Review: Night Play - Sherrilyn Kenyon

Bride McTierney has just been dumped via FedEx. There's not much that could ease her broken heart until Vane Kattalakis wanders into her shop and her life. But the deadly and tortured Vane isn't what he seems. A Were-Hunter wolf wanted dead by his enemies, Vane isn't looking for a mate. But the Fates have marked Bride as his. Now he has three weeks to either convince Bride that the supernatural is real or he will spend the rest of his life neutered - something no self-respecting wolf can accept . . .

But how does a wolf convince a human to trust him with her life when his enemies are out to end his? In the world of the Were-Hunters, it really is dog eat dog. And only one alpha male can win.

The Dark-Hunters Series:
The Beginning (Short Story)
Fantasy Lover
Dragonswan (Novella) (Were-Hunter 0.5)
Night Pleasures
Night Embrace
Dance with the Devil
Kiss of the Night
Night Play (Were-Hunter 1)
Seize the Night
Sins of the Night
Unleash the Night (Were-Hunter 2)
Dark Side of the Moon (Were-Hunter 3)
The Dream-Hunter (Dream-Hunter 1)
Fear the Darkness (Short Story)
Devil May Cry
Upon the Midnight Clear (Dream-Hunter 2)
Dream Chaser (Dream-Hunter 3)
Acheron
One Silent Night
Dream Warrior (Dream-Hunter 4)
Bad Moon Rising (Hellchaser 1, Were-Hunter 4)
Dark-Hunter: An Insider's Guide (Hellchaser 2)
No Mercy (Were-Hunter 5)
Retribution
The Guardian (Dream-Hunter 5, Were-Hunter 6, Hellchaser 3)
Time Untime (Were-Hunter 7, Hellchaser 4)
Styxx
Dark Bites (Short Story Anthology)
Son of No One (Were-Hunter 8, Hellchaser 5)
Dragonbane (Were-Hunter 9, Hellchaser 6)
Dragonmark (2016)

Chronicles of Nick Series:
(This is a YA spin off from Sherrilyn Kenyon's adult Dark-Hunters series)
Infinity
Invincible
Infamous
Inferno
Illusion
Instinct
Invasion (2016)
Intensity (2017)

Visit Sherrilyn Kenyon's website for more information

Review:
I have loved all of the Dark-Hunters books so far but I have to confess that Night Play is my new favourite. There is just something so adorably sweet and sexy about Vane and I loved how Bride is just an everyday woman who has the same kind of insecurities that most of us do. Their romance is both sweet and incredibly sexy and I think Sherrilyn Kenyon outdid herself with this one.

Vane is just everything you could want in a hero, he is strong, brave, loving, protective and he is willing to put Bride's safety above his own happiness. He's in a tough situation with some powerful enemies on his trail and the brother he loves more than anything has been injured. I loved the connection between him and Fang and it was heart breaking to see how much pain Vane was in at the thought of losing his brother. The last thing he really needs is a woman in his life, particularly not a human woman who knows nothing of the supernatural world and doesn't have ability to defend herself from his enemies. There is something about Bride that he finds impossible to resist though and from the moment he realises they are mates he knows he is in trouble, he only has a limited time to persuade her that they should be together but he has no idea how to go about wooing a human which leads to some very amusing requests for dating advice!

I think one of the things I loved most about Vane was how beautiful he found Bride and how he spent so much time showing her how attractive he found her and how much he cared. Bride has always been a big girl and has always felt insecure about her looks, something that wasn't helped by the way her horrible ex-boyfriend treated her. It was great to see her confidence grow as she started to see herself through Vane's eyes and I loved that he didn't want to change a single thing about her. I felt her reactions to the situation she found herself in as Vane started to open up about who and what he was were very realistic. The way their connection builds was just wonderful to watch and I loved every minute they spent together. It's nice to see such a down to earth heroine in a paranormal romance, Bride is the kind of woman you're probably already friends with which makes it easy to connect with her and want to see her get her happy ever after.

Alongside the fabulous romance Night Play also has plenty of humour and laugh out loud moments, we get to catch up with previous heroes and heroines and I even found myself starting to like Valerius which came as quite a surprise. I have to admit I'd been kind of dreading his book, Seize the Night, (which is the next book in the series) but now I have a feeling that Sherrilyn Kenyon can turn his character around and make me fall for him. As always I can't get enough of the scenes with Acheron and Simi but I also enjoyed getting to know some of the other were-hunters and I really hope that we'll get to see both Fang and Fury's stories somewhere down the line. This is another fantastic instalment to the series and makes me even more eager to carry on my Dark-Hunter journey.

Source: Received from Piatkus in exchange for an honest review

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