Book Review: Retribution by Sherrilyn Kenyon

From Sherrilyn Kenyon's website:

A hired gunslinger, William Jessup Brady lived his life with one foot in the grave. He believed every life had a price. Until the day he finally found a reason to live. In a single act of brutal betrayal, he lost everything, including his life. Brought back by a Greek goddess to be one of her Dark-Hunters, he gave his immortal soul for vengeance and swore he'd spend eternity protecting the humans he once considered prey.

Orphaned as a toddler, Abbigail Yager was taken in by a family of vampires and raised on one belief: Dark-Hunters are the evil who prey on both their people and mankind, and they must all be destroyed. While protecting her adoptive race, she has spent her life eliminating the Dark-Hunters and training for the day she meets the man who killed her family: Jess Brady.

Like most of my favorite series, I discovered Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter novels right smack dab in the middle (surprise, surprise). Usually, with a series this long running, there is always the fear of the same old story creeping in, making each story sound somewhat familiar.

Not so with the Dark-Hunters...

One complaint I have is that Retribution seemed the most distant to the Dark-Hunter lore that has been previously introduced. Sundown and Abby's story sets itself in another pantheon with it's roots in Native American lore, with the introduction of the Cherokee 2012 prophecy of Time and Untime. (Which personally, I really enjoy because it reminds me of good memories...but that's another story!) Whether or not the details are true to the actual mythos, I lend to creative story telling. (Think of it like telephone. The details can get changed around depending on how you hear it!)

More sympathetic to the Apollites, we get into Abby's mind and see her perspective on Dark-Hunters. Seen as lethally evil murderers of the family she has been raised by, she sets out to take out as many as she can, with the the help of some demon enhanced abilities.

Until things go from bad to worse. As with most things, it's really all about perspective. You know, that whole there's three sides to every story. One side, the other, and the truth...

Sundown is a sexy cowboy stuck in his ways (gotta love a man who rides a horse. Save a horse, ride a...you get the picture.) to the extent that every syllable that falls from his lips drips with that cowboy way of his...which is addicting, if I do say so myself. Honestly, I worried that I might get a tad annoyed with it, but just the opposite happened. It only added to his character.

As they battled evil and we discover their mysterious past, Sundown and Abby become more and more what I have come to expected from a Dark-Hunter novel. It took a bit for me to warm up to Abby, mostly because she just seemed to flip flop a little too much for me. But, in the end, girlfriend kinda won me over.

At the end of the book, we get a little Acheron action. And of course, Simi. Because, really, a Dark-Hunter novel without Simi (and Ash) is like dinner without barbecue!

While not my favorite Dark-Hunter addition, Retribution definitely filled the hole I've had waiting for some bow and arrow tattoos to show up. (For more Dark-Hunter fun and games, check out the website...)