Books Read in 2016: ‘Night Pleasures’ by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Night Pleasures by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Book Summary from Goodreads:
The Dark-Hunters are ancient warriors who have sworn to protect mankind and the fate of the world is in their hands. . .
He is solitude. He is darkness. He is the ruler of the night. Yet Kyrian of Thrace has just woken up handcuffed to his worst nightmare: An accountant. Worse, she’s being hunted by one of the most lethal vampires out there. And if Amanda Devereaux goes down, then he does too. But it’s not just their lives that are hanging in the balance. Kyrian and Amanda are all that stands between humanity and oblivion. Let’s hope they win.
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
DNF @ 26%
Looks like I’m mostly striking out with books that average over 4-star ratings on Goodreads so far this year.
I’ve been interested in expanding the scope of my romance reading into both paranormal (PNR) and the newly burgeoning sci-fi romance (SFR) subgenres. I decided that because Sherrilyn Kenyon had such high ratings on her books that I wouldn’t go amiss with one of her books as my entry into the PNR subgenre.
So I picked a book that was listed as being #1 in a series—and since her Dark-Hunter series is rather well-known in romance circles (so much so that she’s suing a YA author for using the term “shadow-hunters”), I figured the first book in the DH series would be a great place to start.
Yeah. Not so much.
To begin with, I have a hard time believing that this is actually the first book in a series. There are too many other characters with way too much backstory for them to have not been main characters of their own books (specifically the friend who’s married to a Greek god—it doesn’t work to just drop that in to conversation as if this is normal).
The setup of this book is that Amanda Devereaux is the only “normal” member of a family full of witches, seers, vampire hunters, etc. (Except for her father—and I’m sure that was a story in and of itself, too.) She’s so ho-hum, la-ti-dah about the whole supernatural/paranormal thing (just stop hunting vampires! just stop being weird! just stop suggesting putting a hex/curse on my ex!) that her character development suffers for it. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with the supernatural/paranormal, but the only people she spends time with are her family. She has no friends, no interests outside of her family (at least, not as far as I could tell from what I read).
In fact, she’s so “normal” that she’s an accountant. How boring! How cliché!
Then she gets knocked over the head one night when she’s gone to let her sister’s dog out (because her identical twin sister is on a vampire hunt that’s taking longer than she expected) and wakes up handcuffed to this HOT, chiseled, gorgeous, mountain of manhood (did I mention he’s HOT?) who’s bleeding all over her.
Turns out, she’s been taken by mistake (they meant to take her identical twin) by a daimon (still not sure what this is supposed to be or how they’re supposed to be different from other vampires except they’re supposed to be descended from Apollo).
When we first get into the viewpoint of Kyrian of Thrace (the “hero”), his only thoughts are of the carnal—how long it’s been since he’s been between a woman’s legs, and what he could do to the woman who happens to be chained to him right now. Of course, this gets him all hot and bothered, and Amanda can’t help noticing how . . . muscular and hard he is all over. Including that place that’s pressed intimately up against her. He’s also some kind of vampire, too, although not really, but he is . . . but he isn’t. He’s warm-blooded, breathes, has a pulse, and can have get an erection—which requires blood flow.
Instead of screaming in shock and alarm—because she’s been knocked out, kidnapped, and is now chained to a guy who could potentially rape her at any moment—all she can do is think about how HOT he is. And how different he is than all the boring guys she’s dated in the past. Because he’s HOT and MUSCULAR and GORGEOUS. And he has an accent. And did I mention that he’s HOT?
- An aside here: I started out with this as an audiobook, which was narrated by Carrington MacDuffie. I had to stop listening about 45 minutes into it because the fake southern accents (this is supposed to be set in New Orleans) were so atrocious—even worse than the worst ones in Gone with the Wind and True Blood—and I couldn’t tell what kind of an accent Kyrian was supposed to have. Plus, I just couldn’t stand listening to paragraph after paragraph of rambling, repetitive lust.
Sure, I gave up on this book somewhat early—after Kyrian and Amanda visit her friends from what I’m certain was a previous book and her friend’s husband’s parents at first want to kill (smite?) Kyrian and then end up helping Kyrian and Amanda out. And Kyrian, who’s been given 24 hours to chase down the bad guy, leaves. And Amanda looks fondly or warmly or longingly at him and it’s the first time in over two millennia that someone has looked at him that way. And he wants to have sex with her more than ever now.
