Dance with the Devil (Dark-Hunter, Book 4)

I've been into this saga for so long I don't see myself living without it. I have read this book I guess 3 times now and I'm soooo in love with this story, the way Sherrilyn writes her characters and the storyline is PRECIOUS! Please, buy it and start from the beginning of this saga you would NOT regret it.

Love love love it!!

Another great story! How do these just keep getting better and better? I absolutely loved how Astrid and Zarek came together. I always wondered why Acheron held such a soft spot for Zarek. Now I really get it. I can't wait to read Acherons story because I can imagine how awful his life was and how he became what he is. Zarek is so surly but Astrid is his star. I love how he got his redemption. Astrid got her heart. Thanatos got his redemption. I really hope Artemis gets what's coming to her. She is just crazy. I love the story weaving between the Greek Mythology, Celtic Mythology, and paranormal characters.

This book engaged me from the first pages. The story has depth, breadth, and humor.

This is the third (or fourth, if you count Fantasy Lover, as I do) of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series, and if you've read Talon's story you'll be familiar with Zarek, the surly, murderous Roman ex-slave. Zarek has been banished to Alaska for the past 900 years for burning down the village he was supposed to protect, and killing everyone in it. Acheron managed to persuade Artemis to give him one more chance, and in Midnight Embrace Zarek joined the other Dark-Hunters in New Orleans. But there he made a serious mistake: killed two police officers in full view of mortals. Now he is back in Alaska, knowing that he won't go unpunished - someone, soon, will be sent to kill him.And then it happens: he's been tracked down by Thanatos, the killer of Dark-Hunters. In trying to escape, he is hurt and thinks that it's all over, but then he wakes up in a comfortable bed in a warm house, with a beautiful - and blind - woman taking care of him. Pretending that she cares about him and wants to look after him. She has to be pretending, doesn't she? After all, no-one has ever really cared about him. No-one has looked after him. Everyone he's ever known has betrayed him or used him to gain pleasure from his pain.What Zarek doesn't know is that Astrid is a judge: an Olympian justice who has been ordered by Artemis and Acheron to judge and pass sentence on Zarek. Artemis, of course, wants him dead, but Astrid suspects that Acheron really wants her to find him innocent. And yet, in all her centuries of judging Astrid has never, ever found a single person innocent of the crimes alleged against him. Zarek, too, seems like a hopeless case. He rejects her, threatens her companion (a wolf who is actually a shapeshifter), has no manners or social graces, refuses to answer her questions. And she knows about his past, his murderous acts.And yet... there's something about him...Gradually, Astrid begins to learn about Zarek's past. The illegitimate son of a Roman officer, he was the household whipping-boy. His father, his half-brothers and all the servants treated him cruelly and mercilessly. By the time of his death, in his late twenties, his body was so scarred and misshapen that Artemis, without even asking had `healed' his wounds and given him a `normal' appearance. But no-one had ever thought to show Zarek kindness, or teach him how to behave with courtesy. He has been rejected by his own kind, the Dark-Hunters, every bit as much as in his life he had been rejected by mortals.But, as Astrid finds herself falling in love with him, she wonders how she can possibly find him anything other than guilty for the crimes of his past. Unless... is it possible that they weren't his crimes at all?Zarek's story is heartwrenching. But in Dance With The Devil we also find out much more about Acheron, so much so that I can't wait for his story. Just who - or what - is Acheron? What happens to him when he loses his temper and even gods quake before him? I both liked and hated him in

