Review: Born of Night (The League #1) by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Synopsis (Goodreads):

In the Ichidian Universe, The League and their ruthless assassins rule all. Expertly trained and highly valued, the League Assassins are the backbone of the government. But not even the League is immune to corruption . . .

Command Assassin Nykyrian Quikiades once turned his back on the League—and has been hunted by them ever since. Though many have tried, none can kill him or stop him from completing his current mission: to protect Kiara Zamir, a woman whose father’s political alliance has made her a target.

As her world becomes even deadlier, Kiara must entrust her life to the same kind of beast who once killed her mother and left her for dead. Old enemies and new threaten them both and the only way they can survive is to overcome their suspicions and learn to trust in the very ones who threaten them the most: each other.

My Thoughts:  *insert fangirl squealing that can only be heard by superheroes and dogs* Why did I wait so long to start this series?  Why?!?!  Assassins with morals! Damaged heroes who have been put through horrific abuse! The slow thawing of their cold hearts!  *swoon*  It's like Sherrilyn Kenyon crawled into my head and rumaged around to find the exact recipe for something that would make my heart go pitter-patter.  I'm sure crawling around inside my head was scary but she did an excellent job making Nykyrian and his crew balance the line between brutal killers and world-weary men.

Nykyrian was a gorgeously written character.  He's spent his life being told he was nothing more than a beast and he didn't deserve anything good or pure.  He was abused, trained as a killer and spit upon my his adopted family, yet he managed to make it into adulthood with a core of strength that is stunning.  He has no social skills to speak of and he's aware of this, so when Kiara falls into his lap he's overwhelmed by his feelings for her and completely clueless on how to show her that he cares.  Watching him slowly break down the mental walls within himself and learn to love was heartbreaking.

Kiara's life, while infinitely better than Nykyrian's, is no walk in the park.  Constantly threatened by people who would use her to hurt her father, she's learned to cope with the pressures of being under a perpetual death threat as best she can.  She's strong and she refuses to lie down and let people walk all over her, but she's terribly lonely.

The world created here is huge and fantastic.  The secondary characters shine and the dark underbelly of the civilized world crawls with assassins and thieves.   Gorgeous, gorgeous writing and a book worth staying up late for.  As my disclaimer here, I'm going to point out that I love Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series so I might be a little fangirl crazy when it comes to her books.  Maybe.  The point in this is that I have books 2 and 3 sitting here waiting for me to start them.

More books by Sherrilyn Kenyon

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