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     Being a Frankenstein brings with it high expectations, and a reputation. Clair Frankenstein, niece to the great Victor Frankenstein, is determined to live up to both. To that end, she is on a quest to make the decade's most remarkable discovery before that sleuth, Durlock Homes or the double minded Dr. Jekyll can.

     Finding a vampire would do the trick. Since she is sure that Ian Huntsley is one, she follows him in his den, as it were, but the baron denies all blood drinking, etc. Though Clair is not certain he's not lying, after all, who would admit to something like that, she continues to search for another vampire, werewolf, or warlock among the ton. Ian is rather distressed by this. He finds Clair very appealing, and is sure she'll get herself killed if she's not careful.

     He takes it upon himself to, if not halt her intrepid hunt, at least fill it with red herrings. All the while, he battles his attraction to her, until only his love stands between her and a fate worse than death.

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     Lyra's life is already sufficiently interesting for a novel before she eavesdrops on a presentation by her uncle Lord Asriel to his colleagues in the Jordan College faculty, Oxford. The college, famed for its leadership in experimental theology, is funding Lord Asriel's research into the heretical possibility of the existence of worlds unlike Lyra's own, where everyone is born with a familiar animal companion, magic of a kind works, the Tartars are threatening to overrun Muscovy, and the Pope is a puritanical Protestant.

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     Before very far into the latest volume concerning the Skolian Empire, unshirted chaos and utter disaster face the Skolia family. Mother has been kidnapped, father is recovering from his ordeal at the hands of the Traders in Schism (2004), the first book of the subseries called Triad, and the Imperator himself is a captive. This leaves Sauscony, 18 years old and a Jaegernaut in training, as the pivotal figure in the action that follows. Both her military skills and her high psionic abilities are called into play, and working with her father, she develops a three-way psionic link (the triad in question), which becomes a crucial weapon against the Traders.

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     Dallas, a New York police lieutenant, is a hard-bitten warrior cop who buries the pain and anger of her early childhood by excelling on the job. In her latest adventure, all the usual suspects are back: Eve's charismatic husband, Roarke; her plucky assistant, Peabody; and hipster techno-geek McNab. For this round, their objective is to take down a woman Eve arrested 10 years ago, a poisoner named Julianna Dunne. Julianna's out on parole, and now rich old men are dying sudden deaths. What's more, the ex-con wants to exact a little revenge on her one-time adversary. Eve's search for Dunne takes her all over the country, and eventually to Dallas, Tex., the city that gave her both her name and a legacy of violent nightmares.

As always, I enjoyed my visit with Eve and Roarke. However, I didnt' find myself as involved with this book as I have with some of the others. I find this interesting, as Eve faces some huge personal challenges here as she deals with the closeness of Peabody's family and finally returns to Dallas and the hotel room where she killed her father as a child. Roarke goes with her, and his pain as he watches her relive that awful night, is strongly written. So I'm not sure why this chapter in Eve and Roarke's lives didn't resonanate with me as much as usual, but for some reason it didn't. This isn't a bad book, but for me it wasn't a brilliant one either.

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     It's a predator eat predator world for the Were-Hunters. Danger, enemies and the supernatural are the order of any given day. There is no one to trust. No one to love. Not if they want to live.
     An orphan with no clan that will claim him, Wren Tigarian was taken into Sanctuary as a cub where he grew to adulthood under the close scrutiny and mistrust of those around him. In fact, none of them would cry to see him dead. A forbidden blend of two species, Wren has never listened to anyone when there was something he wanted and now he wants Marguerite.
     Marguerite D‘Aubert Goudeau is the daughter of a prominent US Senator who hates the socialite life she's forced to live. Like her mother before her, she has Cajun roots that are far stronger than her father's. Still, she has no choice except to try and conform to a world where she feels like an outsider.
     The world of the rich and powerful humans is never to meet the world of the Were-Hunters who exist side by side with them, unseen, unknown, undetected. To break this law is to call down the wrath of the highest order.
     But in order to protect Marguerite, Wren will have to fight not just the humans who will never accept his animal nature, but the were-animals who want him dead. It's a race against time in a world of magic without boundary that could cost the two not just their lives, but their very souls. .

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     Wizardwood -- a sentient wood. The most precious commodity in the world. Like many other legendary wares, it comes only from the Rain River Wilds. But how can one trade with the Rain River Traders when only a liveship, fashioned from wizardwood, can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain River? A liveship is a difficult ship to come by. Rare and valuable, it will quicken only when three family members, from succesive generations, have died on board. The liveship Vivacia is about to undergo her quickening, as Althea Vestrit's father is carried to her deck in his death-throes. Althea waits with awe and anticipation for the ship that she loves more than anything in the world to awaken. Only to find that her family has other plans for her...And dark, charming Kennit, aspiring pirate king, also lusts after such a ship: he well knows the power of wizardwood, and has plans of his own... .

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     Have you ever wanted to know what it's like to be immortal? To journey through the night stalking the evil that preys on humans? To have unlimited wealth, unlimited power? That is my existence, and it is dark and dangerous. I play hero to thousands, but am known to none. And I love every minute of it.
     Or so I thought until one night when I woke up handcuffed to my worst nightmare: a conservative woman in a button-down shirt. Or in Amanda's case, buttoned all the way up to her chin. She's smart, sexy, witty, and wants nothing to do with the paranormal-in other words, me.
     My attraction to Amanda Devereaux goes against everything I stand for. Not to mention the last time I fell in love it cost me not only my human life, but also my very soul. Now I find myself wanting to try again. Wanting to believe that love and loyalty do exist.
     Even more disturbing, I find myself wondering if there's any way a woman can love a man whose battle scars run deep, and whose heart was damaged by a betrayal so savage that he's not sure it will ever beat again.
     ~Kyrian of Thrace.

