No Mercy (Dark-Hunter)

1. 
   Cassandra Johnston permalink

   September 18, 2010

   Review by Cassandra Johnston for No Mercy (Dark-Hunter)
   Rating:
   Sometimes it seems like there are four different people writing these books b/c they range from terrible to fantastic. I started out loving this book because the wit is there in full force–laugh out loud stuff. Dev has been one of my favorite characters since he first appeared so I was really excited about his book and I recommend reading it though it does not prove to be anything like the fast paced and filled out story telling we sometimes get from the DH series. There are lots of things left unexplained and the story gets wrapped up in a neat little epilogue that sort of left me flat. One thing I noticed and appreciated was that this book seemed to jump genres a bit from Paranormal Romance that started the series into Urban Fantasy–it’s extremely PG-13. A good read, but left me on the fence about continuing the series.

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2. 
   Honeybud permalink

   September 18, 2010

   Review by Honeybud for No Mercy (Dark-Hunter)
   Rating:
   I am a big Sherrilyn Kenyon fan from the start till Bad Moon Rising and this book No Mercy. It looks like it was done in a rush to meet a deadline because not only it is short, it’s also sold as a Hardcover book. The same sexual tension/ Innuendo. Not much background about this two lovers Dev and Sammia. Very disappointing. Paging Ms. Kenyon please revert to your old ways of giving us a funny, heart wrenching story with loveable characters and entertaining. We want the same flawless story plot that we can relate.Sad to say the last 2 books of Dark Hunter Series did not impressed me at all. I was very underwhelmed.

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3. 
   Sarah Free permalink

   September 18, 2010

   Review by Sarah Free for No Mercy (Dark-Hunter)
   Rating:
   What do you get when a Dog of War and an Arcadian Bear mate?

   This book picks up right after Bad Moon Rising with Sanctuary getting back on its feet. This is one of those tie it together/stage for a big revelation books. The core of the story is about Samia and Dev and how do two people who are afraid of relationships and letting others become important manage to trust enough to fall in love. The course of the book ties up a few loose ends like what happened to Amaranda and Cael, as well as letting us get to know the Dogs of War. Thorne makes an appearance as the manipulative bastard we all love and hate. Stryker of course shows up and is an honorable villain. One annoying factor is knowing who and what Nick is while the characters in the story do not but all will be revealed in the end I imagine.

   All in all its a fast paced story with lots of action, questions are answered while others are posed. There’s the normal sarcastic wit we love in the hunters (Dark and Were alike) as well as the vulnerability they all carry and struggle with. It’s a great story that seems to be helping to set up another amazing one like Acherons.

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4. 
   Ms. Walker permalink

   September 18, 2010

   Review by Ms. Walker for No Mercy (Dark-Hunter)
   Rating:
   As a book fiend, it’s hard for me to pass up a hardback, but this is one book I wish I’d either waited for the paperback to purchase or had bought the much less expensive Kindle edition. The wide margins should have been a tip-off that this latest addition to the Hunter series would disappoint. The lack of depth and focused storyline seemed directly proportionate to the lack of words on the pages. Some sequences were too unbelievable, even for this series. It would be nice to have more focus on the original storyline and characters we loved (More Ash please!) and slow the addition of so many unnecessary twists, turns and new characters. As much as I hate to say it, I think Ms. Kenyon’s future books are off my hardback list and will be relegated to my ebook/paperback status. It’s hard to pay hardback prices for short story substance.

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5. 
   T. A. Anderson permalink

   September 18, 2010

   Review by T. A. Anderson for No Mercy (Dark-Hunter)
   Rating:
   As a DH die-hard, I’ve very mixed feelings about this book. I want so badly to like it more, but the writer in me is a bit frustrated with pacing, story arcs and general editing.

   Let’s start with Dev and Samia, the main characters of the book. Hooking up a Were-Hunter with a Dark-Hunter was a nice and unexpected twist in the DH universe, but the story itself had about three or four “beginnings”, meaning just when you thought the plot was about to progress, you got hit with another intro–another mid-plot prologue that significantly slowed the pace of the book.

