(This review may contain spoilers).
It’s been a little while since I picked up any of the Dark-Hunter novels, but despite having become somewhat disillusioned with the series, I still really enjoy reading them. So when I got this (and the following book in the series) for Christmas, I was really excited.
I actually found this book a lot more readable than the other more recent ones. While there were still a lot of cliches (to the point of actually considering a drinking game), I liked being able to meet many of the characters I’d seen before… and get to know entirely new ones.
I did think Josette was a little too similar to Amanda… which, considering they were cousins, did make sense. I was intrigued by her meeting with Cadegun and although there was the instant attraction, it was nice to have the two of them get the chance to get to know each other.
Cadegun did have the tortured past and inability to trust that’s so prevalent in the Dark-Hunter series. He also climbed up into the ridiculously over-powered being that seems to happen with every hero of the Dark-Hunter series. But at least he didn’t spend half the book calling humans ‘boy’ and it was such a relief to see the ‘people in hell want ice water’ line missing.
There was a… very interesting gender-swap moment in this book. It did make me cringe, but I liked the fact that there were still difficulties in the different bodies. It wasn’t easy on either of them and I did like that.
I did also like Thorn’s connection to Cadegun, though I did get confused when he was referred to by two different names within the same page. It was a refreshing change to see that Cadegun’s brother wasn’t evil the same way certain other brothers were portrayed.
Speaking of… I really really liked seeing Acheron and Styxx in this, although it still garnered an eye-roll with Acheron being described as really attractive. I really enjoyed seeing Simi… she’s probably my favourite character overall. And Artemis voiced some things I really would have liked to see explored further.
I hope this book marks a change to the series and isn’t a one-off… because while I adore the Dark-Hunter series, up till Styxx’s book, the later ones read as torture-porn. But I will be reading Dragonbane.
Ink of Blood 