Cafe Book

The best part about Sherri’s romance is that there aren’t a ‘needed’ number of sex scenes. That means that she doesn’t pad the books with the couple getting naked when there really isn’t a call for it- and don’t tell me you’ve never read something like that before, when the plot was moving right along and then Bam! Out of nowhere there’s a bed and some moaning. Not that there isn’t sex (and whoo boy, its good sex) but sex doesn’t take away from the actual story.

What separates a romance novel from other geners is that, in the end, the couple gets together- which is very likely in a Sherrilyn Kenyon novel, but just because the couple is together doesn’t mean there is a happily ever after. The good thing about all of her series is that, while the couple might be together and happy now, doesn’t mean they are out of the battle. All of her series don’t have an easily, one time, bad guy, but an overhanging evil that comes and goes- new bad guys, old bad guys, and so many twists that your head will spin. Old enemies might become allies, and the people you thought were your friends two books ago might turn out to have been working for the other side all along.

That’s the beauty of the Sherri verse, nothing is ever what it seems and often there are more than just two parts to every story. The characters aren’t all knowing, even the ones who might be gods or demons, even the ones who are Merlin’s or gargoyles- they make mistakes. Those mistakes sometimes cost people their lives, and lives ARE ended. Characters you thought would survive to the end are cut down and the bad guys escape. Through it all… there is love though- and the love might come out scarred and tired but it’s there and it will keep fighting, which it does throughout the rest of the books.

The stories Sherri writes revolve around plot and situation, not just getting two people together. The point of the books, from what I see, is not only to show that people can overcome obstacles, but to also introduce these new worlds she has created. They revolve around plot and situation, that some people who are thrown into these worlds, or are accidently caught up in the extraordinary have to cope and go with it- and though that they just might find someone worth staying in that world for.

Just like in the real world, in Sherri’s world, nothing is easy, the good guys don’t always win, and the bad guys could turn out to be not all that bad, but unlike the real world where we can’t see the glimmer of hope and goodness that often eludes us, the characters are able to grasp that- for a little while. Before the next battle, before the world might end, before the bad guys burst through the door- they have each other.

This aren’t boy meets girl stories, these are man meets woman and oh dear gods we have to run our asses off until we can think of a plan that won’t get us filleted! Whether it is from the contemporary stories of undercover agents or to the paranormal world of vampires, they are books that race against time, bad guys, and their own view of where the world sits on the scale of good and evil.

Aside from my biased fan girl screaming, Sherrilyn Kenyon is my favorite author. Not only because she is a wonderful woman who has many delightful series, but that she is an author who can keep the magick going from one book to the other.

I am sure all of us have come across an author who might have a few series out and after a while they all kind of bleed together- that is because the author hasn't had time to recharge their juices. They are under deadlines and pressure to get out the books, and sometimes they can't take the time they'd like on the ones they have. So it begins to be one long recipe with a different flavor added here and there.

Authors who are able to avoid this kitchen catastrophe either have to make due with putting out one or two books a year, to give themselves time to breath between novels, or writing things that are so far away from their other series that they are launched into a brand new world.

Sherrilyn Kenyon is one of the few that I know who can hop from one world to the next and make each world unique. That isn't to say there aren't some flaws with the writing, some details missed, but the essence of the stories are up there with the greats.

The great thing about Sherri's writing is that she puts so much effort into making the characters and the situations (as unbelievable as they may be) as believable as possible. Just because you have gods and demons running around doesn't mean people aren't going to act like people. They are going to get scared, mess up, run away and they are also going to pull themselves up when they think they can’t and they are going to keep fighting.

Her books, while some may disagree, are about the human condition- and just what it is that people can endure, whether it is for the need to get away or just out of spite to show that they are stronger than what is beating them down. And through it all, there is that idea that someone will come along, by their own free will or because they were dragged into it, or they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but there will be someone who will make it all worth while.

These are not books for the faint of heart, but they are also not books just for women. Men, (from big crazy Marines to stay at home dad) as well as women, (crazy military ladies to school teachers), are going to enjoy these books.

They aren’t perfect, but they are damn close. You might come across a few pages that make you want to strangle the character, that might make you go “Oh… that was too easy,” or you’re going to come up against something that you might not be able to take without a grain of salt, but you know what?

The characters are going to make you laugh, cry, and wish you could be having those same adventures.