Review of Dance With The Devil by Sherrilyn Kenyon

This was a very decent Dark Hunter novel I would give it 8/10

I would first like to point out everything I disliked with this novel.  My only other experience reading this author was Devil May Cry.  It was a book a little further along in the series.  Devil May Cry blew this book away with action.  I found Dance With The Devil extremely slow.  The majority of the book is Zarek and Astrid in a cabin both wanting to have sex, but scared to act.  With the universe Kenyon has created I feel in both books I have read of hers the romantic parts tend to hurt the story rather than help.  The action she does create is solid and she has created one of the best mythological universes I have read, but when half the book is filled with sex rather than expanding the created universe the novels suffer. 

The absolute best thing about this book was the depth she gave Zarek.  In no other book that I have read has the author gave a character so much history and personality.  The man was a roman slave during his mortality.  The torture is amazingly vibrant and frequently I found myself becoming outraged at the poor treatment of this man.  She allows you to walk in Zarek's footsteps forcing the treatment he suffers to poor out through the pages into the reader.  This feat is extremely difficult to pull off.  Most authors are quite pleased when they create a character that the reader feels something for.  Kenyon does this and more with her writing.  The only other time I was this shaken up while reading about torture was when I read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and he described his time in a concentration camp.

The story is extremely small.  Very little is solved and action is at a minimum.  The majority of the story like I said earlier is Zarek and Astrid the two main characters stuck in a cabin.  Kenyon really took a risk by doing this and I think she made it work.  There is enough action to stay interested.  The book is separated by a few chapters of characters then one chapter of action.  The character depth reaches deep enough to allow for a slow paced story line.

Another piece of this book I enjoyed is the mythology.  Kenyon does an amazing job bringing greek gods to life.  The two main gods who are the focus in the series are Artemis and Acheron.  Kenyon does a good job keeping true to the mythology considering this is a fiction novel.  She makes sure to introduce Apollo as brother to Artemis and has the gods show respect to Zeus who is always throwing parties.  There may be some things that are not 100% accurate, but overall I find it close enough to be believable.

Even with the romantic aspect of this book I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys supernatural or mythological books.

Thanks for reading the review.  Next up I am going back to classic and reviewing Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck.

I would like to say I had no idea that this book was so pricey.  The novel is only 187 pages and is between $7.00-$15.00.  I personally picked it up for free at the library so I recommend trying to get it there unless you got the money to spend on books.