I have read all of the books in Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series, and imagine my surprise when the "hero" I thought I'd like the least turns out to be my favorite by a large margain. Nothing against the others, they are sexy and funny and brave and you should definitely read their stories, but Zarek is truly special. Trapped in an existance where everyone hates him (but not as much as he hates himself), Zarek expects to be killed any minute for mistakes he has made in the past. He almost welcomes death as a means to escape his isolated, lonely situation, but instinct keeps him fighting back whenever anyone does try to finish him off. Thank goodness, because that gives Astrid the chance to come into his life, and they are so great together. She is able to find the goodness deep inside him and make him realize he is not only capable of being loved, but of loving in return. What I liked best about this pair is that they fall in love before making love. Not that I can't appreciate hot sex scenes that begin in lust and eventually turn to lovemaking, but it was a nice change of pace that love came first this time. I also liked that Astrid was more traditional and conservative than her female counterparts in the other DH novels. They are all terrific characters, but I recognize myself more in Astrid and this made the relationship sweeter somehow. And I also really appreciated the time that Astrid and Zarek got to spend trapped in her cabin, so that I got to know their characters better without the confusion of too many other gods, goddesses, vampires, demons and such butting in. Of course they all descend en masse eventually, but by then I had my whopping dose of (dare I say it) good old fashioned boy-meets-girl romance. That this is truly a romantic story is what puts in on my keeper shelf, and I hope SK tries this approach more often in future DH novels. I'll check them all out from the library, but I'll go out and *buy* the ones like Dance with the Devil where the couple connects in such a sweet and tender (yet still very sexy) way.

Zarek has had more than his fair share of hard knocks in his life, putting it mildly. Being born to a Roman slave, fathered by Roman royalty, Zarek never belonged, but he always knew his place...as a slave. Zarek went through things that no human being should have to endure and has a shell of armor around himself so thick that no one will ever be able to penetrate it. At least that's what he thinks. After nine hundred years living in the Alaskan wilderness, Zarek sets off to New Orleans only to return to Alaska knowing that he'll either die before he gets there, or die in the biting cold that he's gotten so used to. At least that's what he thinks...In all her years as a justice nymph, Astrid has never judged a man innocent. The closest she ever came was when she though she was in love with the man she was jugding, which she learned never to do again. When Acheron requests that she be the one to judge Zarek, she is stunned. First by what she sees in his eyes, and second by what she is almost positive the outcome will be. She doesn't count on Zarek though, nor the feelings he envokes in her.In Kenyon's usual manner, she can bring a reader from tears to laughter in a page of reading. Although there is humor, it doesn't take away from the emotional intensity of the book. What Zarek had to endure as a slave brought me to tears, but it showed how strong Zarek is to endure and keep living, even though I wouldn't call what he was doing living. Astrid and Zarek are perfect for eachother and Kenyon has another hit in Dance With The Devil. Don't miss it!!

When things go badly in New Orleans, Zarek is again exiled to the Alaskan wilderness. Certain that his death was immanent; his soul purpose in living was to piss everyone off. What else is new? So it was with great surprise that while seriously injured from a fight with blood squires, Dark Hunter's and Artimis's creature to kill the Dark Hunters-Thanatos, he finds himself in the home of an enchanting blind woman who lives alone in the woods with a wolf. Astrid was sent to judge him insane and a threat to humanity, or innocent of all the crimes against him. Blind only while deciding how to serve justice she is terrified by Zareks "spit in your face" attitude. However, while his words are gruff his actions speak differently and so she struggles to figure out what Asheron sees in him that would deem him innocent. DANCE WITH THE DEVIL is the long awaited (and wondered) about story of Zarek, the slave become Dark Hunter that killed the village of people he was sworn to protect and was therefore banished to the harsh wilderness of Alaska almost a millennium before. Although this story, I think, is more intense than the previous installments, I would have been disappointed had it been anything less. I was amazed that the intensity Zarek portrayed in NIGHT EMBRACE wasn't lost within the pages of his story. Somehow, buried deep within Zarek is a true hero that has given up on himself even as he fights to protect the lives of others. Astrid is a heroine unlike any other that will have your jaw dropping as she sorts thru two thousand years of gruesome history to pass judgment. And as always, Ms Kenyon has woven her lighted hearted humor with the newest cast members added to the Dark Hunter world as well as one we all love to hate. So, in true Dark Hunter fashion, be prepared for another heart-stopping page-turner from Ms Kenyon with an astonishing ending! To those of you who have never read a Dark Hunter novel, this is an excellent novel and yes you could read it as a stand alone book, but if you went back to read the other stories, you will spoil some of the endings for yourself.