Monday, September 20, 2010

Review: No Mercy

NO MERCY (Dark Hunter #19)
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Paranormal Romance
343 pages
St. Martin's Press
Available Now

THE STORY
Dev Peltier works the door at Sanctuary, his family's bar and a haven for all varieties of paranormal beings. He recently lost both his parents in a fight to protect his younger sister Aimee's mate, and that loss coupled with his sister's subsequent mating leaves him ready to part with Sanctuary and carve out his own path.

Just as he begins to seriously contemplate leaving his close-knit family behind, a beautiful distraction wearing black leather and riding a bike like death holds no sway over her shows up at Sanctuary's door. Sam is a Dark-Hunter, sworn into the service of Artemis after her brutal death and forbidden from seriously fraternizing with any males that might divert her attention away from her cause.

Dev and Sam share an instant attraction, but all-too soon reality intervenes and the sworn enemy of all Dark-Hunters, the Daimons, prove they are no longer content to stalk the shadows in search of human souls to steal. They've figured out a way to walk in the daylight, giving them an extreme advantage over the Dark-Hunters still relegated to darkness. If that were not a big enough problem, Sam and Dev learn quickly that her past just might hold a secret the Daimons need to change their entire existence for the better, but their quality of life improvement will no doubt be to the detriment of everyone else.

MY THOUGHTS
This series never fails to provide a quick, entertaining read. Dev is infectious with his undeniably charming sense of humor, and he only serves to further cement the reader's attraction to him with every word that comes out his mouth without running through a filter first. His sarcasm is laid on so incredibly thick one can practically wring the pages and watch the snark drip out, and his continual quips (mostly relating to his wish to be in various forms of undress with Sam) are outlandishly crude and hilariously inappropriate, leaving us no other alternative than to laugh out loud at his antics and harbor an irrational jealousy of Sam that she is able to win the heart of this ideal fictional hero.

Though Dev is the true highlight of the story, Sam is a gratifying heroine, one who isn't satisfied with letting anyone, even an alpha male bear with an extraordinarily large and fragile ego, fight her battles for her. She dons her armor, wields her sword, and charges into the fray with a prowess to match and exceed any of her male counterparts. So many times in paranormal romances, the female protagonist is strong and capable, but at the end of the day she is often banished to the sidelines or left to fight a lesser battle while the hero charges into battle in all his glory. This time, it's Sam who possesses the necessary skills to solve the Daimon predicament she and Dev are forced into, and it's Dev who is left on the sidelines to watch as Sam proves her skills to be laudable in the extreme.

Ms. Kenyon always does a beautiful job of crafting her secondary characters, and the other Dark-Hunters' interactions with Dev and Sam are endlessly delightful, their verbal sparring providing innumerable memorable quotes. My only complaint is with the inevitable moment when one half of the couple feels it necessary to push the other away in order to spare their life. Just once I want one of them to say "your rejection of me is duly noted, but I don't accept it, " and then refuse to cede the relationship come what may. I think that scenario would be particularly refreshing.

Despite that minor pitfall, No Mercy is a fun read, full of humor and action. It ends with a very interesting development in the Dark-Hunter/Artemis relationship and I am certainly looking forward to watching this new aspect evolve as the series continues.

Rating: 4/5

13 comments:

  1. It sounds like a great book with lots of action, which I totally love! :) Great review!

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  2. Great review! I've never heard of this one, but I love that you pointed out the minor flaw in the book that you wish you could have changed...I think that's refreshing! :)

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  3. Great review! I need to read this snarky goodness!

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  4. I wasn't a fan of the journey Dev, Sam and the other Dark Hunters took to.....well I don't want to give away too much to those who haven't read it yet but I'm guessing you know what I'm talking about. It jsut felt so odd and stretched out. But I LOVED Dev. So hot and his humor had me laughing a lot. Great review.


    Stephanie G
    Paranormal Haven

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  5. Nina - Thank you! I'm a big fan of the Dark Hunter series, they never disappoint.

    Lisa - Dev made the book for me, it's a hugely entertaining read.

    Melissa - The same thing happens again and again in PNR, where one person pushes the other away at some point and I can't wait to read one where one half of the couple refuses to let that happen!

    Ash - You will love Dev, he's right up there with Jace:)

    Stephanie - I agree, some parts of the journey I could have done without, but Dev made up for it, he was just too funny:)

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  6. Hands down better than Bad Moon Rising (I felt). I agree with your thoughts - I liked this one didn't love love it and I look forward to the next one.

    Nice review.

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  7. KC - Agreed, I didn't care for Fang and Aimee's book at all which was disappointing because I was so looking forward to it.

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  8. Great review! Thank goodness it's better than BMR... that was disappointing for me too. I have this one, and I can't wait to start it. I like that you point out when the moment comes and both people feel they need to push the other away - I love it when a character DOES go with the ""your rejection of me is duly noted, but I don't accept it,"" approach, in rare cases. Bummer it doesn't happen in this one.

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  9. I enjoyed this review! I have heard such great things about this author but have not read her yet...will have to soon!

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  10. *covered eyes and fingers in ears* I'm book marking this review to come back to after I read the book. I LOVE DH series and I am 3rd on the waiting list at my library. I hope it's a good read. Thanks!

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  11. I loved this book! Oh yeah, DEV is mine all mine LOL. I loved the way their personalities really showed through and the story was good too :)

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  12. I just posted my review of this yesterday. It's only my second Dark Hunter book and I loved it!

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