I’d thought about giving up before the 26% mark—when I was clicking past paragraph after paragraph of rambling, repetitive lust just to get to the next line of dialogue or the next action beat, hoping that the premise of this book would start bearing fruit. But once I got just past a quarter of the way into the book and I realized it was going to be very little plot and almost no character development interspersed between a whole lot of lusty thoughts and/or borderline erotica sex scenes, I decided it wasn’t worth my time to keep trying to slog through it.
And, although I gave brief thought to finding out what series came before this one in which I might get more world building and, possibly, more plot and character development, I decided I really wasn’t all that impressed with Kenyon’s writing style, which comes across in this book as underdeveloped and somewhat rudimentary as far as the parts of books I like the most—good dialogue and action that move the plot along, and lots of character and relationship development. So I doubt I’ll be trying any of her other books, and will just leave them available at the library for those who really do enjoy her books.
See all my Goodreads reviews
#LeapAheadWritingMarathon Day 17: Wednesday Word-Count Challenge—Finish Your Current Chapter
It’s once again time for our weekly word-count challenge! I thought about using the same one that I did last week (write your birth year) since I didn’t accomplish that last week, but where’s the fun in that?
Your Wednesday word-count challenge for this week, if you choose to accept it, is:
Finish your current chapter.
That means, for me, my challenge is to write around 1,500 words today.
For you, it means that you may have to spend a lot more time writing today than you have for the past several days—or weeks or months. Or it means you may only need 50 or 100 or 500 words. Whatever it takes to get you to the end of the chapter.
So, who’s up for the challenge?
#LeapAheadWritingMarathon Day 16: Timer Tuesday (#1k1hr Sprint Day)
In previous marathons, we’ve discussed 1k1h writing sprints and how useful they can be in helping us build our word count and our story’s momentum when doing a marathon writing challenge like this. On Tuesdays, the challenge will be scheduling and completing at least one 1k1h writing sprint some time during the day.
I’ll actually be doing two 45-minute sprints tonight at 6:15 and 7:15 p.m. (Central).
I’d love to make these weekly (sometimes daily!) writing sprints a “team” effort with as many of you participating as possible, even if we don’t do it at the same time of day. The more support (and accountability) there is, the more successful we’ll all be! So go ahead and pick the times that work best for you.
1k1h Tips for Success
- Let anyone within your household know that you need one uninterrupted hour to try to head off at the pass any interruptions.
- Set a timer. This is most important. Don’t do this by just watching the clock. You’ll find yourself only watching the clock and not getting anything written. Setting a timer allows you to forget about the time and concentrate fully on writing.
- Prepare yourself before starting your timer. Re-read the last few pages you wrote (without editing/revising!) to get your head back into the story and figure out where you need to pick up. Review your outline and/or character pages in your Story Bible. And then put all of that away so you don’t use those to procrastinate during the hour.
- If you listen to music while writing (I recommend instrumental so that you don’t get distracted by the lyrics), have it set up and playing before starting your timer. Use earphones, even if you’re working at home, to block out any sounds that might pull you out of your story.
- If you can’t listen to music while writing, I recommend wearing the earphones anyway. People are less likely to interrupt you (at home or working somewhere like a coffee shop) if you have them in/on—and they help block out those distracting sounds.
- Make sure your writing space (both physical and mental) is set up and ready to go before you start your timer.
- In other words, make sure that about five to ten minutes before you start the 1k1h sprint, you’re in the process of getting ready to write.
- Silence or turn off your cell phone (unless you’re using it as your timer—then don’t turn it off). Close your Internet browser. Close Facebook and Twitter (as soon as I give the “start” signal, of course). Close your email program if you use something like Outlook that isn’t web-based. Eliminate all distractions!
Don’t Know How to Start Writing?
If you aren’t sure how to start writing when the hour starts, even after re-reading what you’ve previously written, here are a few suggestions.
- Which character had the viewpoint in the last scene you wrote? Start with a different character in this scene.
- Still not sure what to write? Try this prompt:
Character walked into the room. Character saw a piece of paper tacked to the wall on the other side of the room. Character walked across the room and took the piece of paper down. Character read the piece of paper. The piece of paper said . . . - If that prompt doesn’t work, try the exercise of taking your character to the market to buy food.
