Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand

Retribution Retribution:
Dark Hunter Book 20
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Piatkus

Supplied for review by Hachette New Zealand

Reviewed By: Jan Butterworth

After the last few Dark-Hunter books not capturing my attention, I’m thrilled that this is a great story, with a sexy Dark-Hunter (tortured past included), a kick butt heroine, Daimons, and weres, with a bit of Native American mysticism thrown in. And a whole chapter on Acheron!

Sundown was an outlaw in the Wild West, a cold-hearted killer. He fell in love and was going to change after marrying, but was shot by his best man before that happened. The best man also raped the bride to be and left her pregnant. She gave her son away and went on to live a relatively happy life.

Artemis offered Sundown the usual deal for him to exact revenge in return for her owning his soul as one of her Dark—Hunters, who kill Daimons who eat human souls as sustenance to survive. Someone is murdering Dark Hunters though.

Abigail Yeager is the slayer. Orphaned as a toddler, she was raised by Daimons and believes all Dark-Hunters are evil and must be destroyed. She knows Sundown killed her parents and does her best to kill him. Unfortunately she kills a Guardian instead, whose loss threatens to tip the world upside down. To appease the spirits, Abigail must be scarified in an ancient cave. Sundown must get her to the cave unharmed by dark forces. Helping him are Ren and Sasha, both weres.

The characters were very well developed and the banter between them made me want to see more of Sasha and Ren. It was nice seeing established characters like Talon, Sin and Zarek make an appearance. The plot was face-paced with a lot of action. The only unbelievable bit was how fast Abigail went from loathing Sundown to getting it on with him in the car while killer wasps were attacking it.

Artemis took responsibility for her mistakes and realised her actions made her lose the one person she actually wanted. I doubt she’s reformed though. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the heifer-goddess in all her nasty glory! No spoilers but you get to see a bit of Ash, Tory and Simi!

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