In Night Play we depart from the usual realm of Dark Hunters and Apollites and explore the world of the Were-Hunters. Personally, I have a huge soft spot for anything involving werewolves or any kind of shifter so I was incredibly excited that our male lead was Vane, a Katagari /Arcadian Were-Hunter. I have to admit, this series is getting better as it progresses and Night Play is the perfect example of the author finally hitting her stride. 
 "It's okay," Vane said into the microphone. "She cried like this on the day I met her, too. I think it's a good thing for humans." 
 Vane was pretty much fantastic. He's a wolf who can turn into a man so often times he thought about things as a wolf would instead of how a human would. Maybe it's just me but I found his wolf brain endearing. For example, he constantly is asking our Dark Hunter friends from previous installments about how to date a human woman because he's just baffled by the whole thing. Of course none of them have any useful advice since they all had such bizarre meetings with their now wives. I mean Julian's wife conjured him from a book for Pete's sake! They're pretty much useless so he's just trying his best to figure everything out. He's an excellent romantic male lead because he's so devoted and is really trying his best to win Bride. Also he's of course stupid hot and spectacular in bed because those are the universal prerequisites in any romance, paranormal or otherwise! 
 I went through some ups and downs with Bride. At first I liked her, and then I thought she was impossibly stupid, but in the end I thought she was badass. Bride is a size 18, which doesn't get a lot of play in your average romance. I think she's probably more of a "plus size model" type where she has lush curves. In any case, being a size 18 in today's society can cause a woman to develop some self-esteem issues which Bride has. I think I just really wanted her to be more accepting of her size and to know she's curvy and to flaunt it. But that may just be a thing that's a personal to me as I'm not usually a fan of timid women. She annoyed me when she finally found out about the paranormal world and she just decided that she was hallucinating and just refused to accept anything that she could see with her own eyes. Like girl... What are you doing? It got to the point where it seemed like she was just being purposefully obtuse and it pissed me off to no end. But in the end she got her shit together and totally ended the story with her badass game on pointe so I ended up loving her as a female lead. 
 Also in Night Play we finally get to really meet Valerius and his new squire, Otto. From the small amount of time we met Valerius in Dance with the Devil and in Night Play he has become an intriguing character. Much like all the other Dark Hunters, he seems to really open up and become intensely loyal once you show him a little bit of kindness. And Otto seems determined to drive him nuts with all the pranks and by constantly putting pasties on the female statues' nipples! Here's the best joke from Otto: 
 "We try to be as quiet as possible in the daylight so as not to wake Count Penicula." 
 "Penicula?" Bride asked. 
 "My pet insult for Valerius. Much like the good Roman general who owns this house, it's a combination of penis and Dracula." 
 I've said this before about other installments in the Dark Hunter series but Sherrilyn Kenyon is hilarious. The banter and situational humor just keep getting better and better. I consistently find myself laughing out loud and if you can make me laugh with your characters I tend to fall in love with them. A lot of authors focus so much on the sadness of the characters to make an empathetic connection with the reader. It's wonderful that Sherrilyn Kenyon is showing her characters' joy as well as sorrow. If I can get to know a character when they're happy it will make me really feel for them when they are devastated. I can't wait to move on to Valerius and Tabitha's story because wow... that's going to be one wild ride!