Holly’s review of Shadow of the Moon (A Dark Hunter short story) by Sherrilyn Kenyon (a novella found in the Dead After Dark anthology)
“Shadow of the Moon”
Angelia has fought her entire life to make herself strong. Now, with her patria under fire, she has to protect her people from Fury and his werewolf clan. Vowing to bring him to justice, Angelia sets out alone…until the hunter becomes the hunted, and the only way for her to survive is to trust the very wolf she’s sworn to kill.
After re-reading Night Play the other day, I was curious to know who Fury’s heroine was and how his story played out. I’m sorry to report this was one of the worst novellas I’ve ever read.
Angelia, Fury’s heroine, is a small minded, judgmental bitch. She treated Fury abominably and refused to accept the responsibility for her actions. She was his best friend as they were growing up, yet as soon as she realized Fury was Katagaria (his base form is wolf) instead of Arcadia (human base form) she stabbed him and left him for dead.
Now, 400 years later, she and her cohorts have a weapon that will keep weres from changing forms and make their magic useless. They kidnap Fury to find out what he knows about it, and begin torturing him when he won’t tell them. This goes on for hours. Angelia doesn’t actually participate in the torture, but she sees and hears it. After they brand him, she finally steps in and takes Fury away.
Not my idea of a good heroine.
As the story progresses and she’s faced with the decisions she’s made, she continues to make excuses for her behavior. She was traumatized by wolves attacking and killing her family when she was just a toddler, so that’s her excuse for stabbing Fury. It wasn’t HIM he was stabbing, just the dirty animal she hates. She didn’t actually pull the trigger and kill the lion, so of course it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t actually torture Fury, so of course he shouldn’t be mad at her.
She constantly refers to Fury as a “dirty animal” and feels “disgusted” by him, even though he continually protects her and saves her life. Even when she finally decides to sleep with him it’s grudgingly. She thinks, “Part of her couldn’t believe she was touching a wolf.”
As they’re having sex she realizes she loves him and always has, but he’s an animal. Then they become mated, which means Fate has decided they should be together, so who is she to argue?
Now this all would have been fine and well if she’d realized in the end how wrong her actions were and suffered some kind of consequences for them. But she doesn’t. Fury turns himself in as the one who shot the lion, and Dare steps up and says he was the one who did it. No one even knows she ruined the life of another were, rendering him unable to even communicate with his mate or care for his children. SHE SHOWS NO REMORSE. WTF?!
In the end they go home and she tells Fury she loves him and wants to mate with him and..The end.
Fury was his same adorable self throughout the book, but the fact that he was paired with someone who betrayed him so badly really makes me angry. Fury had never known love or acceptance. I find it really hard to believe he’s going to get it from this backstabbing, self-righteous bitch.
1 out of 5
This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
“Angelia, Fury’s heroine, is a small minded, judgmental bitch.”
Totally agree. She’s the reason I didn’t like this one. I loved Fury in Night Play and was looking forward to his story but it fell way short of a HEA IMO.
Oh yes. This was the last straw that killed Kenyon for me. I was so narked that I haven’t even read Acheron yet. Maybe someday.