- If you can’t think of what the “next” scene is that comes after the one you just left off with in your previous writing session, start writing something you know comes later in the story that you already have a good idea for. Though I recommend writing your story in linear fashion (from beginning to end) instead of jumping around, sometimes you need to write stuff that comes later if you already have a clear idea of the scene in your head, just to make sure you don’t lose it. And that can also help you figure out what comes between what you’ve written so far and that future scene and help you to fill in the gap next time.
#LeapAheadWritingMarathon Day 15: Monday Motivation with Hollywood Script Doctor Robert McKee
How did your writing go this weekend? I got almost 2,000 words in, thanks to a couple of writing sprints. And I think I’ve finally settled on a name for my heroine. So that’s a good place for me to be able to start the week.
Today’s motivational video is really a cross between motivation and craft—it’s Hollywood script doctor Robert McKee talking about how as writers, we need to develop creative limits for ourselves and our stories in order to bring out the best in them. Hope you enjoy! (Feel free to post questions about/reactions to the video in the comments below. Would love to discuss this with you.)
Books Read in 2016: ‘Nobody’s Baby but Mine’ by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Alumni Readings in Genres (ARIG) “book club” Romance selection for February.
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Book Description (from Goodreads):
Genius physics professor Dr. Jane Darlington desperately wants a baby. But finding a father won’t be easy. Jane’s super-intelligence made her feel like a freak when she was growing up, and she’s determined to spare her own child that suffering. Which means she must find someone very special to father her child. Someone who’s more comfortable working out his muscles than exercising his brain.Cal Bonner, the Chicago Stars’ legendary quarterback, seems like the perfect choice. But his champion good looks and down-home ways are deceiving. Dr. Jane is about to learn a little too late that this good ol’ boy is a lot smarter than he lets on—and he’s not about to be used and abandoned by a brainy, baby-mad schemer.
DNF @ 25% (this “review” turns into something of a rant—be warned!)
Whenever I’m reading a book which I’ve heard wonderful things about or which I’ve seen has an excellent average rating on Goodreads (which I find to be a little more honest/brutal than Amazon), and I find myself disliking it, one of the things I typically do is go over on to Goodreads and start reading those reviews to see what it is that I’m missing that everyone else seemed to love about it.
In this case, it seems to be that most of the readers who gave this book four- and five-star reviews are longtime readers of SEP’s books—and had read the two books that came before this one in the series. They discuss her humor and characterization—and their love of the “hero” of this book as a secondary character in the previous book(s).
But then, I clicked over to the one- and two-star reviews. And I found myself reading a lot of the same rants, thoughts, and frustrations that I found myself experiencing as I tried to get into this novel.
I made it to the 25% mark in the book—when she forces him to have sex for nonconsensual procreation the second time. And at that point, I put the book down, because I just couldn’t stand to read any further. Here was my status update on GR at that point:
“I still haven’t read any further, but it’s almost physically painful to think about picking this up to read again.”
When I dread picking up a book (and a romance novel at that) to continue reading it, I realize it’s time to cut my losses and “toss” it into the virtual DNF pile.
What didn’t I like about this book?
To begin with, I disliked both main characters. In the first 25% of the book, neither showed any redeeming qualities—or like they would be gaining any throughout the course of the book (which my reading of the negative reviews of the book seem to bear out).
The heroine: She’s supposed to be some kind of child-prodigy science genius, but she is a COMPLETE IDIOT about genetics, biology, and nature-vs-nurture. She had a crappy childhood because she was so smart. And now, barely into her thirties having just broken up with a boyfriend, she’s desperate to have a baby. (Don’t get me started on how much I hate this trope—it’s a personal thing.) So she decides that because she had a crappy childhood owing to how super smart she was, she’ll get someone she deems stupid to sire her child. Except, of course, she can’t go to a sperm bank, because the only sperm there are from medical students (and there’s no such thing as a non-genius medical student?????).
Look—I know this book was published in 1997, but still. Both the Internet and the library existed twenty years ago. As someone who was supposed to be a scientist, she could have applied a little bit of the scientific method and discovered that her prejudices about sperm banks and the genetics of reproduction on IQ and intelligence were completely WRONG. I know this without even having done any research, and I was an ENGLISH MAJOR.
