Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon – a Review

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Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon – a Review

For me the sign of a great author is when they are able to draw the reader in and evoke emotions in you where you feel as if you’ve run through a gauntlet.  Sherrilyn Kenyon has done just that in Born of Silence, her newest edition to her League series.  My emotions were all over the place reading Darling’s story.  From sadness to joy, to horror and disbelief at what someone else can do to another being.  There were times I wanted to jump into the book and haul ass over all those people who harmed and abused Darling.  Yet at other times I found myself laughing out loud over the classic Kenyon humour that provided many bright spots amid a life of abuse, mocking and downright cruelty all aimed at Darling Cruel.

Speaking of which, I think it very ironic that Kenyon would give her hero the last name of Cruel.  Darling is anything but cruel, instead he’s the exact opposite.  Darling Cruel was born into one of the highest ranking Aristo families in the United Systems.  He was born to be his people’s Emperor and rule his family the way his father had hoped.  Instead, his father was brutally betrayed by the one person he thought would never do him harm, his brother Arturo.  After his father’s death at the hands of his Uncle, Darling and his family were under his Uncle’s so called care and protection.  Knowing Darling would one day take over as Emperor of the Caronese Empire his uncle did every thing in his power to stop this.  Raised among people who only wanted to abuse, torture, mock and cause harm to him, Darling some how endured and came out a better person because of it.   Throughout the book we see Darling’s fierce loyalty, love and protectiveness towards all those he cares about.  His love for his siblings, fellow friends/Sentella members and love of his life Zarya shines through in every scene.  If there were anyone I’d want in my corner it would be Darling. He loves with all his heart, and should anyone wrong you he’s there defending you and dishing out justice Kere style.  Just one world of advice, don’t tick him off or you may find yourself going ‘Boom’. 

Even though Darling has endured a hellish life so far, he has always put the good of everyone else around him first.  That’s why he became one of the founding members of the Sentella.  This is a group of men who fight against all the injustices done by corrupt governments, and other groups of power.  This is where Darling’s alter ego Kere, which stands for the Caronese god of war was born.  It’s through this identity that Darling meets his soul mate Zarya Starska.  Zarya like Darling was born into an Aristo family until one day her father was branded a traitor and her family lost everything.  One guess who did this to her family, yup you guessed it Uncle Arturo.  Together with her father they formed the Resistance, to which she became leader of, who’s soul purpose was to take down the Cruel Empire.  Little did Zarya know that the man she only knew as Kere and love of her life was the heir to that empire.  When Darling needed her most, Zarya was unable to see past his birthright to the man she fell in love with as Kere.  Now believing her beloved Kere gone or worse dead, both Zarya and Darling embark on a journey that will either bring them closer together then they’ve ever been, or worse, killed by the empire and forces against them they’ve been battling against from the beginning.

Besides the romance between Darling and Zarya, which was well written and beautifully done, Kenyon weaves the bonds of sibling love and friendship into that relationship. I really enjoyed watching Darling’s friends and fellow Sentella members rally behind him and Zarya to ensure their happiness, safety and protection.  That’s one group I’d want on my side, and not against me.  Some of the best scenes for me were with Darling and his friends, especially Maris.  Maris and Darling have been friends since forever and never once did Darling look down on Maris for his choice of lifestyle.  Instead Darling helped Maris as best he could and always made sure to be there for him no matter what, and in turn Maris did the same for him.  If it wasn’t for their friendship and love for each other neither would have made it through their hellish lives.  I also enjoyed seeing Darling’s siblings come to terms with everything that had happened to their brother and why, and then rally behind him and the family he’s always needed with him.  No matter what happened to him, his siblings safety and well being always came first, even if it meant putting himself in the line of fire.  Now it was their turn to return the favour and they stepped up to the challenge not once disappointing their brother.  Friendship, family ties and love were three key elements that Kenyon had shining through the darker aspects of the book and I felt they did an excellent job of balancing all the emotions and action throughtout.  

Being a fan of Kenyon and reading both her Dark Hunters and League series I’d say she definitely has the role of tortured hero down to a ‘t’.  After reading Acheron I didn’t think there could be another book to equal it, but Kenyon proved me wrong.  This book is definitely on equal grounds with Acheron as far as I’m concerned.  It had everything from cruelty, misery, abuse and torture, to love, joy, humour, friendship, loyalty, you name it, it was in there. I definitely recommend this book and the League series. I’m already chomping at the bit for the next installment and hope that many of the characters from Darling’s book will eventually have their stories told.  

Reviewed by Marcie

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20 thoughts on “Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon – a Review”

  2. Wow! I loved Sherrilyn’s Dark Hunters series. The League series was on my tbr list. It has just moved to the top. Can’t wait to start this series. Thank you!

    • Hey Kathy, I moved it to the top of my TBR list too. But i have about 40 books sitting on my kindle ( a record, as I normally do not keep that many on the kindle).

