enjoyable read. It blended the romance and the mystery of what the gods were up to and why well, including the facet of Talon and Sunshine that makes their relationship unique. I'm incredibly interested to get to know the characters we met in this book better and hope that Zarek gets a book of his own. I rate Night Embrace and A.

©Susan Falk and phantomroses.com