Book Review: Acheron - by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Acheron is the 22nd installment in Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunters series of romances. It tells the story of Acheron Parthenopaeus, the leader of the Dark-Hunters, and how he came to be who and what he is. Since this was such a highly-anticipated book, I don't want to spoil anything about it, so I'm not going to give away any real details and just stick to my opinions about the book.

Though it is much longer than any of the other novels in this series, the length of the book didn't really bother me. What I had a problem with was that more than half of the book focused on Ash's backstory, leaving less than half for the actual romance. The backstory was important and I wanted to finally find out exactly what all had happened to the poor guy in the past, but after a few hundred pages I got the point and was ready to move on to his love story. As a result, I don't think that there was enough time to develop the whys and wherefores of the romance itself.

The heroine was a character that I had really liked from a previous novel in the series and I was tickled to see that that's who he ended up with - BUT she wasn't as charming and likeable in this book as she had been previously. She's ok; I just didn't buy why he felt so drawn to her when I couldn't see the supposed chemistry. I guess it kind of bugs me when an author tells you something about a character and expects you to take that as fact without actually demonstrating it to you. Like, the hero finds the heroine spunky and entertaining when all you've seen so far is that she got mad at him and threw a hammer at him. Later on, after their relationship is already established, she does become a very likeable character and she really is good for him and does all the right things... I guess I just wanted a little more effort made on the heroine's part to win Ash's affections.

I had expected this to be a five star book, but I can only give it 4 stars.