  4. Hey ladies, what a lovely way to return from vacation, logging on here and seeing my review up. Thanks for the comments ladies and can’t wait to catch up on everything I’ve missed 😉

    • Most excellent!!! Darling’s book is going to be in the same stack as the first half of Acheron’s book — too hard to re-read. I’m not saying it’s not wonderful, yes it was, but very brutal. Makes the HEA that much better, though, doesn’t it? And this League series in general is rough.

      My biggest complaint of this book is Darling’s mother. She has a LOT to answer for and I felt like her presence, especially at the end, was shoved down our throats. What do you think??? 😉

      • I wasn’t too thrilled with the mom showing up either Carmen and had hoped for a little bit more with that scene. I too felt she has a LOT to answer for and hope that she spends the rest of her time doing so, maybe we’ll get further insight into Darling and his mom in Maris’ story who knows. However, Darling did say at one point, she’s still his mother even with everything that has happened to her. After all we don’t have a say in when we are born and to who we are born too. We just make the best of what’s given to us.

  6. Awsome review Marcie: I just love Sherrilyn’s books the Dark Hunters are one of my all time fav.s and right next is her League Series i have enjoyed all the Born books and could,nt wait for Born of Silence , I could just tell when reading about Darling in the other League books that when Darling had his turn it would be a unbelivable story . And if Marcie feels its right up their with Acheron well dang were is my box of kleenex ,So can’t wait to get it and enjoy another really GREAT READ by Sherrilyn Kenyon . : P

  8. Awesome review Marcie!! I have waited for Darling’s book for a looooong time!! I really loved the book. And, I too felt like the mother’s arrival at the end was shoved down our throats. It kind of left us hanging, imo, with what the hell she was feeling and thinking. And I couldn’t help but crack up laughing when “Kere” took his helmet off to sneer at Kyr!! Then when Nyk did?!?!?! ROFL!!! Maybe it was Syn or Cai that said “hell, I didn’t like feeling safe anyway”!!!

    I do have a question for ya’ll though. What timeline was this book written in as far as the others. Several were pregnant, even though they’ve already had their kids in other books, so, were they pregnant with more children, or was this out of order??

    • It’s out of order Vickie. Well not all the books, just book three. It’s how they were published and Kenyon had done an interview about this very topic but I have yet to find it online again for all of us to read. It had something to do with publications and not her. So now we are back on track in normal time, not the future like book three where all the kids are grown up. Hope this makes sense to you. Off to find that article now.

      • Found Kenyon’s explanation. Here it is based on a question from a fan;

        Question;
        Why is Born of Ice and In Other Worlds set in the future? Why did you go back in time with Born of Shadows?

        Kenyon’s Answer:
        The first three novels I ever published were Born of Night, Born of Fire and Born of Ice (Paradise City). Unfortunately, I sold them to three different publishers. As a result of that, I had to break them apart and make them three stand-alone books. I had to change everyone’s name, all “League” terms, and replot the timeline. I had to make it seem like they were never a series or related in anyway. Once the Dark-Hunter books took off, fans began begging for The League books to be published again, especially since those earlier copies were going for as much as a thousand dollars on eBay. When St. Martin’s bought them and repubished them, I was able to go in and rewrite all three novels to make them longer and to put them back together as a cohesive series. Not to mention, I’d written them in my early twenties and I would like to think that I’ve improved my skills over the years. There is substantial rewriting on Born of Night and Born of Fire, but Born of Ice was tossed out and completely rewritten from scratch. It is an entirely different book from it’s original Paradise City. When I started the series way back when, I envisioned writing the first generation (Nykyrian, Sin, Hauk, Darling, Caillen, Nero, etc.) and then to veer off to the second generation (Adron, Taryn, Tiernan, Thia, Zarina, Devyn, Darion, etc). When I couldn’t get a publisher to finish generation 1, I moved on to Adron and Devyn’s books- both of which sold. Adron’s was originally a full novel, but was cut down to be in a novella that now appears in In Other Worlds. Since I didn’t want fans to keep paying hundreds and thousands of dollars for out of print copies, and they were really insistent to get new copies of them, St. Martins wanted to put those out first. Now I intend to return to my original vision which is to write generation 1 and then to move on to generation 2 once those stories are told. I’m sorry if that’s confused anyone.

      • Thanks Marcie!! I thought I had read or heard that somewhere, but couldn’t find it!! And, I forgot to say that I’m soooooo excited for Hauk’s book!!! He’s been on my radar since he first showed up!! LOL!!!!

        When I read about the book after Hauk’s, Maris & Ture’s, it looks like it starts during Darling’s book. I hope it’s brief and don’t have to go back in time for too long!! I want to see what everyone is up to!!!

        • lol too funny that we were all posting at the same time. Glad I was able to help and clear any confusions up about the order of this series. I wasn’t sure if I should have posted it here, or had Barb or Sandy make it a separate posting.

          I never thought I’d enjoy this series but I am and am so glad I decided to give it a chance.

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