It has been years since I read a Sherrilyn Kenyon novel, and Deadmen Walking reminded me of why I enjoyed them so much. The good news is that you don't need to have read her other books to enjoy this book. However, characters are mentioned that you will have met if you have read the Dark Hunter novels. ( )

Deadmen Walking

By Sherrilyn Kenyon

Hellchasers ™

Deadman’s Cross ™

Sea Wolves ™

I avoided buying this book because I thought it was a new series or unrelated to the Dark-Hunter series which is technically true. On her website, it isn't listed in the reading order for the Dark-Hunter series. It's listed on its own as #1 in a new series, combining Hellchasers, Deadman's Cross and Sea Wolves. I knew I would eventually read it but I wanted to wait for a few more books to come out first. I caved when I saw it offered for free from my local online library.

I'm a little freaked out by the review I'm going to give of a book from my favorite paranormal romance author. I usually can't praise her enough but I had a few complaints on this one.

It's as if Sherrilyn Kenyon took every myth from every culture and threw them in this book. I felt I was reading the Odyssey on steroids. Where the Odyssey was from only the Greek mythology or Pantheon, this book had gods and creatures from every legend I can think of. It was also super fast-paced. I was so confused and overwhelmed that I had a hard time understanding what was happening.

I think it helped that I have read the dark Hunter series and I read everything I can get my hands on about gods and myths all over the world but I was still a little lost. I recognized some of the characters from The Dark-Hunter series in this book but there was a whole slew of new characters introduced in this book. I'm not so sure that anyone who has not read the Dark-Hunter series or who is not familiar with certain myths and legends would be able to follow this book.

What I like about the Dark-Hunter series is that everything was introduced to us slowly and built upon everything else in the previous stories so it was easy to keep up--well, not that easy because it was and is a very complicated and complex story and plot line but easier than when everything is dropped in your lap at once like it was here. Too much was thrown at us too fast. I took a lot of notes to try to keep up and remember who everybody was and what they could do with their powers and why they could have their powers but I lost the enjoyment for the story because I was constantly taking notes.

As for the actual storyline, it was excellent as always. Nobody writes like Sherrilyn Kenyon.

It was set in the Caribbean in the 1700s on a pirate ship with a crew of the damned kind of like Pirates of the Caribbean. In fact, a lot of this book reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean. A girl named Cameron needs help finding her brother and asks the captain of the ship for help and from there, the quest unfolds. ( )

DNF 70%!

Note to self: Paranormal Romance is not a genre for me. I really, really tried to like this book, thinking this isn't so bad, sure the characters are a bit one-dimensional and the whole making everyone in the book sexy (because no-one can be plain looking) gets a bit annoying after a while, but I can do this because I like the mix of mythological creatures etc.

But, the romance part...urk, it's sooooo predictable, boring and uninteresting to read. And totally without passion. Although that could be because the characters are quite flat.

So, no, just no, this is not a book for me. Now I need something else to brighten my mood!

hb

My first book from this author, and found the mythology and internal rules and legends of this world to be extremely complicated and arbitrary. But I got through it, and enjoyed the story and main character a great deal. The pirate them didn't really resonate with me at all, but it wasn't a huge negative, either. I may check out subsequent books in this series, or perhaps others from the same universe, as there were definitely some intriguing elements. ( )