Dark Hunger

Where do I begin? I guess I should start with an admission. I’m a horror geek. I love horror movies, both the good and the bad; horror novels, ghost stories, midnight walks, supernatural based TV shows, and even a good Scooby Doo episode. I also love romance. Give me a good love story, and I’m hooked in spite of myself. So when I saw Dark Hunger, the second book in Rita Herron’s Demonborn series, I was looking forward to it. I learned my mistake quickly. I should have known—the title is Dark Hunger.

To summarize, Annabelle Anderson, a beautiful CNN reporter, follows a lead to Quinton Valtrez (the Demonborn of the series name), who is an assassin for a covert army group. He is fighting his demonic birthright, and doesn’t want anyone to worry. She is determined to get to the bottom of her story, and is drawn to the strong, handsome, sexy Quinton. Issues occur, as does sex. Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

This book is terrible. The plot makes little sense, the characters are poorly conceived, badly written and trite, and there is nothing original in the entire book. Quinton’s demonic side manifests itself as a desire to kill and an addiction to sex. This trait he shares with his newly found brother, Vincent. Luckily, Vincent figured out the answer to his habit in the first book of the series, and is now happily married. There are bombings and a creepy evangelical preacher, a whiny editor demanding an update every five pages and an overly sinister army General.

As for the “horror” side of things, there are crows, an angel of death, a demon named Zion (guess who he is), and some mind control. That’s pretty much it. Nothing scary, original, interesting or even clearly ripped off of someone else. The sex scenes, the real reason anyone reads romance novels, are numerous, and well written.

If you see this book in a bookstore and are tempted to pick it up, go get a Clive Barker book instead. It’ll be a lot better in every category, including the sex scenes. However, if you do get it, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Sometimes we accidentally duplicate a review. What can we say? Perfection is an illusion. Click here for another Feminist Review writer's vantage point this book.

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