I do like these books. I look on them as a not-so-guilty pleasure. I acknowledge that they're never going to be considered great literature, but they're a great read. The characters are fun, the world Kenyon has created grows ever more complicated as we learn more about it, but so far it holds together. There are mysteries to ponder, gods, magic, true love, vampires and lots of sexy men with supernatural powers. What more could a reader ask for when looking for a fun read?

Months ago, I started rereading these, then got sidetracked by the many other books on my TBR mountain. When Dave suggested I needed to read a 'trashy romance' between the gigantic Pandora's Star and the almost equally gigantic Ship of Magic, I remembered my Dark-Hunter books and headed immediately for 'K' on the bookshelf. This was a perfect break and I'm glad I did it. While Kyrian and Amanda aren't my absolutely favourite couple in the series (at this point, that honour goes to Tabby and Val), this book will always hold a special place. Despite there technically being a novel and a short story that can go before Night Pleasures, really, this is the start of the Dark-Hunter series. This is where we start learning about their world. It's where we meet our first Dark-Hunters, the Deveraux sisters, Nick, Ash, even Artemis, for the first time. It's where we learn about Were-Hunters and even Dream-Hunters and discover that within the pages of Kenyon's books, there really are nasties that go bump in the night and there's a whole army out there protecting us mere mortals.

Amanda is a good heroine to start with; the quiet sister who wants her life to be boring, but is used to craziness before she even meets Kyrian and slowly realises that she can't avoid that 'supernatural stuff' and might as well accept and even embrace it. Kyrian is pretty much typical of Kenyon's heroes - old, powerful and sexy with deep emotional scars that far outweigh any physical ones they might have. Distant, with their emotion barricaded away, their heroine is the one to heal them and save them. For all that, Kenyon makes them all individuals. If the template is similar, the results are all unique and endearing. Especially effective, is that these are alpha heroes who do make the effort to let the woman make her own decisions, which makes them a lot less annoying that some out there in romance land.

Rereading this book has been interesting, as there are hints and comments in there that make sense this time around, but that I couldn't figure out the first time because I didn't have enought information. Ash is described as having a 'bird like tattoo' on his shoulder; this meant nothing before, but now I realise it is Simi. At the end, Artemis whispers to Ash who she will send to replace Kyrian and he reflects that it won't go down well with the Greeks. That was just a mysterious comment on first reading, where now I know she's going to send Valerius and really ruffle some feathers. I do like books where there's more to find on a rereading and I rather suspect that I'll be reading my way around through the series when I'm looking for a reliably good book that doesn't make me think too hard.

The Dark-Hunter books are fun, clever and sexy braincandy and that's what I love about them.

This is probably my favourite of Kenyon's HunterLegends short stories. Of course, it has a dragon in it - and a super sexy one at that - which gives it a good head start. Sebastian is a lovely character; I love the way he always tells Channon the truth and because of the situation, she initially takes it all as a joke. She is strong and clever and takes things in her stride in a realistic kind of way.

Perhaps because this is a short story, although it has many of the usual trappings where the hero keeps agonising over whether he can subject the heroine to his dangerous lifestyle, it's in character here and doesn't go so far as to be annoying. There's a nice explanation of the creation of the Were-Hunters that I probably didn't pay full attention to the first time as I didn't know how important it would become.

I like the reason why dragons can't safely live in the 20th (or now the 21st) century and I really like Channon and Sebastian. I hope we'll get to see them make a guest appearance in a later book.

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     This time Eve is on the trail of a serial killer--or maybe killers--who stalks young women looking for love in online poetry chat rooms. Once a romantic date has been arranged, the murderer sets the scene with roses, champagne, and candlelight, then serves his unsuspecting victims a lethal combination of date-rape drugs that takes them to the height of pleasure and too far beyond. But this killer is really clever, altering his look to become each victim's dream date. Detective Dallas is on the case, chasing an anonymous psychopath with a twisted taste in romance. But Eve seems a little more fragile this time around, still plagued by the nightmare of childhood abuse.

As always, a very pleasant visit with Eve and Roarke. While the murder mystery is solid, my feeling in this book was that it was secondary to the further development of Eve and Roarke's relationship. There have been some lovely touches in previous books of Eve's attempts to do the 'relationship thing' and that goes up a level in this book. As her first wedding anniversary approaches, Eve is finally beginning to find some security in her relationship with Roarke, even if she still feels she doesn't really understand it. She manages to admit some of her feeling to him out loud at last, and the effect of that upon him is major. I was left with the feeling that they had both taken some great strides in the process of letting each of them heal the other in this book, especially Eve, who still tries to avoid admitting her own weakness, whether emotional or physical.

All the usual minor characters appear, with a delightful 'attack' on Eve by Mavis, Trina and Leonardo, determined to make her fashionable, more sniping between Eve and Sommerset, and interesting developments in the broken relationship between Peabody and McNab.

Robb takes a different approach with the murder this time, letting us in on the identity and motives of the murderer long before Eve begins to discover these things herself. This part of the book is solid, but it is more a mirror to Eve's development and her fundamental ability to 'stand for' the victims by understanding the murderer than the main focus of the book. Still, since I read the books primarily for the characters, especially Eve and Roarke, that works fine for me.