Knight of Darkness by Kinley MacGregor

Hero: Varian Du Fey
Heroine: Princess Merewynn of Mercia
Category: Paranormal Romance
Page Count: 377
Grade: B

From the Publisher:

For countless centuries, I've been the assassin for the infamous Merlin, even though the woman who birthed me sits at the right hand of our enemy, Morgen le Fey. Now both my mother and Morgen have decided that it's time I take my place on their side of this conflict.

Normally, telling them no wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that the good guys I protect think that I'm an even worse demon than the ones we fight. Hmm, maybe they're right. I have to say that I do enjoy maiming anyone who gets in my way.

At least until my mother gives me a simple choice: join Morgen's Circle of the Damned or see an innocent woman die. I'm all for saving the innocent, but Merewyn isn't as innocent as she seems. And she's none too fond of the fact that her fate is in my dubious hands. Personally I'm all for taking the easy way out, but leaving her to Morgen is rough, even for me. Now the only way to save both our lives is to face the evilest forces ever known-my mother and Morgen. And two people who know nothing of trust must learn to rely on each other or die: provided we don't kill each other first.

I liked this book more than I remember liking Sword of Darkness and I can tell you rightly so that I hecka liked Varian a whole lot more than I liked Kerrigan, though I liked Kerrigan well enough.

Since I put up the whole summary of the story up there in italics, I'll just get on with what I liked and didnt like about the book.

Alright, first up what I liked about the book, there was plenty to like about the book.

There was fierce Varian, man of steel Varian, soldier to the core of his blasted soul, he walked on both sides of the fence (not the gay fence, the good and evil fence) and he was hated on both sides equally. So that pretty much left him all to himself, all alone the whole of his life. His Father, who was Lancelot hated him because of the way he was conceived in deceit and all that junk and he also hated him because of the dark magick that was in his blood thanks to his freak of a Mother, Narishka. And his mother, hated that there was goodness in him, thanks to his father, so imagine if you will, the kind of life this little boy must have suffered through in his childhood. Think the worst of it, because that's exactly how Varian lived his life. All alone, all rejected, unwanted with googly eyes (sorry inside joke, haha). So knowing this you know that I had a soft spot for him, being the tortured hero that he was.

What I liked about Varian is that he didn't care what others thought of him, he was so used to the cruelty of others (dude this is Cian ALL over again, except Varian wasn't a vampire, but a man, a sorcerer like Hoyt, I love it!) that he preferred his own company to that of others. And though he was hated by all, he continued to fight the GOOD fight because he didn't want to bow down to his Mother and others, he didn't want to prove everyone right. Everyone thought that sooner or later he was going to turn evil and fight on their side of things and because people thought that of him, he didn't want to give anyone the satisfaction of being correct. So he fought his dark instincts, he fought his own personal demons because he didn't want his Mother to be right about him.

What's not to love right?

Varian was the bomb, I loved him.

On the other hand, Merewyn was just a heroine. A forgettable one, she wasn't one that's going to stick out in my brain when I look back on my bookshelf and see the book laying there, I'm not going to remember much about Merewyn besides the fact that she was an ugly hag with a hump back when we first meet her, aside from that, yeah she's forgettable. She was kind and she learned her lesson and blah blah blah, she used to be shallow and now she's not because living among the Adoni where vanity was all they knew, it's taught her that she's got to look on the inside for people's real worth and well, yeah blah.

The three brothers that they travelled with in the book were a bunch of retards that I didn't really care for, they reminded me of the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, I thought he was retarded too...just like Derrick, Merrick and Erick, all just blah.

Blaise on the other hand, I loved this man. I was mad at him in Kerrigan's book but he made up for that because I understood why he did what he did and now everything is all sunshiny with the two of us, we're chummy. He makes me laugh and I'm so glad he was in this story. His sense of humor was a bright part of this book and I enjoyed reading his dialogue very much. I hope to see more of him in later books.

As far as the book goes, the book was all over the place, it reminded me of frickin' Alice in Wonderland with all of the talking rocks and the attacking rocks, the pits of despair and the still waters that blow things up if touched, you know all that kind of weird junk. But despite all of those things, the book was hecka funny and I enjoyed it.

One thing I didn't believe worth a damn was Merewynn and Varian's first kiss. She just got done puking her guts out, all over Varian and then in the trees. Not two minutes later, after she's all cleaned up and what not, she asks Varian to kiss her. He does and he loves it, says she tastes sweet and all that sweetness...YEAH RIGHT, her breath is karate choppin it's way through everything disgusting cause she just tossed her cookies, her breath isn't everything sweet, it's gross...let's be real now, Varian...she tasted like ass and rotten milk, that's what she tasted of. *rolls eyes*

But aside from that, the book was funny, it did it's job which was to entertain me, not once did I get bored in the book or want to do something else or put it down or whatever, since I still don't the King Arthur story worth a damn, I wasn't bothered by the changes KM did in her little rendition of the whole Arthurian tale, that was all secondary to me...the characters were humerous, exasperating when they needed to be but all around fun, I'm not mad that I read this book and I don't think you will be, unless your Holly and didn't care a lick for Sword of Darkness, but if you liked that book well enough, you'll like this one too...it certainly hasn't made me want to stop reading the series, that's for sure.