Reviews

Deadmen Walking by Sherrilyn Kenyon

sonja_ahrb's review against another edition

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5.0

Well, I just finished Deadmen Walking and I can only think of two words: Hot D*mn! That ending was wild and I can't wait for the next book in the Deadmen's Cross series! And if it's of the same caliber as this one, I can't even imagine what's going to happen next. Deadmen Walking was an outstanding book and I wholeheartedly loved it!

I wasn't too happy when Mara was resisting my guy, Devyl, here, but other than that I really enjoyed her as the heroine. She's a kind, gentle, sweet soul - well, she is around pretty much anyone who's not Devyl although she does change her tune. Mara might be calm and kind, but she definitely brings out her fiery, passionate side when she needs to. Mara isn't afraid to stand up to Devyl, she's fiercely loyal, and a light in the world.

I never have a problem falling in love with Sherrilyn Kenyon's heroes and Devyl was no different. The man stole my heart from the first and he only pulled me deeper under his spell the longer the tale went on. Devyl might scary and intimidating and a total bada*s, but while I loved all that, it was his tortured soul, his heartbreaking sweetness and his yearning desire to love and be loved that completely did me in. Devyl would do absolutely anything for Mara and there's so much good in him, he deserves every happiness. Devyl is just amazing and my heart wholly belongs to him.

I haven't read Ms. Kenyon as frequently as I would like lately, but even with those pauses, Deadmen Walking is still unlike anything I've read from her in awhile. It was captivating, spellbinding, and fascinating. It was heart wrenching, gut punching, and maddening, but there was humor, beauty, and a lightness to it too. This Deadmen's Cross World is so elaborate, you are really sucked in and can witness everything happening. Deadmen Walking was truly a masterpiece and I fell utterly in love with it!

Deadmen Walking is the first book in this trilogy, it's told from multiple points of view, and while Devyl and Mara get their happy ending - you will without a doubt be left wanting more!

~ Sonja, 5 Stars

velangley8's review against another edition

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2.0

Full of cliches. Overly complicated. Bad world building. An unbalanced ensemble of characters. I thought it was fun for the first 2/3rds of the book but by then, the flaws go to be too much. I can't recommend this book.

krissyranae's review against another edition

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1.0

1.5 stars. Because I liked some of the ideas. But tbh, I skimmed the last 2 chapters. I just could not with this book! I have a shelf full of SK books that I honestly enjoyed, but this was kind of a mess.

literary_heather's review against another edition

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Might be the first in the series, but the amount of backstory thrown into this book is overwhelming! There are so many characters to be introduced and species to be explained, all I could think was the old phrase all the English teachers teach: "Show, don't tell!" I usually like this author, but there was no "showing", just forcing info on the reader. Did not finish!

jazzrizz's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm really not quite sure how I feel about this book. You can definitely tell it's the first in a trilogy.

It started off a little slow, and the love interest for Devyl was NOT who I thought it was going to be. I purposefully stayed away from spoilers on this book ... so I just wasn't in the right mindset from the get-go I guess. Once I clued in to where the story was heading, it got a lot better.

I really loved all of the the crew ... there's a lot goin on in this book, which sets the trilogy up nicely. I've loved Thorn since he showed up ... and watching his layers peel back is going to be a whole lot of fun!

It's going to be a wild ride in the next book though, and I can hardly wait!

books_dogs_lexi's review against another edition

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5.0

Once upon a time I was heavily into historical romance. Chief among my favorite settings was the pirate ship. For this I can firmly blame Johanna Lindsey and her Malory family series.

With the sublime Lindsey as my gold standard I stepped into this book with a small amount of trepidation. Would this line up?

Well, shiver me timbers. This is NOT your mama’s swashbuckling pirate romance. I hear comparisons and parallels to Pirates of the Caribbean but honestly, I’d have to say this is better.

For starters, PoTC only really has one character to draw you back in, no small thanks to Johnny Depp’s foppish Captain Jack Sparrow. In Deadmen Walking, there’s a whole crew of zany miscreants, each in his or her own right, a reason to keep reading.

Sherrilyn Kenyon once again does what she does best: immerses you in a world that leaves you stunned and breathless at its beauty and savagery while poking at the dark corners of her character’s psyches to expose the frailty of their human condition and soothe away the aches with kindness and compassion.

Yes it’s an offshoot of her Dark-Hunter world, but it’s such a departure, it’s a breath of fresh sea air.

In conclusion, drink up, me hearties! This is one book hangover you’ll enjoy getting. (couldn’t resist sliding just a little piratespeak up in here, although you’d think for my sake, I would. Lol!)

misskatt's review against another edition

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4.0

I didn’t know what to expect from this book when I decided to listen to it. I know the author is known for romance (And don’t get me wrong, I like me some romance -waggles brows-, but I wasn’t sure how it would be in this book. I was very pleasantly surprised by the content of this entire book. Pirates, a crew of redeeming souls, fierce warriors, magic, etc. Love, betrayal, revelations, HNG. A battle of good and evil and the forces that keep them at bay.

Can’t wait to start the next one!

iphi_kc13's review against another edition

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3.0

I've never read any of her other stories, so I'm not sure that would've helped or not with the sheer amount of tiny little details and information on every single person and world in this book. Overall, I enjoyed the story and the characters, even if with all the information it still felt rushed? Just bam, bam, bam! I'll still be interested to see where the story goes from here though.

sarag19's review against another edition

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3.0

2.5 out of 5 stars

So I've seen Sherrilyn Kenyon's books around and despite my interest I've never picked one up. She publishes a lot so who knows where to even start. But at the library I decided to grab this one to give it a go, the summary sounded interesting. The high seas, an evil powerful captain, a vicious crew and a powerful woman. Plus the added spice of the two leads hating each other, sounds right up my alley.

Its an absolute shame the book didn't deliver. Bait and switch gets me again.

It starts out really good, a tense prologue that really pulled me in and the first few chapters were told from Cameron's point of view. I wish we had gotten more of Cameron it was like the book was setting her up to be the main lead or at least co lead with Devyl. This book is a stand alone set in a bigger universe (I think) so to be sold as a new possibly stand alone series I really wanted to be in the shoes of someone who is new to the universe, like myself. But once her powers are revealed she fades away into the background and Mara takes over as the co lead. I have a feeling the author revealed it to set up future books but had little interest in doing anything with it in this book. Its a shame because Mara just wasn't as interesting as Cameron was. This burning hatred she supposedly has for Devlyn materialized in like one scene and then just disappeared. So she doesn't hate him like the fires of hell? Cause I didn't feel that.

Speaking of that, you can almost feel where the plot shifted from what the summary sold to what it ended up being. Like the author changed midway through but didn't go back to rework the beginning to better flow with the book. Flow was another problem, this book is constantly jumping back and forth between time. It made for a frustrating read because when it happens it breaks up the flow of the book. Its not a bad book, its well written but at the end it felt more like a soapy romance. It also ends on a great chapter, possibly setting up Cameron for the next book as lead but I just can't go for another bait and switch.

dealingdreams's review against another edition

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3.0

I did really enjoy reading this book.
I did feel a little lost at some of the plotpoints and the ending felt a little convoluted, but overall it was written well the characters were great, and the story was really interesting.