After the last book, I was worried that the Dark Hunter series was about to take a nose dive. Luckily, Unleash the Night came along and saved the day. We are back to New Orleans and our regular crew of characters. This time we get to focus on the romance between Wren and Maggie instead of having a heavy focus on world building. While it is a bit of a whirlwind romance, I liked that the characters got to know and accept each other gradually. I mean... I think they decide be together forever in like a week or two of knowing each other but... whatever! If there's one thing to know about the Dark Hunter's series it is to just go with it. 
 Our leading man is Wren, who's an angry young were-tigard (tiger/leopard) who lashes out viciously at almost everyone. He's not accustomed to kindness so he finds it easier to just blend into the background. In his mind, if he doesn't make connections to people then he won't have to worry about them hurting him. Then Maggie comes along and he plucks up his courage to talk to her. He's pretty adorable when he tries so hard to impress Maggie He really comes across as an abused animal that's learning how to trust a human. I appreciated how devoted he was to Maggie and I empathized with him as a character. He's just genuinely likeable. 
 Maggie was pretty awesome as far as heroines go. She may not be the most exciting heroine but she's super smart and funny and she fights for what she wants. Maggie might also be a little naive since she keeps coming back for more even though Wren lives a violent life and keeps pushing her away. But she has some real moxie. She's a strong minded person. She doesn't let the opinions of others color the way she views the world. I mean... obviously our heroine wouldn't be written as a snob since it would make her incredibly unlikeable but I still really enjoyed how much she didn't look down on other people. Also this girl knew how to roll with the punches. In so many romance novels when the heroine is exposed to the paranormal world she usually goes through the whole denial and "I must be crazy" spiel which is so grating on the nerves. Why can they not take in what they are seeing with their own eyeballs as reality? It's so dumb and it makes me thoroughly annoyed with a heroine. In Unleash the Night when Wren turns into a tiger in front of Maggie she understandably freaks out a bit. However, she doesn't go through the lame "I'm crazy" fiasco and she just is like "Ok, you've read an Anne Rice novel before. Wren is a tiger. Get your shit together Maggie!" I gave a silent cheer that I wouldn't have to sit through a few chapters of the heroine being the dumbest person ever! 
 In an unusual turn of events, Wren is the virgin instead of Maggie. It was nice to take a break from the virginal woman stereotype but I wanted it to be explored a bit more. It could have been fun to see the awkwardness. They kind of just get to everything all at once instead of several escalating scenes where Wren could gain experience. When they do get down to it, Wren pulls out a lot of "advanced studies" moves which seems a bit unlikely. But, unlikely or not, it was still some very steamy smut. Side note: the smut seemed actually doable this time compared to some of the more insane scenarios that have happened in other books of the series. 
 A large portion of the plot revolves around time travel. Now, time travel is a tricky thing to keep straight because usually everything looks one way and then after the time traveling everything still looks the same but in a completely different context. Since this is the Dark Hunterverse a lot of the time travel mumbo jumbo is a bit of that signature "because I said so" logic. It was all a very complicated mess that I understand but it's so elaborate that I couldn't actually explain it to anyone and have it make sense. In Unleash the Night Wren and Maggie go from 2005 to 1981. For some reason, the minute they end up in 1981 I just always heard in my mind the song Rio by Duran Duran playing in the background (even though that song came out in 1982) and it just somehow seemed to fit every scene in the past. 
 In the end, the usual paranormal romance things happen. You know, everyone gets their heart's desire and the bad guys are defeated... and I wouldn't have it any other way. I liked the focus on the individual characters instead of just endless world building. Maybe this is because it takes place among the were-hunters instead of the dark hunters? In fact, I think this may be the only book in the series where Acheron didn't show up to magic away all the problems at the finish line. Unleash the Night is a fun addition to the series and I enjoyed the characters and the plot. I don't think it's my favorite in the series but it's still a really solid story. We even get a tiny glimpse of Nick at the end. It's becoming more and more apparent just how much of an impact the loss of Nick had on the Dark Hunter world. He touched a lot of lives and I'm insanely curious to see what will become of him now!