Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312947064
ISBN: 0312947062
Label: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2008-11-04
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Release Date: 2008-11-04
Studio: St. Martin's Paperbacks

Customer Rating:
Summary: An overall review of this book and the rest of the series...
Comment: NON-SPOILER REVIEW!

As much as I hate to agree with anything negative about the Dark Hunter series, I really do feel as though it has lost it's old magic. I used to be the first in line to pick up the newest edition, but I haven't even been excited enough about the recent stories to shell out the extra $$ for a hardback of Acheron. I won't say I don't want to read it... I just don't want a reason to be really mad at myself for spending too much on a book that (if recent history repeats itself) will only disappoint.

I did, however, pick up "One Silent Night" because I simply couldn't help myself. Half way through (which, btw, only took about two hours with as short and widely spaced as the book was) I was thumbing through the previous pages in an attempt to remind myself who all of the characters were. Granted, I read through it somewhat quickly but the whole thing seemed pieced together with way too many people thrown in. The story really didn't have much depth and the interesting bits were tossed out as soon as they began to grab my attention. I wanted to blame that on the fact that I hadn't read the previous novel, but after reading the other reviews I don't really think that was the problem.

If you've never read a Dark Hunter book, I would say that the first eight were "must reads." They drew me in to the point that I wanted to cry every time I finished one because I still needed more! With books nine and ten I was getting frustrated but still hanging in there. By the time Kat's story came into play, I was nearly on my mental knees begging for that lost magic to come back. And even though I wanted it more than any casual reader should, I still felt like it had been lost.

Stryker should have had an awesome, intense, "meet-lust-hate-despise-battle it out until they're both at the brink of death - and then the realization that they love nothing more than each other" - story. Instead his heroine seemed only concerned for her own thoughts and feelings save for a couple of spare emotional moments with Stryker. And he was, well, completely NOT Stryker after the second chapter or so. I promised this would be a non-spoiler review so I won't go into details. I will say that Stryker's lady love was never endearing to me and that Stryker seemed to fall flat somehow.

There were some interesting tidbits given to us about Nick, who seems to have become the new focus with Ash's story out of the way - though in the end I was seriously confused over some obvious unasked questions on Nick's part (if you read it you'll know what I mean). Also, the amount of grammatical/spelling errors in the latter half especially made me wonder how rushed the editor might have been.

I did give this a three star review. Sherrilyn Kenyon still has a way with inventing intriguing story lines, and maybe I'm so disappointed with this book because I've become too invested in the series. It seems to me that she's overly hurried with them and they are never fully realized anymore. I'll still buy Ash's story in paperback at the end of March but I may not be so quick to buy any succeeding books within this series.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One Silent Night
Comment: This was disappointing. The entire book seemed rushed and details were not prevalent like in her other books. The story premise was interesting (Strykker history and love interest), but as stated the entire project seemed just thrown together to meet a contract obligation and possibly a deadline. I would not recomment this book to anyone and I regret having purchased it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: How do you give a minus 5 star rating?
Comment: What a complete waste of money!! a high school student could have done better. Kenyon must have had a couple of hours with nothing to do, so she produced this mess.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Just Right
Comment: Just right in arriving promptly
Just right in packaging and in good condition
Just right for the product, a really good book
Just right! What more can you say?

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wow, Can't Believe the Bad Reviews
Comment: I wasn't sure I'd like this book but I did. Finally, some answers about Nick. Stryker sort of needed his own book, as one reviewer said, character development, but also just ongoing story development. Why wouldn't we want more insight into the enemies of the DH's and know somewhat why they do what they do. I thought this book was well done. Yes, it focused more on the "bad" guys then the "good", and some of the previous books were more romantic for the Dark Hunters, but this was a good story, one that needed to be told IMHO.

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