Book Review: No Mercy

No Mercy by Sherrilyn Kenyon

No Mercy by Sherrilyn Kenyon is another exciting book that ties both Kenyon's Dark-Hunter and Were-Hunter world.  While in all of her books since she has included the three different types of hunters there is usually a mention or involved in one of the books, but this is the first time that two different types were involved romantically.  Again Kenyon brings her love of history, mythology, humor and suspense with a spice of romance into another one of novels.  This is of course a romance novel but Kenyon has through the years kind of underplayed it and had made it more suspenseful.

The story follows two of Kenyon's characters who have either have had a part of have been mentioned in previous books.  These are characters that we were already familiar with and loved.  The two characters are Dev and Samia.  Dev is a were-hunter who is a bear and Samia is a Dark-Hunter.  These two should never mix in a romantic setting but unfortunately it has happened.  Which is a common theme in the Dark-Hunter series by Kenyon.  Dev is a Were-Hunter who is of mix breeding, his father is an Arcadian and mother is a Katagarian.  He is special because he was chosen by the fates to be a Arcadian sentinel.  Which means he is supposed to hunt the Katagarians.  Because of this knowledge Dev has always been weird and different.  Samia is an ancient Amazonian Queen murdered by her own sister, wishing to take her crown.  As she watched her husband and toddler daughter get murdered she vowed revenge selling her soul to the very goddess Artemis that she served in her mortal life.  Like all Dark-Hunters she was given a gift, but her gift is more her curse than anything else.  She can see a persons past just by touching them.  Because of this her sex life had been seriously lacking.  Dev is special to her because when she touches him she gets nothing making him a safe zone.  With the addition to the romance between Dev and Samia, there are up against what is called a super daimon.  Which is a daimon that has adapted to be able to go into the sunlight, which leaves the Dark-Hunters at a large disadvantage because they aren't allowed to go into the sun still.

Again when it comes to Sherrilyn Kenyon it's hard for me to be objective.  But I do have to say, this book wasn't nearly as memorable as some of her other books.  It was still good and I enjoyed reading it, but almost two months after finishing it and finally writing the review, there really isn't a whole lot of parts that sticks out to me.  One of the few parts that I do remember is in all honestly is the tale of Dev and Samia's pasts.  They are both heartbreaking and you definitely feel their pain, Sherrilyn Kenyon is a very good story teller when it comes to expressing painful experiences.

So in the end, I still enjoyed the book, but like I said, it wasn't as exciting as some of Kenyon's other books, but if you're a fan of the Dark-Hunter Saga by Sherrilyn Kenyon this is a definite must to have to read and to have in your collection.

Rating:
3.5 out of 5

On Deck:
Death at Seaworld by David Kirby
The Warrior by Kinley MacGregor
Keeper of the Crystal Spring by Naomi and Deborah Baltuck

So just as a quick note, I was thinking about doing video reviews to go with my written review.  Tell me what you all think.

Book Review: Jennifer Government

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

Imagine living in a society where instead of being an independent person you're essentially owned by a corporation.  Government is non-existent.  While this book isn't set in a time period, meaning it could be now , the soon future, or distant future, it does seem like a plausible scenario if we choose to live life like this.

Jennifer Government is based around an incident involving Jennifer Government (she works for the government now and in the society your last name is the company work for.  Like if you're working at Target you'd be Jane Target or Jane Home Depot).  Jennifer now works for the government as an agent and she's on the case of investigating the murders of a dozen or so kids because Hack Nike put a hit out on them, by going to the police (crazy scenario, I know).  But this goes deeper, because one power hungry maniac John Nike wishes to take over what little government that is left.  Now with this story there is a lot of off shoots that go with the main plot and are all tied to Jennifer one way or another.

Now I have to be honest, I finished this book before the new year, but it has been really hard to write a review for it, not because it was an epic failure, no, just the opposite, IT WAS AWESOME!  Seriously, if you liked future scenarios like Hunger Games (not saying that this book is anything like The Hunger Games I was just trying to find something to help you get an idea of the type of plot), this will blow you out of the freaking water.  Max Barry wrote this in a way where you can see your self living in a society like this and wanting out, but you just don't know how.  In this book there are people who are OK with living like this, people who are uncomfortable, people who take advantage, and people who are setting out to change how things are.