   Now, I understand that Kenyon wants each book to stand on its own so any reader can pick it up and dive into the story no matter where they are in the DH universe, no matter the book order. And in my opinion, that’s a very smart move. Still, so much time is wasted on back story that the actual plot of the book gets lost.

   I think the biggest problem is that Kenyon is trying to appease her fans by writing a novel in soap-opera form, where you get snippets of all the different plots and sub-plots in each episode. But because the DH universe is so massive now, any attempt to do this is going to be a failure, at least literarily. Revenue wise, the words “Dark Hunter” are an instant sale, but must we sacrifice aesthetics for cash flow? (We know the book’s gonna sell, so why not make it a good one?)

   There were several instances in the book that left me scratching my head and saying, “WHY is that even relevant to THIS storyline?” While the DH fan in me was pleasantly surprised and happy to get an update and cameo from certain characters, the writer in me just saw it as wasted space. I mean, really, was Urian’s lil discovery 3/4 into the book necessary? And how many more breeds of demons do the Dark Hunters truly need to keep suspense going? I swear a new demon breed is introduced in every other book and along with it comes a drawn-out storyline that slows the plot down to an agonizing slug-demon crawl.

   All that said, there were some moments of pure Kenyon brilliance in the book, but they were about as painful as that moment Artemis and Acheron first made love when he became a god. We all know that line, “Say my name if you want to ****.” (Yeah, if I were Artemis, I’d have slapped him for stopping in mid-stride, too.) If there was any back story that needed expanding, it was Sam’s. I mean, if Kenyon was looking to pad the book for hardcover–and no doubt, she was–she could have given us a lot more than two-second flashbacks and drive-by style rantings of a one-legged demon. The same for Dev, as well. I’ll admit, his involvement in a significant Peltier event shocked me.

   And then there’s Nick. EVERYONE wants to know about Nick. The boy just keeps throwing us curve balls. One second, he can rival Acheron in the Badass Olympics. The next, he’s just a big teddy bear. I get that he’s struggling with his powers and his hate for Ash. But, Kenyon had such a gloriously poignant Nick moment that she could have expanded, only to completely waste it. When Nick and Sam were at his house looking at photos actually made me cry. It reminds us DH die-hards of what Nick no longer has and how shredded his soul is from lack of it. Expanding that exchange between two deeply wounded people could have given both characters the depth that a lot of DH characters are currently lacking. Unfortunately, Kenyon gave us only a nanosecond of that brilliance; it faded much too quickly.

   I understand that readers love DH for its action, and of course sex, but we’re so deep into the DH universe now that I really wish Kenyon would go back to cranking out two good books a year instead of cramming several stories into one hardcover. By time I got to Urian’s shocker, I was so frustrated with the book. No, wait. Actually, I was frustrated the moment we had a kick-butt Amazon in the storyline that couldn’t seem to protect herself worth squat. The romance between her and Dev suffered immensely because of characters coming out the woodwork, and Sam’s gaffes as a DH, Amazon and 5k-year-old warrior felt painfully contrived in order to create a sense of danger and urgency. Had time been spent on Sam and Dev’s back stories and not squandered on the history of the DH universe, I might have felt something more for them at the end. Instead, I found myself not really caring if they hooked up, split up or even died. (Sadly, I felt this way about Fang and Aimee, too.)

   Still, we get to the end and Kenyon opens a bolt hole full of carrots on sticks that left me gasping in shock and wanting more.

   As a writer, I feel my intelligence insulted by the disingenuous ploy. As a DH die-hard, I’m just happy she didn’t pull the move Acheron did to Artemis. (Wow, I keep going back there, huh?)

   There’s a line her characters constantly say–a Kenyonism, I like to call it: “How stupid would I have to be?” Yeah, I feel that way every time I close a lackluster DH book to anxiously wait for the next one. I’m an idiot. I guess as long as Ash and Nick are dangling from a stick, I’ll keep buying the books no matter how much the convoluted plots and poor pacing pain me.

   Ironically, I now find myself looking more forward to the next installment of Chronicles of Nick than any Dark-Hunter/Were-Hunter book. The launch of CoN was fun and entertaining, the way the DH/WH books USED to be. CoN is too fresh and new to be weighted down by DH history. Let’s hope it stays that way for a long while.

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