Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14772 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-01
• Released on: 2005-12-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312934330
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Booklist
Marguerite, the daughter of a wealthy senator, has little interest in the socialite life her father wants for her. So when New Orleans friends decide to go to a bar called Sanctuary, curiosity prompts her to tag along. There she meets Wren, a shy busboy. The attraction is immediate on both sides--and dangerous. Wren is a hybrid were-animal, an outcast even in his own supernatural world, and he's been marked for death. Marguerite should leave, but their fates and hearts are now entwined, and she knows there is no turning back. In this second novel to feature the Weres, Kenyon defies expectations once again. Wren the loner plays a tortured Romeo to Marguerite's Juliet, a young man coming to terms with who and what he is and having to find his niche in the world. This depth and vulnerability of character has not been seen before in her heroes and proves a challenge for Kenyon, but the result is a thrill ride filled with magic, action, and scintillating passion. Nina Davis
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

From the Back Cover

Customer Reviews

Loved the First Half, but What Happened to the Second?
Whoa...where to start? Kenyon's latest installment to her Dark-Hunter series has to be one of the most intense, action-packed, and yet, topsy turvey reads I've seen in a long time. My interest in the series had started to wane with her last two books, but I couldn't help giving "Unleash the Night" a try, hoping it would redeem the series for me. While I wasn't completely happy with the book as a whole, there were still a lot of aspects I did enjoy.

Quick rundown on the were-hunters: Long ago, a Greek King marries an Appolite woman, one of the doomed race now known in present day as Daimons. When she dies on her twenty-seventh birthday, the king is determined not to lose his two sons to the same fate. He experiments with them, splicing there DNA with the strongest of animal DNA, in effect creating two new races of shifters. Arcadians are humans that can shift to their animal form, but retain mainly human traits and a human heart. The Katagaria retain mostly animal traits and have animal hearts. Furious with the kings tampering, the Fates decree that the two races shall forever hate one another, never resting till they have killed each other.

Wren Tigarian, whom we've seen in previous installments, is a Were-Hunter. Even more specifically, he's a Katagaria Were-Hunter. His form is half white tiger and half snow leopard, a forbidden combination in his world, making him an outcast on both sides of his family as well as in the Were world in general. Basically raised at Sanctuary, a biker bar in New Orleans, by the bear clan that owns the place, he's never known an ounce of trust for anyone he meets. Betrayed by his family in his youth, he just wants to blend into the background and not draw any notice. That is, until the day that rich girl Marguerite D'Aubert Goudeau comes on the scene. There's just something about this posh girl from the greener side of the tracks that draws him in like never before. Before both realize what's happened, they are enmeshed in a relationship that is both sensual and life threatening. Always worried that Wren would be a treat to exposing the Were-Hunters, the mama bear in charge at Sanctuary takes action to insure he'll become a non-issue. As Wren and Marguerite give in to their animal attraction, they'll be running for their lives as well. Magic, intrigue, murder and love mark this ninth book to the series.

I loved Wren's character from the start. He had the brooding, mysterious loner guy part down pat. He was so sweet and endearing with Marguerite, immediately recognizing her as the woman he couldn't live without. Due to his talents at blending into the background, no one had ever noticed the sexy dangerous bad boy lurking underneath all the grunge. That is, until Marguerite, or Maggie as he likes to call her, comes on the scene. She sees right through his quiet façade and dares to reach out to the bitter and sad man. Maggie was a spunky gal that treated everyone not her social equal as if they were. She was a kind and caring person the whole story through and she stood by Wren now matter how tough it got. Their love scenes were hot and fun to read and the interactions between them in general were great.

