Night Embrace

By Sherrilyn Kenyon

Talon is a vampire-ish guy but not a vampire. Yeah, he has fangs and can drink human blood and has to stay out of the sun for fearing of burning up and he's pretty much immortal. But he is not a vampire, he's a vampire killer. He's also a very lonely guy.
Back in the time of the Druids, he was a king, with a pregnant wife and a little sister he loved dearly. His wife died in childbirth as did the baby and he and his sister ran afoul of politics and were both slaughtered. When Talon was brought back to life as a vampire hunter by divine intervention, he was so scarred by the deaths of those he loved most that for hundreds of years he remained self-contained and isolated, without emotional attachments. Lots of hook-ups but no love. But then he met Sunshine.
Sunshine is an artist who lives in New Orleans and she and Talon feel an immediate bond, although Talon tries to resist falling in love. Falling in lust is OK but not love. Because Talon bears an ancient curse. Back in the olden times, he killed the son of a god and that god has declared that anyone Talon loves will die. So if Talon allows himself to love Sunshine he guarantees she will shortly die.
Meanwhile, it will soon be Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the masses of humanity attending the festival will also attract lots of vampires, or as they are referred to in the book, daimons. So Talon and the other vampire hunters gathered in New Orleans will be very busy trying to protect an unsuspecting public. To make matters worse, it transpires that a group of cast out gods, including the one that cursed Talon, are planning to bring about the end of the world in order to regain all their lost powers. So the Talon and the vampire hunters have to try to stop these rogue gods, plus Talon has to protect Sunshine while he and she struggle to find a way to be together and keep her alive. Plus it turns out that Sunshine is Talon's dead wife reincarnated.

This was a pretty good story. The plot is pretty complicated with lots going on and lots of different characters, all of them drop-dead gorgeous, even the bad guys. There are werebears and werewolves and werepanthers and ghosts and lots of gods popping in and out and psychics and vampires and vampire hunters and lots of people who seem to be there mainly to lead the reader on to the next story that will feature that particular character. Yup, there is a lot going on in this story, maybe too much. Still, I enjoyed the book even if at times I felt a bit lost or overwhelmed with the number of characters to keep in mind and all their complicated relationships and pasts.