Hero: Stryker
Heroine: Zephyra
Grade: 3.75 out of 5
While the world carries on unawares, Stryker, who leads an army of demons and vampires, is plotting an all out onslaught against his enemies—which, unfortunately for us, includes the entire human race. To avenge his sister, Stryker prepares to annihilate the Dark-Hunters. But things go awry when his oldest enemy returns. Enter his ex-wife. Zephyra. Just when he thought nothing could stop him, he’s now embroiled in a centuries old war with a shrew who gives new meaning to pain.
The latest addition to the Dark Hunter’s series is the story of Strykerius and Zephyra. Stryker is known by most of us as the bad guy in the other books. He’s an enemy to Ash, he’s an enemy to the Dark Hunters and so I found that I didn’t want to read this book because any enemy of the Dark Hunters is an enemy to me, I don’t want my enemies to have a happy ending. I don’t want them to be happy.
This book served to move the series in a new direction, yeah we had a love story between Stryker and Phyra but for me, the book served as a move the series along kind of story. It introduced some new daimons, some new characters and it showed us a little insight to characters we already know and love.
Jared, being one of them.
I really enjoyed getting to know Jared in the bits and pieces we saw him in the previous books but in this book, we really see where he spends his time, what he does and there’s a wealth of mystery surrounding him and though he’s not completely on the good side but he’s not completely on the bad side either, it’s going to be interesting to read more about him in later books. I, for one am looking forward to getting to know him as the series continues.
For me, the romance between Stryker and Zephyra was secondary to everything else happening in the book. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve never liked Stryker and didn’t want to like him in this book or because the book surrounded the daimons and showed them in a sympathetic light and I didn’t care for that one bit. It’s like, I wish the bad guys would stay the bad guys, ya know? There are plenty of good guys that still need their happy endings told so I just couldn’t be excited about their story, especially because this book starts off with the hero trying to kill my menz. Ash and Nick. Oh hell to the no.
I’m really supposed to like this guy?
I don’t think so.
I couldn’t get excited about Stryker and Zephyra. I didn’t want to and for me, I paid more attention to the other parts of the story. Finding out what Nick was, finding out how Ash and Tori were doing. Seeing Sin and Kat again, laughing along with Savitar while he whined about having to stay with Apollymi and then seeing Jared again. Those are the moments that I loved about this book. They are the characters that made this book enjoyable for me. They’re the reasons why I kept turning the pages of this book.
I’m unsure of how I feel about the turn this series is taking. I mean, the story ends with Stryker being blissfully happy with Phyra and then it shows us that the rise of the daimons and the end of mankind. I mean seriously, what the heck is all of that about? These are still romances are they not?
Goodness, I hope so. Would I recommend this book? Yes but only so that you can see for yourself the turn this series is taking and so that you can make up your own mind as to how you feel about that. Don’t expect fireworks or anything in this book because you might be let down but there are some surprising alliances that pop up in this book that you won’t want to miss.
This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here.
In other words it was a lot like Phury’s book from J.R. Ward?
Thanks for the heads up, I won’t be reading it till Christmas..
I can say I’ve not been too excited about this latest release either. Too bad really.
So, what i’m getting from everyone’s review of this book is that I need to read it but don’t need to run out and buy it. I’m thinking this might even be a library book for me. (which is a switch since I normally buy the books in this series) anyway, thanks for the review. 🙂
I stopped reading the JRW books but if you see the bad guys rising in power and in force then yeah, I guess it’s like that.
And you’re very welcome.
Actually, Wena, this is the first time we meet Jared…the one we met before is the Demon broker Jaden.
I actually liked Stryker in this book, although I agree that the romance part of it was meh. I started out not liking Zephyra because of the way she treated Jared. I kept hoping that she would be redeemed in this area by the end of the book. It’s almost impossible to like such a cruel character.
I liked Stryker so much that I was hoping he’d dump her based on her treatment of Jared, but did I get satisfaction? I won’t answer so as not to spoil the story.
Interesting bits about Nick, Ash and the Daimon/gallu thing. Is it the best book in series…IDK, but for those of us rabid fans, it’s a must read.
Ohhhh you’re right Lorraine! Jaden is the one that gives everyone their wish for a price.
You’re right.
What are your thoughts on Nick’s whole deal…did you like the twist or were you bummed out about it?
I just can’t care for Stryker because I spent so much of the series hating him that I didn’t want to like him.
Rowena–it’s a fun twist on Nick, although similar in plot to what happened to Simone, but WTF, I really love this series so I won’t pick it apart.
Nick was never one of my favorites, although it seems all SKs fans really like him, so I guess she had to do something like this to give him equality with the other big boys.