Born of Night (The League, #1) in Dangerous Hero Addict Support Group

May 28, 2009 Danielle The Book Huntress rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: futuristic, hero-to-die-for, owned-copy, science-fiction, outlaw-fugitive, assassin, bodyguard-protector, part-of-a-series, paranormal-romance, knight-in-tarnished-armor

Okay, I think I am an official futuristic/space romance convert now. I loved what Ms. Kenyon did with this concept. I thought she did a very good job with the world-building, but I caught a couple of 'slips' where she would describe things that I really had trouble believing they would have in a futuristic setting on another planet. But then I have no creativity when it comes to making up technological devices and futuristic settings, so I can hardly judge her. Overall, I was happy and I didn't Okay, I think I am an official futuristic/space romance convert now. I loved what Ms. Kenyon did with this concept. I thought she did a very good job with the world-building, but I caught a couple of 'slips' where she would describe things that I really had trouble believing they would have in a futuristic setting on another planet. But then I have no creativity when it comes to making up technological devices and futuristic settings, so I can hardly judge her. Overall, I was happy and I didn't find those rare instances jarring. I think she did a great job coming up with the different cultures and races. It wasn't to the degree that I got bored, and neither was the technological references. I don't like my sci-fi to be top heavy with this kind of stuff. Just enough to make me believe the setting, thanks very much.

Some of the aspects with the League of Assassins Academy and the political structure aspects reminded me vaguely of Star Trek, but this book is not very much in that vein at all. If anything it is more like Firefly. Sigh. Yes, I definitely had happy reminders of the short-lived but brilliant show Firefly with this book. The characters aren't that similar but some of the aspects of the universe and the social/political structures are. There is the whole fancy politically-structured universe paired to the backwater planets theme that is prevalent in the Firefly universe. Also the group of smugglers and outlaws that Nykyrian associates with reminds me of heavily of the crew and passengers of Serenity, and some of the folks they encounter in the various episodes. That's where the similarity ends, because this story is Classic Sherrilyn Kenyon. Sorry, Malcolm Reynolds lovers. There is no Mal character in this book. But we have Nykyrian, and he rules this book.

A newbie to tortured heroes? Meet Nykyrian Quikiades. This man takes the cake for this hero archetype. Was that a bad thing for this reader? Certainly not. I love tortured heroes. Nykyrian earns his spot on my hero to die for list. I found myself rooting for him, crushing on him, and almost crying for him, and deeply feeling for him. That's a good sign.

And Ms. Kenyon reaffirms to me why I love her books with this novel. She writes romance novels that read like my favorite action/adventure movies (with the amped up romance that is usually missing from some of my cinematic fare of my choice). I know I talk about movies a lot when I review books. I can't help it. I am a Movie Buff and a Bookworm. Those areas often overlap for me. Anyhoo, there is a bit of Cleric John Preston in fair Nykyrian. Oh, yes. That is a good thing, since Cleric John Preston from Equilibrium is a Certified, Grade A Badass. So is Nykyrian. He is absolutely lethal and he doesn't have to concentrate to be that way. His lethality is actually hard for Kiara to deal with after he goes futuristic/medieval on some badguys who were trying to kill her. I had a little bit of a "I want to slap the heroine of this book really hard" moment when she treats him like garbage afterwords. I told myself to calm down and remember what she went through. She had been kidnapped and was tortured, had to watch her mother be tortured and killed, was almost murdered herself, and had survived several other attempts on her life. I could understand her dislike of violent people. However, there are some instances where violence is the answer for other violence. In other words, she lives in a shades of gray universe, not a black and white one. She should have been more conscious of that before she started condemning Nyk and his colleagues. There are many instances of violence towards her and the other characters, that really did demand a response in kind.

I was really glad that Nykyrian's friend Syn told her off. She needed to hear that because she had badly misjudged Nyk. I a not a fan of cruel bullies and conscienceless murderers (despite my love of antiheroes and assassins). It was clear to me early own that this was so not Nykyrian. I think that Kiara really needed a reality check on Nyk. She has a couple of moments where she shows some emotional immaturity that irked me, but overall, she really comes through for Nyk. So I guess she can have him (even though I want him all to myself).

He's got so much damage and pain in his past, present, and future. Ms. Kenyon says in the introduction that she added back the parts that the publisher would not allow in the first publication since they were too intense. Yup, they were intense. She definitely didn't pull her punches with this one. I haven't read Acheron yet, so I don't know if Ash had it worse, but gosh I don't know if I'll be able to stand it if he did. Nykyrian really had a crap life. Some really awful things happen to him, so the reader should be warned that some of this is not pretty at all. But it really helped me to understand the person that he is. No wonder he doesn't trust anyone and is cold, isolated, and lethal, or maintains a facade to this effect.

Kiara was a good heroine. She had her moments where she annoyed me, but she turns out to be the right woman for Nyk. Ms. Kenyon doesn't seem to do tormented heroines, and Kiara isn't exactly one. But she's had some bad stuff happen in her past that flavors her and gives her added depth. I liked the aspects of her career as a dancer. I think Ms. Kenyon must have known a dancer or have been a dancer, because this felt very authentic.

The love scenes are very light, so don't read this expecting a lot of steam. But I didn't mind that at all. I liked them, because they showed the tenderness and the connection between Nykyrian and Kiara.