Then, there’s nature vs. nurture. She had a crappy childhood. Boo-hoo. How about instead of committing fraud (and nearly sexual assault) against a stranger in order to try to get pregnant, she realize that she can use the experiences she had as a child and give her child a better life than that!
There are so many ways that SEP undermined what could have been an interesting and actually intelligent character by making her completely ignorant and nonsensical. (And then there’s her slut-shaming of the girl next door who sets her up with the hero . . . but I won’t get into that here, except to mention how confused I was by the book not only opening in that girl’s POV, but returning to it even after the hero/heroine met.)
And the “hero”—what an Alpha-Hole! Sexist. Ageist. Narcissistic. Demeaning to those around him. Only out for himself. He’s even a jerk to his own teammates. And then—then! When he finds out she’s pregnant he forces her to marry him, just so they can get divorced when the baby is born so the baby isn’t a bastard? What is this—1953? He thinks it will play better in the media if he divorces her when the child is born? Oh, wait—no, he’s a genius too (science degree, graduated with honors). So that means that in the world of this story, there’s no way he can actually make educated, common-sense decisions or behave in a way that would be normal to most intelligent, educated people.
I grew up in a family with a mom who has a Ph.D. in science education/microbiology and a dad with a master’s in biochemistry (and both still teach in these fields at the college level). My grandfather was a college chemistry professor. Most of my parents’ siblings and many of my cousins have advanced degrees in some scientific field or another. (What happened to me, right?) So I guess I have a much different view of how smart people can be who are geniuses in scientific fields than SEP showed in the first quarter of this book.
#LeapAheadWritingMarathon Day 12: Self-Evaluation, Word Count, Awesome Accomplishments, and Terrific Tidbits. It’s SWAT Day!
It’s Friday! That means it’s time to check in with your progress in the marathon.
On Fridays, I want to know about your full writing week. What were your greatest successes during the week? What was your favorite line/bit that you wrote? What did you learn about yourself, your characters, and/or your story during the week’s work? What are you most proud of yourself for doing this week when it came to your writing? What are you proud of yourself for accomplishing?
That means it’s SWAT Day!
Check in with your progress on your story and share, if you feel like it, the following:
- Self-Evaluation (how do you think you did? what can/do you want to do differently next week? what did you learn about yourself as a person or as a writer? what didn’t you do or finish that you wanted to? etc.)
- Word count (total for the week, Saturday through today)
- Awesome Accomplishments (breakthroughs, discoveries, highest daily word-count ever, etc.)
- Tidbits too good not to share
If you don’t want to share this stuff publicly, that’s okay. You can add a section to your Story Bible or start a journal (or add this to your existing journal) to keep track of this. But don’t skip doing this—I think that in the future, when you look back either on what you accomplished during this marathon or (heaven forbid) why you gave up on it, the insights you’ll gather later with hindsight on your thoughts during the challenge will be invaluable.
Happy writing!
#LeapAheadWritingMarathon Day 11: Storyboarding with Kaye in 2011 (#TBT!)
How did your word-count challenge go yesterday?
True confession time: I didn’t do ANY writing at all yesterday. I’d planned to participate in a writing sprint in the evening with my grad-school writing group, but after watching Criminal Minds, I ended up going to bed early with a weather-induced migraine (my head/sinuses are overly sensitive to changing barometric pressure). So instead of writing at least 1,971 words, I wrote none. Boo!
But I’m also getting to a point in the story at which the real historical events are going to start influencing/dictating how my plot unfolds—and that means I need to do some planning. And for me, planning means . . .
STORYBOARDING!
I’ve written about storyboarding here on the blog plenty of times (e.g., here, here, here, here, and here—if you visit all of these posts, please understand I believe in recycling!).
But since I’d posted an inspirational video last week, I went to YouTube to find another one for this week. When I couldn’t find one among the many I’ve saved that really spoke to me this week, I clicked to another list—only to realize I’d clicked the wrong thing and ended up on the list of the videos I’d uploaded. And oddly, I found one from 2011 that I didn’t even remember doing. And it was about storyboarding! So that’s the video “inspiration” I’m sharing today.
To begin with, here’s the image of scene cards from The Art of Romance that I reference in the video.
Happy Writing (and Storyboarding)!
#LeapAheadWritingMarathon Day 10: Wednesday Word-Count Challenge—Write Your Birth Year
It’s once again time for our weekly word-count challenge! I thought about using the same one that I did last week (+50 words from the day before), but where’s the fun in that?