The book had me glued to the pages till about half-way through. Then, I'm sorry to say, it turned into something like a three ring circus. So many different characters, some of which we've seen in previous books, entered the story that I gave up trying to keep them straight. It ended up turning out like a soap opera with some marginally talented actors. I lost a little respect I had come to have for Maggie. She seemed like a down-to-earth gal, but when things got so hay-wired I had a hard time accepting her calm acceptance of the situation, and her situation gets mighty tricky. I know, sounds a little vague, but you'll just have to read the book and decide for yourself. It's definitely worth reading if you're a fan of Kenyon's Dark-Huner series, but I'd love to have seen the series taken back to the atmosphere the first few books ("Fantasy Lover", "Night Pleasures, etc.) set for it. Each had great plot and characters, but not all the confusing hodge podge that "Unleash the Night" has. Maybe too much of the never-before-seen Dark-Hunter/Were-Hunter culture was squeezed into the book? Very possible. Good solid ending though, which was surprising given all the confusing factors in the last half. Four stars for the great first half of the book and the ending.

Always a favorite author but a little lacking but give it a try
Sherrilyn Kenyon has created a successful and often wonderful series in her series of various Dark-Hunter/Were-Hunter/Dream-Hunter series of books. Always a vivid array of characters that draw you in and keep you reading through each new storyline. I recommend if you are going to read a Sherrilyn Kenyon book you start with at the beginning to get the best idea of what is going on. You can just pick up a story and understand basics but the history that she speaks of and backstory of other characters will throw the story off a bit.
The reason I mention this is that in her latest installment Unleash the Night it revolves around Wren a damaged shapeshifter that is part human/white Tiger/Snow leopard. Wren's story is well what I expected from Ms. Kenyon, a tragic hero with a sketchy past that ends up running for his life with his heroine Maggie, the daughter of a Blue blood senator and his Beauty queen deceased wife.
I liked the characters of Wren & Maggie and was rooting for their love story, but I just felt this volume in the series didn't make the normal grade of a Dark Hunter novel. It had all of the elements and at times they came together perfectly, but it also seemed to me that Unleash the Night was rushed through as if the author needed to meet deadline and it didn't have all the strength of past books. It would look like you were getting there and then I'd turn the page and find it all wrapped up in a quick neat package. I won't give away the story others other reviewers have gone over it a couple of dozen times already.
I do recommend reading Unleash the Night, but in my opinion you should check a few of the others 1st and preferably in order.
However, if you don't read them in order or don't want to buy all of them (there are about 8 so far). I will recommend a couple of my personal favorites by this author Sherrilyn Kenyon 1st to give you an idea of how this story falls a little short compared to them. As, I said, do not get me wrong I did like this book, but it just didn't have the Umpft of the other volumes in the series. You will find a pretty typical story line of all of them a man or woman with a damaged heart unable to trust(depending on the sex of the Hunter that leads the story) and as I said she knows how to write a vivid tale that weaves both erotic romance at times with a world that it is easy to visual long after reading them.
Dance with the Devil (Zarek's story) was heartwrenching and my favorite.
Seize the Night (Valerius) another heartbreaker but with some humor that was laugh out loud funny.
Fantasy Love (Julian) funny just imagine finding a book and opening it to find your very own sex slave in this century.

These books are more than just a steamy read they have characters you will care about and although there are so many books by now I always find myself eager for each and every volume even though this one was my least favorite I still have preordered the next simply because I know not everyone can be a homerun.

These aren't literature, you probably won't be reading them in college classes, but they are a great escape and well worth the involvement with the cast of characters.

A bit confusing but still worthwhile if you love the Dark Hunters
This installment of the Dark Hunter series was definitely a page turner for me, I finished it in two sittings (that's because I had a morning appointment), but I have to say that I did have to flip the pages back and forth a few times.

I found the story was sometimes too busy, and I didn't feel the real connection with Maggie as I did with Tabby and with Amanda. Appearances from the other characters from the series were welcomed, but I was a little disturbed with how one of the characters (not going to say who, that's for you to find out) behaved in this book.

However, if you are a fan like me, and have read the entire series, I beleive you should not miss this one. Would be interested in hearing what others think.