Retribution (Dark Hunter #19)

Retribution Summary:
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 and training for the day when she meeting the man who killed her family: Jess Brady.

A gun in the hand is worth two in the holster....

Jess has been charged with finding and terminating the creature who's assassinating Dark-Hunters. The last thing he expects to find is a human face behind the killings, but when that face bears a striking resemblance to the one who murdered him centuries ago, he knows something evil is going on. He also knows he's not the one who killed her parents. But Abigail refuses to believe the truth and is determined to see him dead once and for all.

Brought together by an angry god and chased by ancient enemies out to kill them both, they must find a way to overcome their mutual hatred or watch as one of the darkest of powers rises and kills both the races they've sworn to protect.

Retribution Review:
Let me start off by saying that I hate the heroine. Even by the end of the story I mildly liked her. Other than that, the plot was really interesting, characters were full of sarcasm as always and the world building continues in this as well. Saying that, this story was a huge step down from the previous books.

While the plot was interesting it was confusing because I couldn't see how this story is part of the DH world. I understand how with all the mythology, you can throw in some Native American mythology. And it was about the year that the world was supposed to end, so she timed it perfectly. Also, we are seeing characters who have played an important tole in previous books. Sundown was funny and heart-warming in Dance with the Devil.

In Retribution, Sundown started off the same but soon after he met Abigail he turned into someone blinded by love. Also, he was a Cowboy so I could understand some southern, but it's gotta stop after a while. Constant slang use, random spouts of historical sayings and way too many pop culture references made the story lose it's integrity. What could have been an action pack novel turned into a book of cheesy one-liners.

Abigail did not help with that at all! She was killing Dark-Hunters because she was taught to. Reflecting back on Kiss of Night, I can understand killing because you are told to. But Dark Hunters, for the most part, did not kill willy nilly, they killed Daimons who were about to attack humans, and Daimons, mostly, killed humans to survive. She killed because the people who raised her told her to. And she didn't kill them by stabbing them, no she killed them by leaving them out in the sun! And she killed an ancient god, I'm not sure if that's possible even for someone who has been juiced up on Daimon blood. She was utterly stupid throughout the whole novel, and when they were going to sacrifice her at the end to save the world, I was kinda Kumbaya for it. For some reason, Sundown liked her, and the explanation that they have been destined for each for the eleven thousand years was not enough. Now that I got that out of the way...

The secondary characters were amazing! Without them, this book would have been horrible. The common formula of tortured hero and Mary Sue heroine caught up to the story. Making it unbelievable and irritating. We got to see Zarek, Ren, Sasha, Talon and many others, their humor and sarcasm overpowered the two lead characters. Unfortunately, because Ms. Kenyon had taken a step back from the previous mythologies she wrote about we were left without some characters. Ash, Jaden, Savitar and most of the New Orleans gang barely played a role here. Unlike Dark Side of the Moon and the Dream Hunter books, this one felt sort of disconnected. Hopefully, it will feel more connected in the next book.

Another saving grace was the action. I couldn't have done without it. The stakes were high, the book filled with suspense because we never knew who was going to die next and the romance was forgotten. Here are some of the moments that I loved.

“Got to say, dying would really wreck my best day. Been there, done that, and now that I think about it, Artemis forgot to give me the t-shirt.”

and

“All right." He straightened up and seemed to be true to his promise to let it go. "I will be a man about this."
That lasted until he saw the scratches on the hood from the mountain lion and the front fender, Where Abigail had dragged it off the driveway.
Wailing, he went to it and sank to his knees. He sprawled over the hood and laid his head on the damaged fender. "I'm so sorry, Bets. I should of hidden the keys. Booted your tires. Something. I had know idea anyone would hurt you so, baby. I swear I'll never let anyone hurt you again. Ayyy, how could they do this to you? How? Oh the humanity!”

I have to admit, Sundown did have his moments!

Finally, the best part of the whole book...the epilogue. We get to see the birth of Ash's baby. Not really connected to the book at all, nonetheless it was amazing to back with the normal gang. And we got to see Ash freaking out over his son, plus Artemis is starting to redeem herself! That only would make me give the book and extra star.

Overall, this book was 3 stars, but the extra star comes from the epilogue, so it's really 4 stars. I can't wait to see how the next Native American book can connect to the series.