Devil May Cry by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Sin, better known as Nanna-Sin, was the Sumerian God of Fertility and the Moon. Thousands of years ago, he was tricked and seduced by Artemis into betraying his own pantheon, and betrayed in return by her, having his godly powers sucked away and taken by Artemis herself. Since then, he has hated her, but lived the life of a Dark Hunter. Still, unlike most Dark-Hunters, he has his own problems to worry about, or rather, his own demons.

The gallu demons, whose powers can even affect the gods themselves, were created by Sin's own pantheon, and they are looking forward to releasing an even worse set of demons called the Dimme. The Dimme were created by the Sumerian Pantheon, but locked away because their release would bring Armageddon. Every two or three thousand years, they must be once again locked away, and by members of the Sumerian Pantheon. But now Sin is the only one remaining, and despite Artemis's hatred of him and wanting to kill him, if Sin dies, the world will come to Apocalypse, as there will be no one left to lock them away again.

Katra is Artemis' daughter by Acheron, or Ash, first of the Dark-hunters, and their leader. She has literally been invisible to her father since shortly after she was born, and he doesn't know he has a daughter by Artemis. It was she who took away Sin's godly powers and gave them to her mother, because she believed Sin would kill Artemis if she didn't do so. Now, when Artemis calls on her once again to kill Sin, she is distrustful enough of her own mother to investigate on her own.

Katra is immediately attracted to Sin, though she finds his actions horrible and cruel. And yet, she isn't able to see him as the same kind of terrible monster that her mother does. Not at all. Katra finds Sin quite delicious... and she's attracted to him in ways she has never been attracted to another man in her entire life. She might be a virgin, but she's burning for him now.

When she discovers what Sin is up against, she decides to help him, not kill him. However, Sin, owing to his history, is extremely short on trust. He might be attracted to Katra, but that doesn't mean he'll trust his life to her, no matter how honorable she might seem. And he's definitely attracted to her and her sarcastic outlook on life. As Sin works and fights with Katra, he begins to fall for her in ways he thought lost to him, until she is the most precious thing to him. But can their relationship survive the revelation that it is she who stole his powers, and not Artemis?

I really enjoyed Devil May Cry, part of the complex Dark-Hunter Universe that encompasses vampires, werecreatures, demons, gods and various creatures from Greek and other Mythoi. Sin's story adds to the universe in the form of the Sumerian mythos, and attendant Gods and demons.

This book is not only a wonderful romance, but also a tightly-plotted thriller with Armageddon looming, and the Atlantean Gods coming together with Sin and his brother Zakar to lock away the Dimme for another couple thousand years. But I really enjoyed watching Sin and Katra moving from suspicion to lust to love, to the point where Sin considers her the most important thing in his world. Best of all is Acheron finally getting to meet and know his own daughter, and that the conflict that drives Sin and Katra apart also brings them back together at the end.

Sherrilyn Kenyon remains one of my favorite authors, and even though her books are like Lay's Potato Chips (can't eat just one!) I'll be looking forward to more books by her in the future.