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Devyn Kell joined the League to save lives as a doctor and help those whose lives were being torn apart by conflict.  He didn’t bank on the League being one of the corrupt oppressors involved in the war and in one moment, throws his career and nearly his life away to save an innocent child.  Hunted by both the League and an old enemy with a family grudge, he becomes a runner to bring supplies, medicines and aid to those in need.  Alix Garran is a slave offered her freedom and the lives of her mother and sister if she can bring in the notorious rebel.  When an opening is made in Devyn’s crew, she’s forced to apply for the engineering role and find evidence that will convict Devyn and his crew.  If she can’t find it, she’ll have to fabricate it and time is ticking.  Not expecting to find a cause she can believe in, or people she can trust, Alix finds herself horribly torn between her family, and a man she can finally respect.

I expected this book to follow along the same timeline as Born of Night and Born of Fire and was surprised to find it was about their now grown up children.  Devyn is the son of Syn and Shahara and some of the major cast of characters are offpsring from Nykyrian and Kiara, his crew and friends.  I thought that was a great idea!  Sometimes you get to see what happens after a book is finished, not often you get to see what happens nearly a generation later.  I thought the character of Devyn was nicely written as a blend of his parents temperaments but not a mirror of either.  Alix is a character that brought out a lot of sympathy from me and at times I empathised a lot with.  Her life has never been her own, enslaved along with her mother and sister to her own father.  It was a nice switcharound that it was the female lead character in this book that had the traumatic life instead of the male, although saying that, Devyn has his own issues too.  I liked that the parents were kept out of the book as much as possible and when they appeared or ‘interfered’ it was called for in the story rather than being in it just for the sake of it.  This isn’t as much of an action book as the first two but when it happened it was explosive and fierce and highlighted Devyn’s nature of preferring to heal than harm.  That’s not to say he’s not willing to fight and happens to be very good at it.  Alix is just gutsy, even as self-effacing as she is, having had enough of being her father’s punching bag.  Two brilliant leading characters who you can admire and love.  There is more humour in this book also, maybe due to the larger cast but their banter is very funny and there are a couple of scenes that made me laugh out loud.  Luckily I was reading at home!

A very engaging, exciting and passionate book that I highly recommend you read!  I do hope there are more coming in this series.

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C.I. Syn the deadly, predatory and notorious filch has been accused of an horrific rape and murder.  The warrant out for his capture is picked up by Seax Shahara Dagan, desperate for money to pay for her sister’s medical bills.  Had she not been in such need, not even she would have gone after the son of one of the worst criminals in history.  Branded by his father’s sins and a universal assumption that the son would follow in his evil footsteps, Shahara goes in fully prepared to meet a monster.  What she finds though is what she least expects, an honourable man trying to escape a past that continually haunts him.

After finishing Born of Night, I was eager to get right into the escapades of Nykyrian’s best friend but it took a while for me to get a copy.  I thought I might have to re-read the first book to get back into the setting but only a few pages in, I was well into the story.  I love how Sherrilyn Kenyon can write so astutely from another’s viewpoint in a different book.  Born of Night was Nykyrian’s story in which Syn featured quite a lot and while I liked him, he was a grumpy soul with obvious issues from his past.  In this book, seeing life from his point of view told me so much more.  As I  learned his history and how he’d been treated just because of who his father was, my heart just went out to him.  Shahara’s struggle to keep her family together and their ability to get themselves into trouble, expecting her to bail them out all the time was well written too and her love tinged with exasperation and weariness were very tangible.  I loved these two characters together, right from their first encounter, there were sparks flying.  As the story progressed and perceptions changed for them both, I just fell in love with them more and knowing what was likely to happen at the end, made it all the more heartbreaking.  Everything fit so well together, the pace of the book, the action, drama and love scenes and at no point did I feel any of it was gratuitous.  The only negative thing I can find to say is she re-uses one or two phrases which can get annoying but it’s a minor thing and those phrases do carry a lot of weight.

As an added note, these books are not just Dark-Hunters re-created in space but their own unique stories, completely separate from the rest of Sherrilyn’s work and even if you aren’t a sci-fi fan, if you enjoy her books, definately read these!

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