zaterdag 30 oktober 2010

Lynn Viehl – Stay the night

The seventh book in the Darkyn series, published in 2009.


Stay the night

Stay with her …

Legendary outlaw and immortal vampire Darkyn lord Robin of Locksley has stolen countless works of art, evading human authorities for the past seven hundred years. The prince of thieves also tends to steal the hearts of women – until the night he meets the woman who steals his.

Stay on him …

Undercover federal agent Chris Renshaw has no time for an affair with Robin. She’s hoping to snag an elusive art thief, using as bait the priceless Maiden’s Book of Hours. When it’s stolen, Chris has no choice but to join forces with Robin to recover it.

Stay the night …

Although Chris and Robin mistrust each other, the sexual tension between them grows ever tauter. As they cross Europe to rescue the book –and those the thief would hurt- they’ll have to choose between losing each other and losing everything valuable to them.



FBI Agent Chris Renshaw is working undercover in Atlanta to catch a world famous art thief, known as the Magician. He leaves no traces, is wanted in 22 countries, and he is responsible for the dead of her partner in Chicago a month ago. She is posing as a wealthy art dealer, owning a gallery of forged paintings supplied by the FBI, and one extremely valuable book.

The Maiden’s book of Hours, over 500 years old, and worth over 5 million dollars. They just know the Magician will come for it, and when he does, the FBI will catch him this time.

Trying to lure him out, Chris goes to a hotelbar, waiting to picked up by the right man. As the Magician has pulled his stunts for decades know, they believe him to be an elderly man, so when a young and extremely handsome man tries to pick up Chris, she knows it is not her quarry. She isn’t into casual sex and one-night stands, but there is something about this man, Rob, that appeals to her, and she cannot resist his invitation to spend the night with him.

Of course she doesn’t know the Rob she left that morning sleeping peacefully is the man she is looking for. Robin of Locksley, a famous thief for centuries now. And he is furious that she dared leave him while he was asleep! No woman has ever done that to him! He slept in her arms and she just walked out! He is determined to find out everything about her and sets his seneschal, Will Scarlet out to do so. And when he gets the answer she is an FBI agent looking for him, he is even more furious about the deception, and plans to have his revenge on her.

But then he gets a visitor, and the rules tell him to offer his hospitality to the Italian Contessa at his door, and her people. Robin and the Contessa visit the gallery where Chris and her men are waiting for him together. Chris is jealous at first at seeing his beautiful escort, and doesn’t know how to react. But while they are in her little office, the fire alarm goes off. Someone beat Robin to his target, the book is stolen and the store is covered in ice, imprisoning the visitors and the Contessa. Robin knows immediately his old enemy is at it: Guy of Gisbourne, who got banished from America by Michael during the latest feast. But then the Contessa reveals her treachery: she has taken his entire jardin prisoner, and demands of Robin that he follows Guy to get her the book. It used to belong to her sister Beatrice, and she wants it back!

Robin has no choice but to take an unwilling Chris with him to Rome, to where Guy has fled. His Kyn powers have no effect on her, he cannot influence her. He tries telling her the truth about the Darkyn, but she refuses to believe him. Thinks he is delusional, totally in the thrall of one of the role playing computer games that are all the rage. His fangs? They have to be fake. Until he finally proves to her they are real …

So they follow Guy to an abandoned palazzo, where the Contessa again fools them all. She plans to release her sisters tears an the world again …

In the meantime, Michael and Alexandra are in England for a meeting with all the other seigneurs and the high lord, to discuss the possibilities of open war with the Brethren. The Brethren have been murdering the Kyn in France, Italy and now Spain. Hundreds have died, hundreds more are fleeing wounded and dying. And at this “le conseil supérieur” the men will decide what has to be done, while their woman will have to play at being at court. Really nothing Alexandra looks forward to.

But then she discovers there is a hospital with twenty wounded Kyn underneath the castle, and she is needed there. No care is being given to the wounded, whose wounds will not heal, burn victims and shot victims alike. Immediately she takes charge, and starts helping those who can still recover. Nicola and Gabriel are still in Europe rescuing more captured Kyn and sending them to England.



It was a compelling book to read, the last in this series. I had way to much storylines to relate them all, some loose ends coming together, not in the least that one of Luisa and John. I do so hope they will turn up in the books of the Kyndred.

I took me a long time to start this books, as I dislike my childhood hero Robin Hood used for a Darkyn character. I prefer to keep my memories intact, and not have different stories about him in my head. But the worst of it was in the previous book. Still, I did not really come to like him, he was very overbearing and quickly insulted. I liked Chris for standing up against him, but also never came to know the real her. I just wanted to get back with the pieces of Michael and Alexandra. I though that story was more important.

The ending was a very big surprise, and a good one. O, there was also a gay lovescene in this book, so be warned.

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