Dark Bites (The Dark-Hunter World) (Dark-Hunter, #22.5)

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

[Cocktails and Books]

This very large book is a collaboration of all the Dark-Hunter novellas except Dragonswan, which was published by a different publisher. Two novellas unrelated to the Dark-Hunter series, Love Bytes and Santa Wears Spurs, are also included in the book. Fear the Darkness is a short story Sherrilyn Kenyon wrote in 2007 as a “thank you” to fans. The story was published on her website and is now in print for the first time in this book.

There are two new stories featured in Dark Bites. The first story is House of The Rising Son which is a prequel to Styxx. It is the love story of the Egyptian goddess, Bathymaas, and the human farmer/warrior, Aricles. I absolutely LOVE this story. Aricles’s chivalry and chaste love for his goddess totally made me swoon. It is a beautiful love story that ends in tragedy and completely broke my heart in the process. But don’t fret, Bathymaas and Aricles’s story is not over, it is continued in Styxx.

The second story is a bonus scene from a previous book in the Dark-Hunter series, The Guardian. It’s a ten-paged story of Seth and Lydia’s wedding with Savitar officiating, which is pretty hilarious by the way. I loved their book and really enjoyed this short and sweet snippet into their lives once more.

Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series can be a very intimidating read. With many other book series’ entwining with the Dark-Hunter world, it’s hard to keep track of characters and which god/goddess belongs to what pantheon. Reading this book without reading some of the books in the series first may be a little confusing, so you can check out the printable reading list for the Dark-Hunter series here, http://www.sherrilynkenyon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/0-readinglist.pdf , to help you navigate the series.

Reviewed by Elizabeth for Cocktails and Books