I'm loving Nyk's friends and sidekicks. They were all very interesting, adding to the flavor of this book. The dialog between them was great. Kenyon certainly knows how to turn on the snark and to have you laughing. My favorite secondary character was Syn. I'm excited to read Syn's story. He's funny and interesting, and he's got a lot of anguish that should make for an interesting journey in his novel. I also really liked Darling. I hope he gets his happy ending (although it wouldn't be the traditional boy/girl kind of romance).

I don't want to give spoilers, but readers will find that Nyk's past intersects very heavily with his future, giving him closure and opens a door for new beginnings. I must say I enjoyed that aspect of this story.

I'm very glad that this League series came back into print. I love the setting and the characters, and it meets my sci-fi-loving needs, with some great romance and action in a wonderful combination. I look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series.

FYI: The short story in the Man of My Dreams anthology is about Nykyrian and Kiara's son. It's awesome. ...more

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Apr 25, 2010 Lynsey A rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pregnancy, hero-i-luv, paranormal-romance, pnr-virgin, borrowed-to-read, baby, 2010-reads, fantasy-romance, kenyon-league-series

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The ending saved this book from a 3 star review for me.

This book definitely grew on me. At the beginning of the book I wanted to b*itch slap Kiara. I thought she was really annoying considering Nykyrian and the others were trying to protect her. I have to admit I really liked when Syn told her what was what. Well, finally after she watched the videos of Nykyrian when he was young she improved greatly.

Anyone who knows me knows I love books with babies in them so this was a pleasant surprise. The ...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Pamela(AllHoney) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1st-in-series, sci-fi-romance, redhead-hero-or-heroine, scars-are-sexy, tortured-tormented, outer-space-other-universe, virgin-heroine, habanero-shelf, hiding-or-on-the-run, dangerous-or-bad-boy

First book in Sherrilyn Kenyon's The League series. Science fiction romance. Nykyrian Quikiades aka Nemesis was once an assassin working for The League but now he works against them for The Sentella. He is a hybrid Andarion/Human. His current job is to protect princess and dancer, Kiara Zamir. A woman who doesn't want protection.

It was a little slow at times but overall a good read for me. I loved the hero, Nykyrian, but I wasn't overly fond of the heroine, Kiara. I didn't hate her but I found ...more

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Jan 23, 2010 Cindy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: keepers

Excellent read - a science fiction romance with an action [lots and lots of action!:] based plot and filled with engaging characters.

First let's get the caveats out of the way. This is NOT hard science fiction and the science is occasionally dubious. The political background [and the League:] are not well defined. The assassins may be over the top, but the soldiers [such as those guarding the heroine at various times:] are pretty lame for presumably elite troops. You'd expect more Special Forces Excellent read - a science fiction romance with an action [lots and lots of action!:] based plot and filled with engaging characters.

First let's get the caveats out of the way. This is NOT hard science fiction and the science is occasionally dubious. The political background [and the League:] are not well defined. The assassins may be over the top, but the soldiers [such as those guarding the heroine at various times:] are pretty lame for presumably elite troops. You'd expect more Special Forces and less F Troop for the guards on the ranking people of the entire planet... Should these reasons stop you from reading the book? NO!

So, why should you read this book? Nykarian is the hero and the poster boy for tortured heroes who manage to come out the other side as lethal and deadly, but with a sense of honor. Kyria is the heroine. She spends most of the book being either kidnapped or attacked. She is a princess who has a very naive world view, especially given that she experienced violence at its worst. When she was 8 and she and her mother were kidnapped and she was forced to watch as her mother was raped, tortured, and murdered - just before the bad guys put three shots into her with intent to kill her. [I couldn't help but think that an 8 year old is not very big - couldn't they manage to hit something fatal on her? More of the F Troop syndrome.:] Yet when Nykarian kills 20 men intent on killing HER, she freaks out on him for his violence. She gets over it [and succeeding moments where the big, bad world keeps crashing in:] and she and Nykarian find in each other things they have never had before. Acceptance. Loyalty. Love.

The supporting characters are as fascinating as the hero and heroine. They live and breathe and suffer [and produce some nice snarky dialogue:] along with the hero and heroine. It's a vintage Kenyon plot - bad ass hero, beautiful heroine, evil villains galore - and that's a good thing.

League
1. Born of the Night
2. Born of Fire
3. Born of Ice
4. Fire and Ice ...more

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Sep 23, 2010 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, traded, romance-sci-fi

I just hate it when a really good book falls apart at the end. I was devouring this book up until the last hundred pages or so. It seems like Kenyon just couldn't let the story end without tacking on a few more romance cliches that I really could have done without. Also, I just really dislike it when characters seperate near the end of a story to act stupid for a few chapters. Really mucks up a romance storyline if you ask me. Up until that point I was thinking I'd be giving this one 4 or 5 star ...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Wendy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, library-book, scifi-romance

Fantastic! I have only read a couple of J. R. Wards' books, but these characters reminded me of the brothers. Never would have thought I would enjoy a scifi romance, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to more in this series.

New comment Feb/14: Love this series so much have now purchased my own copy. ...more

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Jan 03, 2010 RogueHireling rated it liked it · review of another edition

I really liked this book, but it was clearly an early book for this author.
The writing at times was a bit clumsy and the story was rather predictable, but overall I really enjoyed it and would give it three and half stars if I could. =)

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Nov 21, 2009 Wendy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal-scifi-romance, sherrilyn-kenyon, pub-2009, i-own, 2009-reads, aliens, december-09-challenge, cover-hottie

I'm so glad I started this series. This book was so good. It ranks up there with Dark Hunter. With a different type of eminies, danger and twists this book keeps you glued to it. I enjoyed all the characters in the book. (well, the good guys anyway) ...more

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