I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Time Untime
It is part of the , , , series and is a paranormal romance in Hardcover edition that was published by St. Martin's Press on August 7, 2012 and has 414 pages.
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Twenty-second in the Dark-Hunter paranormal romance series. This one is one of the Native American spin-offs. The couple focus is on Ren, the Thunderbird, and Dr. Kateri Avani, the Keeper. If you’re interested, there is a chronological listing of The Dark-Hunterverse books on my website.
My Take
Okay, please take into account that I’m irritated with Kenyon for this sudden shift in the Dark-Hunter pantheon. Essentially she got bored and wanted to play with Native American beliefs and stories and couldn’t be bothered to tie it into the primary storyline she’s been writing for the first, oh, nineteen books!
I have no objection to learning about Native American beliefs, I just believe that if Kenyon wanted to introduce a new pantheon of gods into the storyline, she should have been working them in on a gradual basis instead of slamming us over the head with it. After nineteen stories, excuse me if I feel rattled for suddenly being thrust into someone else’s world. Well, yeah, I’m still rather pissed with this third one. You’d think I’d be ready for it. I just resent an author using her readers like this. Fine. Write about another area of beliefs and call it Dark-Mayans or something. Now that I’ve whined that out…
I have to say I prefer the stories that show Coyote as a more fun-loving trickster god than the way he’s portrayed here. It feels like a betrayal to read of how he behaves in this story.
Christ, Ren comes up with more excuses for his brother. Although, it truly is a typical tragi-drama of godlike proportions of betrayals and hatreds, trickery and grudge fests. In truth, Ren is a good man who grew up not expecting a loving touch or any caring. He feels unworthy.
And another author relying upon the formulaic “I’m not good enough” excuse to create drama.
It truly is sweet in a rather saccharine way and I liked the epilogue. Teri has seen enough in her dreams to understand what has made Ren the way he is and her grandmother has taught her well, for Teri is a compassionate woman falling in love with the man whom her dreams tell her will kill her.
To sum it up, it has a few good bits and I enjoyed the mythical elements. However, it reads more like a clapped together collection of myth thinly woven together into a confusing storyline. Don’t try to understand the details. Just read the words and let it drift over you. It will be much less irritating that way.
The Story
It is almost past time for the Keeper to send the dream to Choo Coo La Tah that tells him where she is located. Two of the four Guardians have been slain. Ren’s duty is to keep the Keeper alive so she may close the Gates. Only she doesn’t know anything. It takes a dream and her grandmother’s spirit revisiting to even wake Teri to the idea that something is wrong.
Her friend’s death the day he mailed her the Mayan calendar wheel with the Greek-like writing continues to unnerve her, but it’s the sudden attack by two strangers and her rescue by four more followed by a kidnapping that definitely tips her off that maybe Grandmother knew what she was talking about.
More terrifying still is that Ren is the man of whom she has dreamed for so long. The one who always murders her. Yet those same dreams allow her to get to know Ren from his childhood on. Ren too has the dreams and his dream woman has always killed him. Wearing Teri’s face. It’s been eleven thousand years since he has been with a woman, and the lesson he learned will keep him from Teri.
It’s only days to the opening of the gates. The moment when Windseer will be released and she frees Grizzly Spirit. Then they will come for Ren. And it’s Teri’s duty as the Keeper to close those gates.
The Characters
Dr. Kateri Avani, a.k.a., Waleli, is a geologist in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and doesn’t know that she is also the Keeper and the Mother of Armageddon, the Ixkib or ghighau. She is a scientist who does not believe in the paranormal, raven mockers, tsinooks, spirits or anything else. Her mother is dead; her father disappeared years ago and she’s been raised by her grandmother and stepfather until they died. The same grandmother who is Keeper and never had the chance to pass it to Kateri’s mother. Kateri is the last of a direct bloodline descended from a woman who stood up to a god with words as her weapons.
Sunshine and Rain Runningwolf are Teri’s cousins (Sunshine is married to Talon (see Night Embrace) and they have a son, Declan); their father is Uncle Danny, who taught Teri some self-defense that comes in handy.
Enrique Martinez is her hotshot grad assistant. Dr. Fernando Drake has been her friend since their college days.
Ren Waya, the Thunderbird, has been reborn with the help of Artemis (sly move to shift this over into the original Dark-Hunter cast) and his old self, Makah’Alay Omawaya, is dead. He has had an awful life and none of it was his fault. His mother was Sterope who spent a week with Ren’s father, Chief Coatl, and became pregnant. Really. I do like this guy and I think he’s had an bum rap, but oh brother, could we please move on. He’s had thousands of years to think about this. And can you say warped thinking? True, he does have some really good excuses for it, but he really needs to see a therapist.
Choo Co La Tah was one of his brother’s friends and is now his. For some reason, in spite of being raised in an Indian village, he has a British accent. Buffalo was Ren’s only supporter in their village and he is now Jess “Sundown” Brady married to Abigail Yager (yes, a reincarnation of Butterfly) (see Retribution) and a Dark-Hunter. Sundown and Abby just had a baby girl, Mikayla Laura.
Anukuwaya, a.k.a., Coyote, is his evil brother. The one Ren makes all the excuses for. Butterfly is the woman Coyote was to have married.
Kukulcan “Chacu” Verastegui and Veneno are just two of the bad guys and they are after her time stone, the Kinichi.
Grizzly Spirit is imprisoned in the West Land after having owned Makah’Alay. Windseer is his handmaiden and willing to trap anyone into providing aid.
Acheron has his part to play as leader of the Dark-Hunters. Apollymi is his mother, the goddess who destroyed Apollo’s children and made them into the Daimons that Ash’s Dark-Hunters kill. He sends Urian, Alexion, Sasha, and Cabeza out to play and protect. Nick also shows up to help.
The Cover and Title
The cover glows with the yellow center on this rock wall where it highlights the Thunderbird in the golden seal. Gorgeous background of a a black-spattered gradation of browns shading into a bright lit-up yellow in the sort of center.
The title refers to the end of time, the moment when the Keeper must Reset the calendar. The Time Untime could well be the end of the world.
