Review: Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Fantasy Lover 
(Dark-Hunter 0)
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Paperback, 352 pages
Published February 2nd 2002 by St. Martin's Press (first published January 31st 2002)
ISBN 0312979975 

Dear Reader, 
Being trapped in a bedroom with a woman is a grand thing. Being trapped in hundreds of bedrooms over two thousand years isn't. And being cursed into a book as a love-slave for eternity can ruin even a Spartan warrior's day. 
As a love-slave, I know everything about women. How to touch them, how to savor them, and most of all, how to pleasure them. But when I was summoned to fulfill Grace Alexander's sexual fantasies, I found the first woman in history who saw me as a man with a tormented past. She alone bothered to take me out of the bedroom and onto the world. She taught me to love again. 
But I was not born to love. I was cursed to walk eternity alone. As a general, I had long ago accepted my sentence. Yet now I have found Grace--the one thing my wounded heart cannot survive without. Sure, love can heal all wounds, but can it break a two-thousand-year-old curse? 
Julian of Macedon 

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Crystal’s Thoughts:
Sherrilyn Kenyon’s start to the Dark Hunter’s series is everything I had hoped for and more!

Thousands of years ago Julian of Macedon was cursed into a book by a God, only to be released on the night of a full moon by a woman who holds his book while saying his name three times. For a month until the next full moon, Julian is compelled to fulfill the woman’s every sexual need without finding pleasure for himself until one day he is released by a woman who different from all the rest…
Grace Alexander may be a sex therapist but she is having a dry spell, if you can still call four years without sex a dry spell. But that is about to change if her best friend and gypsy woman, Selena, has anything to say about it! Stumbling upon an old book in the book store with a sexy naked Roman warrior on the pages Selena convinces Grace to perform the ritual to set him free on the night of Grace’s birthday. Thinking the whole thing is just another one of Selena’s eccentrics Grace goes along with it and when nothing happens she’s not surprised.  But after Selena disappointedly returns home Grace has the shock of her life when a gorgeous golden and very naked man appears in her living room. However Grace doesn’t want to have meaningless sex, no matter how tempting Julian is, and she knows that they have no future together because they come from two completely different worlds. But Grace is determined to help Julian escape his curse; will they be able to find the loop hole in time though? And once they do, will Grace and Julian be able to fight their attraction long enough to accomplish the task? 


Wow, what can I say about Fantasy Lover besides that I absolutely LOVED it?  Full of love and laughter I was glued to the pages the whole time! Julian is just a toe-curling hero, a former general and all-around bad-ass warrior he is strong, determined and down-right sexy. But being trapped as a sex slave for centuries upon centuries has made him emotionally cold and reserved.  Your heart will break from all the suffering he has had to endure at the hands of the Gods. Grace though truly shines as his light of hope. Grace is insecure with herself, bookish and not very social, and despite being a sex therapist she is fearful of getting into another sexual relationship after being burned by a past boyfriend. Julian sees the sensuality buried deep within her though and slowly earns her trust enough to bring it out. Their journey in love was sweet and real. Sherrilyn Kenyon definitely knows how to tease and torture readers though leaving you sexual frustrated right along with the characters!


Fantasy Lover was entertaining and well written keeping me intrigued with each page and absorbed with the characters, and with wacky friends and mischievous Gods there were plenty there to keep you occupied. The story moved at a great pace and I really couldn’t have asked for anything more. I’ve heard a few things about inaccuracies in this book but um…its fiction so I am not really worried about that! LoL I feel that the whole point of writing a book is creating your own story, whether that’s putting your very own twist on a Greek myth or making up some weird new species, that’s the author’s prerogative. I love mythology but there are so many different versions of the same myths, how can anyone tell what’s right or wrong unless you were there yourself? That’s my two-cents at least. J 


Fantasy Lover was a fantastic read blending Greek Mythology, fantasy and romance together for the perfect escape. I recommend this to all romance readers, an amazing start to a series that I expect great things from! 

Rating: 5 Wine Glasses - A Toast to Perfection!