Your Wednesday word-count challenge for this week, if you choose to accept it, is:
Write at least the same number of words as the year in which you were born.
That means, for me, my challenge is to write at least 1,971 words today.
For you, it means that you may have to spend a lot more time writing today than you have for the past several days—or weeks or months.
Think about it this way: The more words you write, the younger you’ll appear! 😉
So, who’s up for the challenge?
#LeapAheadWritingMarathon Day 9: Timer Tuesday (#1k1hr Sprint Day)
In previous marathons, we’ve discussed 1k1h writing sprints and how useful they can be in helping us build our word count and our story’s momentum when doing a marathon writing challenge like this. On Tuesdays, the challenge will be scheduling and completing at least one 1k1h writing sprint some time during the day.
My 1k1h sprint will start at 8 p.m. (Central) tonight.
I’d love to make these weekly (sometimes daily!) writing sprints a “team” effort with as many of you participating as possible, even if we don’t do it at the same time of day. The more support (and accountability) there is, the more successful we’ll all be! So go ahead and pick the times that work best for you.
1k1h Tips for Success
- Let anyone within your household know that you need one uninterrupted hour to try to head off at the pass any interruptions.
- Set a timer. This is most important. Don’t do this by just watching the clock. You’ll find yourself only watching the clock and not getting anything written. Setting a timer allows you to forget about the time and concentrate fully on writing.
- Prepare yourself before starting your timer. Re-read the last few pages you wrote (without editing/revising!) to get your head back into the story and figure out where you need to pick up. Review your outline and/or character pages in your Story Bible. And then put all of that away so you don’t use those to procrastinate during the hour.
- If you listen to music while writing (I recommend instrumental so that you don’t get distracted by the lyrics), have it set up and playing before starting your timer. Use earphones, even if you’re working at home, to block out any sounds that might pull you out of your story.
- If you can’t listen to music while writing, I recommend wearing the earphones anyway. People are less likely to interrupt you (at home or working somewhere like a coffee shop) if you have them in/on—and they help block out those distracting sounds.
- Make sure your writing space (both physical and mental) is set up and ready to go before you start your timer.
- In other words, make sure that about five to ten minutes before you start the 1k1h sprint, you’re in the process of getting ready to write.
- Silence or turn off your cell phone (unless you’re using it as your timer—then don’t turn it off). Close your Internet browser. Close Facebook and Twitter (as soon as I give the “start” signal, of course). Close your email program if you use something like Outlook that isn’t web-based. Eliminate all distractions!
Don’t Know How to Start Writing?
If you aren’t sure how to start writing when the hour starts, even after re-reading what you’ve previously written, here are a few suggestions.
- Which character had the viewpoint in the last scene you wrote? Start with a different character in this scene.
- Still not sure what to write? Try this prompt:
Character walked into the room. Character saw a piece of paper tacked to the wall on the other side of the room. Character walked across the room and took the piece of paper down. Character read the piece of paper. The piece of paper said . . . - If that prompt doesn’t work, try the exercise of taking your character to the market to buy food.
- If you can’t think of what the “next” scene is that comes after the one you just left off with in your previous writing session, start writing something you know comes later in the story that you already have a good idea for. Though I recommend writing your story in linear fashion (from beginning to end) instead of jumping around, sometimes you need to write stuff that comes later if you already have a clear idea of the scene in your head, just to make sure you don’t lose it. And that can also help you figure out what comes between what you’ve written so far and that future scene and help you to fill in the gap next time.
#LeapAheadWritingMarathon Day 8: Monday Motivation with Ian McEwan
How did your writing go this weekend?
I had a pretty productive weekend, considering I wrote only on Friday and Sunday (I’ve been participating in writing sprints that include a Google-Chat component through my grad-school group, and that has really helped). From Friday evening to Sunday evening, I wrote a total of 4,389 words—and I renamed my heroine and her brother.
With what I’ve been going through in trying to remember how to write (see my SWAT analysis of myself in the comments on Friday’s post for more of an explanation on that!), this video featuring part of an interview with award-winning author Ian McEwan really spoke to me and the crisis of confidence I’ve been having with the process of learning how to write again. Hopefully this will be motivating for you on this second Monday of the Leap-Ahead Marathon.
KayeDacus.com 