Casee‘s review of Bad Moon Rising (Dark Hunter Series, Book 17) by Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Fang Kattalakis isn’t just a wolf. He is the brother of two of the most powerful members of the Omegrion: the ruling council that enforces the laws of the Were-Hunters. And when war erupts among the lycanthropes, sides must be chosen. Enemies are forced into shaky alliances. And when the woman Fang loves is accused of betraying her people, her only hope is that Fang believes in her. Yet in order to save her, Fang must break the law of his people and the faith of his brothers. That breech could very well spell the end of both their races and change their world forever.
The war is on and time is running out…
This is probably about the last Dark Hunter book I was looking forward to. Fang and Aimee have been in the series from the beginning. Well, almost the beginning. While I want to say that I loved this book, I just can’t. Instead of being Fang and Aimee’s story, it seemed like Night Play, but from a different pov. Very disappointing.
As we’ve known since Night Play, Fang and Aimee are mates. The only problem is this…there is no cross-species mating. It’s already unacceptable for an Arcadian and Katagaria to mate. For a bear and a wolf to mate is unheard of. From the beginning to the end of this book, years pass. It seems that 2/3 of the book is of what happened in Night Play. The night that Fang and Zane’s sister dies and their father turns on them. Fang goes comatose from the grief. Only, he’s not comatose by choice. He’s in a world between life and death. Which is worse than death.
I really liked Aimee in the prior DH books she was in. I didn’t like her in this book. She was way too wishy-washy. I completely accept her hesitance in mating with Fang. The Peltier’s are all about family loyalty. So it’s not strange that she wouldn’t want to mate with Fang. What I didn’t like was how she kept denying it over and over again. For years. She weighed her need for Fang (his needs didn’t come into her equation) to her mother’s expectations of her. As the only female Peltier (other than her mother), it is her job to carry on the line. She has to mate with a bear. And so it went on for over four hundred pages.
Fang basically went through hell to get back from the dimension he was in. He actually gave up his soul to keep Aimee safe. Now he works for Thorn (a new and interesting character). So even if he wanted to mate with Aimee, he wasn’t available b/c his soul wasn’t his own.
Spoiler Alert: When Aimee finally told Mama Bear (I had a really hard time with this. Bernstein Bears anyone?) about mating with Fang, she was kicked out of Peltier House and denounced. But at the end, Aimee (yet again) goes back to help the family that watched her walk out the door. Mama Bear ends up dying to save Fang’s life. It all happened very fast and just left a bad taste in my mouth. End spoiler.
The best thing that happened in the book was that Aimee and Fang finally got their happily ever after.
3.5 out of 5.
This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here.
Other books in the series:
I felt the same way. And now I keep thinking I need to go through the subsequent books (since this is in essence a flashback) and see where SK has screwed up the timeline and ppl who died are still alive and pronouncements Savitar made are no longer applicable.
Hi 🙂
Thanks for the great review.
It helps.
I have so many great books to read, that I think I can leave this for near the end of the pile.
🙂
All the best,
twitter: @RKCharron
xoxo
I’m glad I’m not the only who felt this way, Casee.
For me, this is definitively going to be my last DH book.
I’m done myself. I couldn’t believe that I had to read Night Play in Fang’s book and Unleash The Night. On top of that had to pay hard cover prices for it. Not anymore. I’ll take my 20 bucks and buy 3 paperbacks of new to me Authors. Fang’s story should have came after Unleash The Night. Totally agree with your assessment.
I haven’t read it yet, but I heard that this book is where the series starts to change.
Whoa! I had not idea there were SO many of these.
Oh man, I think I’m done with this one too.
I read the review up until you talked about his coma, then I stopped *I like to be surprised*. I think the series has become ho hum. I refuse to buy this book in hardback, (I can easily wait 6months for the paperback).
The earlier books in the series had great love stories. It’s such a shame that world building became more of a focus for SK. I still read them because I like her world, I just don’t particularly care for them as romances.
I felt the exact same way. Too bad it over half the book to get something new. I’ll probably get the next book and make my decision then as to whether I’ll continue reading this series. I’m a die-hard. 🙂
Leah, the timeline is definitely screwed up. There are so many books that I just don’t know where/when it got so messed up.
Nath, I keep going back and forth. some days I think I’ll just stick through it and other times I want to quit. I really like Sasha.
Lorraine, if you’ve read Night Play then Fang’s “coma” shouldn’t come as a surprise to you. It’s where he actually is while he’s comatose.
Donna, I’m a diehard too. Maybe I will stick with it. Heh.