Holly’s review of Night Embrace (Dark Hunters, Book 3) by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Dear Reader,
Life is great for me. I have my chicory coffee, my warm beignets, and my best friend on the cell phone. Once the sun goes down, I am the baddest thing prowling the night: I command the elements, and I know no fear. For centuries, I’ve protected the innocent and watched over the mankind, making sure they are safe in a world where nothing is ever certain. All I want in return is a hot babe in a red dress, who wants nothing more from me then one night.
Instead, I get a runaway Mardi Gras float that tries to turn me into roadkill and a beautiful woman who saves my life but can’t remember where she put my pants. Flamboyant and extravagant, Sunshine Runningwolf should be the perfect woman for me. She wants nothing past tonight, no ties, no long-term commitments.
But every time I look at her, I start yearning for dreams that I buried centuries ago. With her unconventional ways and ability to baffle me, Sunshine is the one person I find myself needing. But for me to love her would mean her death. I am cursed never to know peace or happiness-not so long as my enemy waits in the night to destroy us both.
–Talon of the Morrigantes
This isn’t one of my favorites of the series. Though it has some good parts and can be funny, I’m afraid I never really believed in the romance.
Talon is out hunting Daimon’s one night when he sees Sunshine about to be attacked. He rushes to the rescue but is hit with a Mardi Gras float and Sunshine ends up rescuing him. She takes him back to her place and puts him to bed, thinking he’s the sexiest man she’s ever seen. The next morning Talon wakes up and realizes he’s trapped in Sunshine’s apartment for the day…with nothing better to do they get horizontal. And vertical, And quasi-vertical. (heh)
Despite their passionate night day together, however, they both know nothing can come of it. Sunshine has sworn off relationships and marriage, especially to men like Talon who would want to dominate her life. And Talon..well, he’s an immortal vampire hunter who has been cursed by a Greek god so everyone he loves will die. He’s not willing to sentence Sunshine to death simply because of his past sins.
But unforeseen forces are at work to keep these two together. When Talon and Sunshine realize she’s the reincarnation of his dead wife Nynia, neither can stay away. But that doesn’t mean their future is any less doomed.
Early on in the book – during the first few chapters – the characters are fun and interesting. Talon loves sex, coffee and pastries. Sunshine is an absentminded artist who eats only healthy food. They’re complete opposites, but they have chemistry in spades. The scene where Sunshine tells Talon how she basically ruined all his clothes is hilarious. Plus, this novel features one of the best scenes ever. Sunshine and her mom are hanging out when Talon wakes up naked. They come into the room and catch sight of his manhood:
“Sunshine, I…” Starla’s voice broke off as she entered the room and caught sight of him standing naked in the corner. She eyed him in an odd, detached way, as if he were an interesting piece of furniture.
Talon and modesty were strangers, but the way she stared at him made him damned uncomfortable. In spite of the sunlight, Talon grabbed the pink blanket off the bed and clutched it to his middle.
“You know, Sunshine, you need to find a man like that to marry. Someone so well hung that even after three or four kids, he’d still be wall to wall.”
Talon gaped.
Sunshine laughed. “Starla, you’re embarrassing him.”
I really like Sunshine. She’s kind of quirky, but isn’t afraid to speak her mind or stand up for herself. It was good to see her stand up and tell Talon to shove it when he got too overbearing. Despite being a flighty artist, she was really grounded.
Talon I didn’t like as much. The “soul mates” trope is overused here. Sunshine is the reincarnation of Talon’s dead wife, and I never really believed it was Sunshine herself that he loves, but instead the soul of his dead wife. As soon as Talon realizes Sunshine has Nynia’s soul he starts thinking of Sunshine either as his dead wife or strictly as a soul. While I understood his love for Nynia and his desire to be with her, Sunshine was her own person and deserved to be loved as such. Throughout the novel, right up to the end, Talon says he cares about Sunshine for who she is, but then treats her like she’s his dead wife. He calls her his wife, refers to her as “you” when telling stories about Nynia and even at one point thinks, “[..] a woman whose soul meant more to him than his own life”.
Toward the end Kenyon tries to make us readers believe that soul mates are soul mates and it doesn’t matter how Talon thinks of Sunshine, or vice verse. They’re meant to be together and therefore they will be. The whole attitude about it frustrates me. I can appreciate that they’re meant to be together, but if my lover was calling me by his dead wife’s name and getting me confused with her, I can tell you that relationship wouldn’t last long.
I probably would have stopped reading somewhere around the middle of the book, but I wanted to see how the events advanced the overall story arc of the series. It’s been so long since I read these books I couldn’t remember all the details.
I liked Ash in this book, though I was left feeling hollow about him at the end. Of course that happens with him in a lot of these books, so it isn’t really anything new. I also really liked Zarek in this book. That’s something to take note of because I don’t care for Zarek as a whole, especially after his book. But his one-liners were pretty great here. I also like the way he connects with Sunshine.
The plot-points are too numerous to go into. Because the series spans so many books and the ARC progresses with each one, it’s sometimes hard to keep up. I will say I thought the villains were stupid and cheesy. I can only hope I never really thought they posed a real threat when I first read this series years ago. I’d be disappointed in myself if I had.. They reminded me of Dr. Suess’ Thing 1 and Thing 2.
Overall I was less than impressed. The soul mates trope is shown at its worst here and though there were some humorous parts, my enjoyment was far overshadowed by the negative aspects.
2 out of 5
Click here for a list of the series and reading order.
This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
It’s funny how – a few years later – everybody’s saying what they really think about the Dark Hunter series. I never understood why these books were so popular, but if you said anything negative you got attacked by the fans! Now it looks like it’s okay to say the truth.
I hated that scene quoted here, but I agree with the rest. I also hated how he keeps going on and on about his other woman, and then at the end turns around and says he loves Sunshine more. It’s weird and a bit annoying. How come the man always has to love his second woman more? Why can’t he say he loved his wife, and now he loves this woman? I always feel sorry for the other wife in these situations!
I, too, loved the quoted scene and recently remembered it, though I couldn’t remember which book I read it in.
I never had a problem with the Nynia’s soul/Sunshine thing. In fact, although I really liked Sunshine a lot, it annoyed me that she made such a big deal about it. A soul is a soul, and if it’s reborn it’s still the same soul, even if the particulars about the person’s life are different.
I agree, this is among my least favorite of the early books.