Jennifer Government is a fun read but it is also a thinker.  You get everything you need about the society quickly and you're not loaded down with a bunch of information but it definitely makes you think.  In a good way of course.

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I couldn't put it down once I started to read and I wasn't really in a reading mood either.  This book will make you laugh, think, feel for the characters, and also question what is happening now.

Again, thanks for another book suggestion Kristi!

Rating:
5 out of 5

On Deck:
Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber by Adele Lang

Bakers Dozen 3

So this one was hard for me decide, mainly because I love everything that this author writes.  But I decided it wouldn't be fair if I put on this list 'Anything by Sherrilyn Kenyon.'

So I picked Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon.  The reason I picked this book instead of some of her other ones is because of the lead female character Bride was described as a full figured woman.  I don't mean a size 10 either, no Sherrilyn Kenyon wrote a character who is a size 18 and is beautiful and makes the hunky Vane's head turn and drool.  So many romance writers don't go there when it comes to women and their figure and Kenyon made it so all women of different shapes and sizes can be happy with their body in these books.

Now the story itself is another instalment of the Dark-Hunter series and I believe it was one of the earlier releases (I think it was the 5th or 6th one) of this series, but it is the first full novel for the Were-Hunter series.  The character Vane did make an appearance in a previous Hunter series book, so it was very pleasing to read his story.

I think another reason why I picked this story is because Kenyon wrote more about the Were-Hunter's and their mythology and history that binds this race to the Greek Gods.  As a sucker for mythology this was a nice change up from a lot of the stories that I had been reading at the time.  I was starting to slowly get into romance after reading nothing but one author so it was a nice change.  I believe I started reading the Dark-Hunter series when I was 16-years-old.

Even though all of Sherrilyn Kenyon's stories (except for her Chronicles of Nick series) have love scenes, they aren't saturating the whole story.  I love how all of the characters are written and I especially love the characters Bride and Vane, they do get mentioned in some of Kenyon's later novels so its kind of like you get to keep in-touch with a long lost friend.

I couldn't do this list without a Sherrilyn Kenyon novel and even though it was kind of hard to pick just one, I decided on Night Play mainly based on the character Bride because despite her "size" she was beautiful and strong and everyone wants a really hunky man by her side regardless of appearance.

Book Review: Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James

So this story was one of the ones that I probably would have never had read if it had not been for hype and  suggestion by friends.  And it isn't because I thought the story was going to bad, but that I have so many book that I should be reading instead of buying.  But of course I bought the book anyway.

Fifty Shades of Grey is in the erotica genre of fiction, but it boarders on romance.  Now I have read several erotica novels before, but this was a little different.

The story basically starts when Anastasia Steele has to go and interview rich, hunky, business man, Christian Grey for her college newspaper.  She makes an impression and Christian pursues her for a relationship, but he doesn't want the typical relationship, no he wants her to be his submissive.  And for those of you don't know what S&M is, google it.  Because I honestly don't know the complex nature of these relationships.  And I feel that the author didn't really explain them well either.

Now if this story was a stand alone, I honestly don't think I'd pick up another book from this author.  Mainly because most of the story is the main female character's inner dialogue and it was at times hard to follow.  But because E L James hasn't told Christian's story, I want to keep reading, because through out the whole novel he's pretty much cryptic of why he is the way he is.

In the end, I was ok with this book.  I don't think it was spectacular, nor to I think it is really in the erotica genre, because other then a couple of spankings and being tied up a couple of times, the rest of the love scenes (I use the word love loosely), were along the same as any other romance novel I've read.  I still plan on picking up the two following sequels eventually just because I want to know what is Christian Grey's issue.

Also interesting factoid that I picked up from wikipedia (yeah I honestly don't know if this would be true but I thought it was interesting to share) but this story was actually originally written as a Twilight fan fiction on fanfiction.net but the author took it down because some felt it was too graphic so she then posted it on her personal website before taking it down to edit and turn it into an actual fiction.  And people tell me that writing fan fiction is a waste of time.... hahahah.

Rating:
3 out of 5

On Deck:
Escape from Cabriz by Linda Lael Miller
Alterant by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Jennifer Government by Max Barry
Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber by Adele Lang