Love slave...

Greek love slave imprisoned in a magical book for centuries by a jealous, vindictive Greek god.  Sounds like some serious romantic fluff, the stuff Fabio made famous, right? This is what I thought as well.  Little did I know that it would lead to my second favorite book series of all time.

Fantasy Lover is the first book in the Sherilyn Kenyon Dark Hunter series.  It's starts in New Orleans (pre Katrina).  The characters are quirky and sassy.  The mystique and magic that surrounds New Orleans is the perfect backdrop to set up a series of vampire-esque hunters who seek to take out as many of Apollo's "children" who have gone rogue (these are the real vampires).

I was hooked even before the end of the first chapter.  Sherilyn Kenyon has such a wonderful way of building good characters that you enjoy not only the main love story but the side stories that play out in the background.  I would soon come to demand this in the other book series that I would read in the future.  This culminated in the book series that has me absolutely ensnared (but that's a blog for another time).

The combination of a centuries old Greek warrior falling for a 21st Century sex therapist?  Just perfect.  What could possibly go wrong with that?  Add in the fact that the sex therapist is sexually repressed and his only function for the last thousand years has been to feed every desire of any woman who summons him from full moon to full moon and it makes for incredibly hilarious banter between the two.  Oh and add in her married psychic friend and a flighty artist who sells her wares in the local market square in the middle of New Orleans, I don't think I've ever laughed so much.

Sherilyn's writing style and the way she makes her dialogue sound natural are another big bonus.  Although the main character in the first book is not a dark hunter the first dark hunter you meet in the series is mentioned and even eluded to during this book.  You meet him in the second book.  The books that follow introduce you to a whole slew of supernatural characters from Dark Hunters, to Werewolves, Were-tigers, were-bears (ohhh those bears... yummmm).  But threaded throughout each book is the never understood mysterious Acheron who commands the Dark Hunters and respect from all the other supernatural characters..  mmmmmm ... Acheron!  What to say about him would fill up a whole separate blog... so stay tuned...

If you're looking for an adventurous, humorous, very sexy (wait till you meet Vane Katalakis girls... he's not your average werewolf... but you can picture Joe Managaniello in the roll ... VERY HOT... oh and ladies he likes a girl with above average curves) book series for your summer reads I definitely recommend the Dark Hunter series by Sherilyn Kenyon.