When I looked ahead of the series to see who was starring in the upcoming books I'll admit that I was a little confused to see Valerius as one of the upcoming heroes. I said to myself, "Self, isn't that the guy who killed/crucified/stole Kyrian's wife way back in the days of Troy?" Then I read past Kyrian's book and saw that Valerius the Dark Hunter is actually the grandson of Valerius the Roman Murderer. Okay, gotcha. And then as I continued my DH journey I had to say I wasn't impressed by Valerius' snobby attitude. Hear, hear, the Roman elitist has entered the building and won't work with or for anyone who isn't also awesomely Roman. Here I wondered how Kenyon was going to make this one readable. Then I read Zarek's story, and saw that Valerius' family also effed him up and that WHOA NOW these two are brothers even though Zarek was a slave and had been beaten brutally by Val's family. Great. This guys just keeps on winning.

So then I picked up his book because it was his turn and I'm committed to this series now in my effort to get to Acheron's book. I saw Tabitha would be his lady heroine and here I found myself a bit more intrigued because Amanda's sister was a feisty thing in earlier books, and also had a mouth on her that she wasn't afraid to use against her brother-in-law, the dreamy Kyrian, who OH WAIT was tortured and killed by Valerius' granddaddy. Oh, great. I see where this one is going.

All that being said, I dug it. I really did. Valerius grew on me immediately. I saw the pain. I got it. The front he put out, the genuine misunderstandings, the inability to understand what it felt like to have someone give a sh*t about him. This is a lone wolf, who wants so desperately to be part of something, but doesn't even let himself think it. He's used to being the outcast. The Dark Hunter who ALWAYS gets the short end of the stick. The one no one bothered to know or understand because a) he's Roman and most of the DH's are ancient Greeks (talk about bad blood) and b) his aforementioned granddaddy looks EXACTLY like him. And Tabitha is the one and only female strong enough to bring him back to the fold. Their story is sexy, sweet, romantic, and emotional. And is backed by a plot where things are starting to go to hell in a hand basket. The bad guys are getting badder. The plans are getting more evil. The stakes are getting ridiculous and PEOPLE ARE DYING! One part of this book is going to KILL your emotions. The ache of someone's pain on that disastrous night and the consequences of what happens After. Poor Acheron has way more messes to deal with, and crosses to bear. Also? He's a super big fan of fixing stories by making people immortal. Jeez. Just sayin'.