Sherrilyn Kenyon ~ Born of Night

This is the first book in The League series by S. Kenyon.
Here goes the blurb:
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

I'm not in a reading funk! Yay!!! It just seems like I've been reading a lot of not so good books that couldn't keep me awake through the night.
But this one - Born of Night - kept me awake till the early morning hours when I had to get up and go to work. The reason I'm all bleary today is that I haven't had a minute of sleep last night. And I don't regret a minute of it. This was Sherrilyn Kenyon I knew and adored! I mean, you have your badass hero and beautiful heroine, but with Kenyon nothing is ordinary or simple. The way she describes the feelings of Nykyrian, his suffers and struggles - it makes you want to hug him. He's not good, he made many mistakes in his life and Kenyon is not trying to justify him but she makes you understand his actions. Although he looks remote and emotionless, through his own voice we can hear that things aren't what they seem to be and that he just doesn't know how to comfort people or how to be nice. He sees his feelings as a liability, but also he doesn't feel worthy to be loved by anyone. He tried to reach to other people in the past, only to be cruelly rejected by them. He just doesn't want to try anymore. He locked himself out of the world and doesn't want to get burned again.
Kiara struggles with herself and her feelings for Nykyrian. It's not easy to accept and love an assassin. And the one known for his brutality, especially after going through her own mother's murder and several attempts on her life by assassins like him, it seems impossible.
There are a lot of side characters that are well developed and they have their role in the story which couldn't flow this easily if they weren't present.
I want to keep this review spoiler free - so I'll just say that this book is one of the best by S. Kenyon. If you want to tryout her writing, I strongly recommend you read this book. I can promise you that you won't regret it. The only other two books by Kenyon that are close to this one, that I can think of at this moment, are Acheron and Dance With the Devil. They are just an emotional read, and they make you aware how important our childhood is and how grownups should be aware that every word can be a very strong weapon.
The League series was published in 90s but with many editor's rewrites that Kenyon didn't approve or like. This 'new' issue has been rewritten and restored to its first version. Those of you who read this series before will find the rewritten version a very different and improved.
I give this book 5+ feathers - it's just out of the scales. Can't wait for the other two - Born of Fire and Borne of Ice that come out in November and December.

The book details:

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Subject: Romance - Fantasy
Edition Description: Mass Market Paperbound
Series: League Novel
Publication Date: September 2009
Binding: Mass Market Paperbound
Language: English
Pages: 560

If you want to find out more about the author and her books visit http://www.sherrilynkenyon.com/.