The Dark-Hunters, Vol. 1 by Sherrilyn Kenyon

& Claudia Campos (Illustrator)

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Reading Grade: Adult

Publishing Type: traditional house

Publication Date: July 2009

Source: store purchase

Rated: Teen (14+)

Amazon.com

In the war against vampires, mankind has only one hope: The Dark-Hunters. Ancient warriors who died of brutal betrayal, the Dark-Hunters have sworn themselves into the service of the goddess Artemis to protect us.

Until Kyrian meets the most frightening thing imaginable. An accountant who's being hunted by one of the most lethal vampires out there. If Amanda Devereaux goes down, so does he and no offense, he doesn't want to die (hence the whole immortality thing). And he doesn't want humanity dead either which is a good thing for us since he and Amanda are all that stands between us and oblivion. Let's hope they win.

My Review

This review is for the MANGA version of Kenyon's adult novel Night Pleasures (Dark-Hunter Novels), which encompasses the first half of the novel version of the first book. Or, so I've read, since I haven't read the book this manga was adapted from. So, I'm not able to compare it to the novel.

This story is about Amanda Devereaux, a young woman living in New Orleans who has quite a few “paranormal” relatives who all have supernatural abilities. Amanda's completely unimpressed with 'all things paranormal', and has chosen to be the black sheep of her family by taking a boring accounting job while searching for a normal husband.

She also has the tendency to date jerks, so she's not initially happy to meet the main male character, Hunter, aka Kyrian, who is a vampire called a “Dark-Hunter”. Hunter's not too polite, although he is extremely hunky and blond. Amanda and Hunter meet when they both get kidnapped by a vampire named Desiderus, who actually meant to kidnap Amanda's identical twin sister, Tabitha. Oops. She ends up hand-cuffed to Hunter for a while, and discovers his past and why he chose to become a Dark-Hunter. Hunter decides to stick around to protect her from Desiderus.

I'll just say that I think Amanda is funny and there's more to her than meets the eye. She has a good reason for choosing to lead a normal, dull life. And, at first, I thought Hunter/Kyrian was just a bit too annoying as he tried to act so cool, saying “babe” every other page, but he seemed to stop that about halfway through the volume, thank goodness. In fact, he becomes far more likable in the second half when his past is revealed as to what drove him to become a Dark-Hunter.

There is a lot of information crammed into this volume about the Greek gods and goddesses and the ancient Greeks and Romans. It all relates to these people who are gods living amongst us modern day humans. That concept is pretty cool, and the origin of these vampires is very unique. It might interest anyone into vamps just to discover how it all works in this series. But, all that info was overwhelming to me. It's probably easier to digest when reading the novel, since there's more room to go into.

Still, I thought this manga was enjoyable and funny in many places. It was very romantic comedy-like, but with a dangerous edge. Hunter kisses Amanda several times (it can get SO corny), but they don't go beyond that. The art is splendid (drawn by Claudia Campos), so if you enjoy manga-style art, you'll get a feast for the eyes. If you love bishounen (Japanese for “beautiful boys”), you'll no doubt find a few to ogle other than Hunter/Kyrian, although, he happens to be the most ogle-licious one.

My score: 3.5 out of 5 stars