Holly’s review of Dance with the Devil (Dark Hunters, Book 4) by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Zarek’s Point of View:
Dark-Hunter: A soulless guardian who stands between mankind and those who would see mankind destroyed. Yeah, right. The only part of that Code of Honor I got was eternity and solitude. Insanity: A condition many say I suffer from after being alone for so long. But I don’t suffer from my insanity-I enjoy every minute of it.
Trust: I can’t trust anyone…not even myself. The only thing I trust in is my ability to do the wrong thing in any situation and to hurt anyone who gets in my way.
Truth: I endured a lifetime as a Roman slave, and 900 years as an exiled Dark-Hunter. Now I’m tired of enduring. I want the truth about what happened the night I was exiled-I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Astrid (Greek, meaning star): An exceptional woman who can see straight to the truth. Brave and strong, she is a point of light in the darkness. She touches me and I tremble. She smiles and my cold heart shatters.
Zarek: They say even the most damned man can be forgiven. I never believed that until the night Astrid opened her door to me and made this feral beast want to be human again. Made me want to love and be loved. But how can an ex-slave whose soul is owned by a Greek goddess ever dream of touching, let alone holding, a fiery star?
When I read this book the first time I hated Zarek. He was so different in the previous books than he was in his own I could never reconcile his badass reputation with his whiny emo thoughts.
I had a much better reaction this time around, however. Zarek’s emo-ness still annoys me, but not as much as it did previously. I understood more why he acted the way he did, though I still think he whined a bit too much. I think part of the reason I was able to enjoy this more was that I went into it with different expectations.
The first time I expected Zarek to be bad to the bone. I really thought he was an insane killer and I expected to see him healed by love. What I got instead was a watered-down version of the early Zarek. He said all the right words, but deep down he was just a big pansy-ass teddy bear.
This time I knew what to expect and focused more on trying to let go of my resentment for the way SK ruined his character. It worked for the most part.
I really liked Astrid. She was a good match for Zarek. I never did quite buy that she was numb from all feelings, though. Supposedly she’d lost all feelings years before, but she never acted that way, or came across that way. I know SK was trying to show us that Zarek touched her as much as she touched him. I just didn’t buy it. Maybe because we didn’t see her before this book and therefore didn’t know her as well?
There are some great one-liners in here:
“You really do suffer from insanity, don’t you?”
“Hardly. I have to say I enjoy every minute of it.”
and
“I’m a Nymph.”
“I hope you just left an important syllable off that word, princess.”
Despite that, the tone of the book is very dark. Reading about Zarek’s torture as a human was heartbreaking at times. Other times I sort of just felt like screaming, “Dude, get over it!”..but…well, that wouldn’t be very nice, would it?
One thing I have to mention, and this is a MAJOR SPOILER:
It pisses me off beyond belief that Zarek wasn’t truly a Dark Hunter. Artemis didn’t want to touch him, so she poked him with a stick instead. All along he had his soul and could have walked in daylight. I get how it all worked in the context of the story, but it was wrong on so many levels.
I liked Ash in this book (some I do and some I don’t), though the parts with him and Artemis having sex just annoy me. I don’t particularly care of the relationship and don’t really want to read about it in detail. Simi bugged me more than I remember her doing in the past. I seem to recall thinking she was funny and liking her before, but not so much here.
Overall this is better than I remember it being, though Zarek’s constant whining did get on my nerves.
3.5 out of 5
See a full list of the series and reading order here.
This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Great review. I agree re: the get over it dude. All the DHs need to learn to let things go. For many of them it’s been 1000+ years…11000 for Ash. Enough already.
I absolutely love Zarek in his book and think Astrid is awesome. I never thought he was whiny. This was the second book in the series I read, after Kyrian’s, so I didn’t know Zarek from Talon’s book. The first time I read it I cried throughout the whole thing. I couldn’t understand how SK was going to redeem Valerius and frankly, didn’t want to read his book, (turns out it’s one of my favorites).
For me, Zarek was ruined in the latter books. I would’ve preferred if he had mellowed a bit after spending a few years loving Astrid. He just seems like a bit of prick these days.