I love Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series, but I was worried at the end of the third book that it was a little too stuck on the same characters. This fourth book really shakes it up, though; Dmitri (a dark and rather mysterious secondary character in previous books) is a fascinating main character. Talk about your tortured romance hero! And Honor, the hunter to whom he's attracted, presents a huge challenge.

Honor is a great heroine; she is made of strong stuff, and she can kick ass, but she isn't superhuman -- the recent victim of a group of vampires, she's in no hurry to trust Dmitri, despite the very strong attraction between them. She has some healing to do, and Dmitri is not known for being caring or gentle with the women in his life. But they are working together to track down the vampires who hurt her and prevent them from doing the same or worse to others, so a degree of trust is necessary.

Watching these two wounded people come together -- making mistakes, having setbacks, facing danger from outside but also from each other -- was a powerful reading experience. There are some very dark moments in this book, but Singh always managed to pull back before I felt overwhelmed, and shift the mood to another emotion. This book is scary, sexy, tender and funny in turns, and I loved reading every page. What a terrific love story!

To top it off, this book has cameo appearances (worked in very well) by most of the characters in the series who I can't get enough of,. The overall series plot arc continues to be interesting, and I'm already eager for more.