Sherrilyn Kenyon - Retribution

Harm no human…

A hired gunslinger, William Jessup Brady lived his life with one foot in the grave. He believed that every life had a price. Until the day when he finally found a reason to live. In one single act of brutal betrayal, he lost everything, including his life. Brought back by a Greek goddess to be one of her Dark-Hunters, he gave his immortal soul for vengeance and swore he’d spend eternity protecting the humans he’d once considered prey.
Orphaned as a toddler, Abigail Yager was taken in by a family of vampires and raised on one belief- Dark-Hunters are the evil who prey on both their people and mankind, and they must all be destroyed. While protecting her adoptive race, she has spent her life eliminating the Dark-Hunters...                                   
What can I say but that I loved the book. It kept my interest from beginning to end. Loved the bonus scene about Ash and Tori and hopefully Artemis is going to behave. I can hope can't I lol. Loved interaction between all the characters. I loved the story and plot. Jess and Abbie are great together. I enjoyed all the humor in the book and why I enjoyed the ending still keeps me wondering what will happen with Coyote and Choo. I enjoyed about the Buffalo and Butterfly. I feel the story was put together really well and I enjoyed the humor. Sasha Jess and Andy are great with the humor. I loved Choo Abby and Ren also. I enjoyed the plot and loved the story of Jess and Abbie. I am looking forward to the next one. My score for the book would be a 5 with it being the best.  Review by SANDY- Guest Blogger

First off, if I would have know that Ms. Kenyon was going to introduce a new pantheon I would have gone in knowing. But since I didn't know that ahead of time. When I started reading Retribution, I felt lost and confused. Where were the Daimons? Where was New Orleans? Where are the rest of the Dark Hunters? Where is Nick? I felt like I was reading just another story. I thought that Jess and Abigail came together too quickly. How did Abigail get adopted by an Apollite family?
Now, since I've had some time to ruminate some things in my head since putting down the book yesterday after I finished it, I absolutely LOVED all the Native American symbolism in it. I am a proud member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. So all that was cool, and I can't wait to read more in Ren's book and Time Untime. I enjoyed the Bonus Scene. I'm glad that Artie isn't a complete Heifer Goddess, and I have a feeling that Nick is good for her. Even though, I'm with Simi....she needs to be eaten with some good BBQ sauce! I would give the book, Retribution....3 out of 5 stars.....it was average to me. Review by DAWN- Guest blogger

It took me only seconds to remember who Sundown was. He was one of the only Dark Hunters Zarek liked and allowed around him that came to his aid when Z needed him. Then when Sasha (the shifter pretending to be Astrid’s pet wolf, while she was testing Zarek) made his appearance I knew for sure it was him. First of all I loved this book, I've always loved Native American stories and they had it in just about every part of this book. So let me tell you a LITTLE bit about the story, Jess “Sundown” Brady was a Hired Gun that turned his life around as soon as he saw the love of his life Matilda. He wanted to change his life, give up the killing and robbing life to be the man worthy of her love. On the day of their wedding, his best friend shot him in the back and in the head. Then he raped Matilda. Jess died with revenge on his last breath. And of course Artemis heard him and gave him the deal of being able to get revenge on the person who did him wrong then after 24 hrs he would become a Dark Hunter. Jess didn’t want to come back to avenge himself, but the rape of his wife to be. After killing his best friend slowly, Jess knew he couldn't go back for Matilda so he watched and cared for her until she died. He also took care of her family members over the years so they were financially stable. Abigail Yager was one of those descendants. After befriending Abigail’s mother before she was born, Jess just wanted to be close to the family members of his lost love. Until one evening Abigail’s jealous father demanded they stopped being friends. That argument with Jess and her parents was seared in her memory. Terrible things happened right after Jess left and she blamed him for it. While also being fed false information from people she considered her family, her only goal was to kill Sundown, the evil hired gun. But what she found was humorous loving Cowboy and she couldn't figure out how or why her hate turned to love so quickly.
You would think it was God sent or Destiny
My Rating is 4.5    Review by LT
p.s. I loved the Bonus Scene with Ash and Tory, only thing I didn’t like was.. I can tell they are trying to make Artemis not the evil Bitch she’s always been and I still don’t like her. As mad as I am at Nick he doesn't even deserve that...lol

Unlike everyone else I did not remember Sundown and honestly not sure why not because if he was in Zarek's book I should have remembered him since Zarek is one of my favorite DH's. I really enjoyed the story, loved Jess from the beginning of this story and Abagail was a good match for him. But I have to get this out too, I was a little confused on a few aspects of the story, I felt that a few details were left out. I know the story started in the past with Jess being killed and becoming a Dark Hunter but then jumps to the present. He was friends with Abagail's mother but I never figured out when, or just how old Abagail really is. Laura, Abagail's mother, is a descendant from Matilda, who was the woman that Jess was about to marry when he was murdered. There are a lot of Native American men in this book and I really liked that but lol all of them confused me about who was related to who and who was what and when. I know that sounds stupid of me but all of these men are old and have been around for hundreds of years. A few of my favorite past characters are in this book, Zarek, Talon and Sasha and boy I really enjoyed that, knowing what is going on with them was a highlight for this story. Sasha is absolutely hilarious, loved, loved, loved him, I can not wait for his book if he gets ones!!  Maybe it was just me but this book was more..story and not as much sex as the other books but maybe that is just my thoughts. I wanted to hear more about what he did to Bart, I wanted more explanation of Time, Untime, I just wanted more.
My thoughts: Hilarious, Warm, action packed and interesting
My Ratings: 4.5   Review by Wendy
The bonus scene was great, made me tear up that Ash finally has happiness in his life with his wife and new baby but I still don't trust Artemis (once an evil bitch, always an evil bitch if you ask me)

Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter books always have me waiting for the next one. With a blast from the past we get Sundown’s story along with a full host of long ago originals who we haven’t heard much from since their books (Ren, Zarek, Talon, Sasha, etc.) which really had me wanting to catch up but I also quickly realized that the constants, Ash, Artemis, Nick etc. all took a back seat and were almost nonexistent. We have delved into Greek mythology, touched on Atlantean, battled Daimons and have had demons thrown into the mix. We’ve been there with the Dark Hunters, the Were Hunters, the Dream Hunters and the Hellchasers who all seemed to have common thread throughout their stories.
With Retribution a new Pantheon of Native American Gods have been added with this book and I didn’t feel the old common thread that tied all the other books together. It seemed disjointed and somewhat lacking the momentum from the previous books.
Now I’m not saying it was bad, it wasn’t. The love story about Sundown (Jess) and Abigail was good. Abigail’s parents were killed when she was young and she believed Jess was their killer. She was raised by Apollities who feed her belief and tainted her thinking. As the book progresses Abby realizes her mistakes and Sundown realizes that he has lost his heart and fears the outcome. Together they battle to save the future and save themselves from repeating the pasts.
I’m sure that Sherrilyn Kenyon will be continuing the Native American theme as it is interesting, I just hope that she will bring it into the fold of her tried and true formula.
The bonus scene at the end featuring Ash and Tory was great and exactly the right formula that has us fans returning book after book. I will be there in November for The Guardian my next fulfillment of Kenyon.
My Rating: 3 Review by Laura- Guest Blogger