Sherrilyn Kenyon
Fantasy Lover
Dark-Hunter, Book 0
Review by OBS staff member Heidi
Fantasy Lover is the prequel to the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon.
The story begins two thousand years ago when Julian of Macedon is cursed to be a love slave. He is forced to live within the pages of a book until some sex hungry female summons him on the full moon. He then stays with that female, satisfying her every sexual desire until the next full moon. He then returns to his prison inside the book until his next summons.
Grace is a sex therapist that lost her virginity to a jerk that only used her to win a bet and left her disappointed and humiliated. She was so hurt by him that she has been celibate ever since.
Grace’s friend, Selena, is determined to break Grace’s dry spell and shows her a book she found, the very book that Julian is trapped inside. Grace is drawn to his picture for reasons unknown to her.
Later that evening Selena goes to Grace’s place to celebrate Grace’s birthday with her, bringing the book and some wine along for the ride. After getting Grace tipsy she talks Grace into performing the summoning chant under the full moon. Grace doesn’t believe in the gibbersh but does it to get Selena off her back. Selena is bummed when the chant doesn’t work.
But after Selena leaves, Grace’s world is rocked when a naked man appears in her living room and she realizes it’s the man from the book!! Whatever will she do with him for an entire month? He tries his hardest to get her to give in to her sexual desires but she tries equally as hard to fight them, not wanting to use him or be used herself.
She decides that she is going to do something that nobody else has done for him, treat him like a human. She vows to take him out on the town show him the sights and not use him for sex. And she makes it her personal mission to find a way to break his curse.
After a visit from Julian’s brother, Cupid, they discover that Grace is the only one that can break the curse but it could drive Julian insane in the process.
I personally have always liked Greek Mythology so I thought it was fun reading a book that had the gods in it as secondary characters. I also liked that the author used a chubby girl as the main character instead of the usual leads with perfect bodies that are always breathtakingly beautiful. And I loved Julian’s character, especially when he would get protective of Grace. I thought this was a light quick read…not earth-shattering, but cute nonetheless….but it was pretty predictable most of the time.
