Dream Chaser

Title: Dream Chaser
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Genre: Supernatural Romance

When a romance novel contains as much hokey dialogue and deus ex machinas as this, it better have some damn good sex scenes to make up for it.

Well, it doesn’t really. But we’ll get to that later. First, the synopsis.

Xypher is a demon who was once a Greek dream god. He now lives in Tarturus and is eternally tortured by Hades. But, he gets lucky and strikes a deal to live for one more month so he can have the ultimate revenge on the weaselly bitch who got him into this predicament. Meanwhile, in New Orleans, a medical examiner named Simone Dubois is attempting to find the killer behind a series of grisly murders. Oh, and she can see the dead. And a teenaged ghost stuck in the 80s lives with her. Isn’t that hilarious? No? Anyway, she bumps into Xypher and gives him a blowjob. Oh wait, but that’s after other demons bind them together by special Atlantean bracelets that will destroy them both if they move too far apart or if one of them dies. How will it all end?! I won’t spoil it for you.

The Good: There are hints of an interesting, complex world behind all the descriptions of hawt guys. And…ummm…hmm. Yeah, I guess that’s it.

The Bad: I’ll go out on a limb here and explain what will make me appreciate a sex scene. You see, I don’t like sex scenes that can be summed up with, “and then they had sex”. Hell, if I justed wanted titillation I could watch porno. No, with book sex scenes, I look for something more. The sex has to add something to the story or characters, vital to the point of taking the scenes out means you’re crippling the plot or confusing the fuck out of your readers.

Admittedly, I may be asking too much from this book. I mean, sex scenes that are supposed to do more than get me hot and flustered? What kind of snobby, Nietzsche-loving elitist am I?

Let’s move on to something more basic, then. Characters. They are flat. There was no sense of personality; many of the characters’ actions felt like they existed because the author ordained it, not because they were natural extensions of personality. The author seems to think that “depth” means “pulling at reader’s heartstrings by piling abuse after abuse onto total hottie”. It doesn’t.

And then there’s the dialogue, undoubtedly the worst thing about this book. There were many pop culture references that sounded forced and awkward coming out of the mouths of Sumerian and Greek gods. There was no distinction from one character to the next; everyone sounded sarcastic, their words more fitting for a TV show quip than an actual conversation.

Grade: C-