Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Title: Fantasy Lover (Dark-Hunter #1)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Genre: Mythology, Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Piatkus (7th April 2011)
Blurb:

It might sound like a man’s ultimate fantasy – to live forever, destined to be the lover of thousands of women. But for Julian of Macedon, it’s a nightmare. Once a proud Spartan general, he’s now a love-slave, his essence magically held captive in a book for eternity. Then, one day, Grace Alexander summons Julian to fulfill her passionate dreams – and sees beyond the fantasy to the man himself.

Long years as a sex therapist have taken a lot of the fun out of the physical side of love for Grace. But the rules of the enchantment cannot be changed – Julian is hers for the next month. And as their time together slips by, Julian and Grace find more to share than sympathy and conversation and they begin to wonder if love might be within their grasp. That leaves only one question. Is love enough to break a 2,000-year-old curse?

In FANTASY LOVER, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon has penned a highly original novel inspired by Greek mythology that is utterly captivating and completely unputdownable.

Rating: *** (3 stars)
Review:

FANTASY LOVER is the first book in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s well-known DARK-HUNTER series. It tells the story of Grace Alexander, a sex therapist, whose friend thinks that her life should be about more than just her work. Grace’s friend convinces her to try the spell on the book containing Julian of Macedon.

I should probably say that I went into FANTASY LOVER with high expectations. I heard a lot of good things about the DARK-HUNTER series, so I was kinda curious about it. To be honest, it really wasn’t what I expected. Kenyon is a well-known paranormal romance author so despite reading the blurb (I swear I stood in the shop and read it before I got it) I had certain expectations about the book – it would probably revolve around a girl falling in love with an immortal being, most probably a vampire or a werewolf or some sort of shapeshifter. I was right about the immortal being part, just not the rest. Julian of Macedon is human…well, kind of. As I noticed when I was writing up this review, there is actually a big clue that FANTASY LOVER is not your average paranormal romance – the book’s blurb says that the book is “inspired by Greek mythology”.

I wish I could say that I loved this book – or even really liked it – because that would make it so much easier to put my thoughts about FANTASY LOVER into words. Once I twigged that the book had a Greek mythological root to the story, I thought it was a really interesting and innovative premise because Kenyon takes Greek myths and makes them her own as she weaves them into her book. I’m not entirely sure why, but whilst I liked reading this story I didn’t love it. The plot of the book was pretty typical for a paranormal romance and other than Kenyon’s use of Greek mythology nothing about the book really stood out for me. I kind of wish it had because although I liked the book I doubt I will be reading any more of the series.