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meganbmooreWhile the rest of the world is busy standing in line and fighting hordes(or stalking the mailman) so they can read the exploits of some wizard named Harry(and not the one I love, at that) I've been sitting back, reading my romance novels and manga(well...there was the point where I got sidetracked by a 19 page photogallery of Eddie Peng, but that's another topic altogether.) Namely, Sword of Darkness and Knight of Darkness, the first two(and only published, as far as I know) books in Kinley MacGregor's, aka Sherrilyn Kenyon, Lords of Avalon series.
Short version: Think Dark Hunters with time travelling Arthurian knights in the background an a slightly less developed mytharc. You'll like, hate, get a kick out of, etc the books (whichever suits your opinion best) for the same reason.
Kinley MacGregor used to be Sherrilyn Kenyon's historical romance pen name(though her first book or two as Kenyon was historical), but apparently it's now her historical romantic fantasy name. The thing about Kenyon is that she's an excellent worldbuilder and creates very interesting mytharc and uses mythology in interesting ways, but she's not an incredibly great writer(the only thing she really writes well, imo, is snark), and every bit of cliche or purple prose she can use, she does. As a result, like with the Dark Hunters series, I find that I like the overall story here a lot, but don't care one whit about the romances themselves.
In LoA Kenyon turns to Arthurian and Celtic myth instead of Greek and vampiric. Like with Dark Hunters, she looks more at the actual, older(more interesting) mythology instead of the more modern ideas, and adds her own spin to it. After Camelot fell and Arthur and Mordred killed each other, Morgen LeFey and her armies took over Camelot and Arthur's remaining forces fled to Avalon. The two places were removed from the realm of man and their inhabitants became immortal. Aquila PenMerlin, heir to Emrys PenMerlin(she has Thomas Mallory locked up in the dungeon for writing about them as beingt he same person...apparently, beautiful blondes don't like being confused with gnarled old men) and Morgen has been leading the opposing forces ever since, warring for the fate of man, etc. etc. Oh, and because Kenyon needs her snark and pop culture referrences, they can all timetravel, so the dark and middle ages denizens all speak like they grew up in the 80s and 90s.
Approaching LoA like DH, the only problem, really, is that neither book is a very good intro book. While Kyrian and Wulf's books were likely the weakest DH books(that I've read, at least) they were very good intro books, but both of these books made me wonder if I missed the first book. Also, in both books, the heroes were supposed to be evil, amoral SOBs who get redeemed by love, but they both are so very clear NOT evil so very soon that the authors and entire cast's insistence that they are just reads like a huge injoke, and both their childhoods were made SO angsty and SO abusive that I just had to burst into giggles at the melodrama. And yes, the heroines were both complete Mary Sues(Another thing that made me burst into giggles was when Seren, the heroine of the first book, a medieval peasant woman who is very pretty, asserted that she remained a virgin at 24 simply by virtue of her will and refusal to give up her virtue. Right. Sure.)
Anyway, basically, just like with DH, I don't care about the actual romances(aside from Talon/Sunshine-because of my intense dislike for Sunshine-I'm ok with them, but the only one I actually like so far is Zarek/Astrid) but I do like some of the supporting characters. Morgen and Co. are suitable villains, Aquila is an enjoyable good guy-leader(she's not a psycho S&M nut like Artemis, but not exactly all sunshine and flowers, either-if you cross her or hers she will see to it that you die, one way or the other, and if you betray her or hers...well...some of hers DO enjoy torture...) and I'd like to see more of Faran, Elaine, Agravain, Gawain and Galahad, but none have been around enough to really stand out as more than an "Interested in seeing more of" character. I do rather like Blaise, a mandrake and Aquila's spy in Morgen's court, and the Ash-like character we're supposed to be sitting around, begging to get his own book, but if he's able to maintain his "spy" position after helping BOTH sets of leads against Morgen...well, my ability to suspend belief only goes so far.
Basically, these may not be high quality books, but they are fun books on the same level as the DH books, and the best parts are the parts focusing on the mytharc, or when random cast members are standing around, trading cheesy quips.
Short version: Think Dark Hunters with time travelling Arthurian knights in the background an a slightly less developed mytharc. You'll like, hate, get a kick out of, etc the books (whichever suits your opinion best) for the same reason.
Kinley MacGregor used to be Sherrilyn Kenyon's historical romance pen name(though her first book or two as Kenyon was historical), but apparently it's now her historical romantic fantasy name. The thing about Kenyon is that she's an excellent worldbuilder and creates very interesting mytharc and uses mythology in interesting ways, but she's not an incredibly great writer(the only thing she really writes well, imo, is snark), and every bit of cliche or purple prose she can use, she does. As a result, like with the Dark Hunters series, I find that I like the overall story here a lot, but don't care one whit about the romances themselves.
In LoA Kenyon turns to Arthurian and Celtic myth instead of Greek and vampiric. Like with Dark Hunters, she looks more at the actual, older(more interesting) mythology instead of the more modern ideas, and adds her own spin to it. After Camelot fell and Arthur and Mordred killed each other, Morgen LeFey and her armies took over Camelot and Arthur's remaining forces fled to Avalon. The two places were removed from the realm of man and their inhabitants became immortal. Aquila PenMerlin, heir to Emrys PenMerlin(she has Thomas Mallory locked up in the dungeon for writing about them as beingt he same person...apparently, beautiful blondes don't like being confused with gnarled old men) and Morgen has been leading the opposing forces ever since, warring for the fate of man, etc. etc. Oh, and because Kenyon needs her snark and pop culture referrences, they can all timetravel, so the dark and middle ages denizens all speak like they grew up in the 80s and 90s.
Approaching LoA like DH, the only problem, really, is that neither book is a very good intro book. While Kyrian and Wulf's books were likely the weakest DH books(that I've read, at least) they were very good intro books, but both of these books made me wonder if I missed the first book. Also, in both books, the heroes were supposed to be evil, amoral SOBs who get redeemed by love, but they both are so very clear NOT evil so very soon that the authors and entire cast's insistence that they are just reads like a huge injoke, and both their childhoods were made SO angsty and SO abusive that I just had to burst into giggles at the melodrama. And yes, the heroines were both complete Mary Sues(Another thing that made me burst into giggles was when Seren, the heroine of the first book, a medieval peasant woman who is very pretty, asserted that she remained a virgin at 24 simply by virtue of her will and refusal to give up her virtue. Right. Sure.)
Anyway, basically, just like with DH, I don't care about the actual romances(aside from Talon/Sunshine-because of my intense dislike for Sunshine-I'm ok with them, but the only one I actually like so far is Zarek/Astrid) but I do like some of the supporting characters. Morgen and Co. are suitable villains, Aquila is an enjoyable good guy-leader(she's not a psycho S&M nut like Artemis, but not exactly all sunshine and flowers, either-if you cross her or hers she will see to it that you die, one way or the other, and if you betray her or hers...well...some of hers DO enjoy torture...) and I'd like to see more of Faran, Elaine, Agravain, Gawain and Galahad, but none have been around enough to really stand out as more than an "Interested in seeing more of" character. I do rather like Blaise, a mandrake and Aquila's spy in Morgen's court, and the Ash-like character we're supposed to be sitting around, begging to get his own book, but if he's able to maintain his "spy" position after helping BOTH sets of leads against Morgen...well, my ability to suspend belief only goes so far.
Basically, these may not be high quality books, but they are fun books on the same level as the DH books, and the best parts are the parts focusing on the mytharc, or when random cast members are standing around, trading cheesy quips.