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The world of the Dark-Hunters is unlike anything you’ve every seen before. It’s dark. It’s gritty. It’s dangerous�

And it’s a whole lot of fun and a lot of laughs.

My name is Nick Gautier and this is the story of my life.

First off, get the name right. It’s pronounced Go-shay not Go-tee-ay or Goat-chay (that has an extra H in it and as my mom says we’re so poor we couldn’t afford the extra letter). I’m not some fancy French fashion designer. I’m just a regular kid� well as regular as someone with a stripper for a mother and a career felon for a father can be.

But as my mom so often says friends are what God gives us to make up for the families we’re born into. And my mother, in spite of her occupation is a lady and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. Consider this your notice. You respect Cherise Gautier or I’ll learn you better.

My kingdom is the French Quarter and here I reign as prince. Everyone knows me and I know them.

Now I’m not doing bad for a kid whose education is from the backstreets and alleys. I sweep floors in the doll store along with a few other unmentionable jobs my mom would kill me over if she knew about. I even work as a guide on the “Undead of New Orleans� tours. Everyone who visits the Quarter either takes one or runs into one of these tours passing on the street. You know them. “And on this spot something spooky happened� or some other load of bull. Heck, I make most of it up each night just to keep from being bored.

I mean really, demons? Werewolves? Gods and goddesses on the streets (other than those being portrayed on the Mardi Gras floats)? Vampires? Who believes that crap?

The only blood-suckers I ever saw were the lawyers in their expensive suits and big butt mosquitoes (if you’ve ever been to New Orleans, then you know about the B-52 bombers I’m talking about). Besides, now that Anne Rice has moved out of town, she took the lot of that with her. We’re a vamp-free zone.

And then one night, I decided that even though I’d done a lot of bad things in my life, I wasn’t about to shake down a couple of tourists no matter how much money they had and I didn’t. So instead of beating on some innocents, the guys I hung with beat on me.

They’d have killed me, too, had it not been for this mysterious dude who came out of nowhere and struck them down so fast all I could see was a black blur. The next thing I know, I’m a part of a world I’d never imagined in my wildest dreams. And my dreams can be pretty rowdy.

The Dark-Hunters call them Daimons, but I call them scary as all get out. Soul-sucking demons, they’re controlled by a ruthless goddess who has been trapped in a realm she despises. Now it’s a game of cat-and-mouse between the goddess Apollymi and the Dark-Hunter Acheron.

The winner takes the world.

And I am right smack dab in the middle of this war. And don’t even get me started on the zombies one of my friends created or the fact that my new best friend is a demon� oh and never let me forget that I’m being trained by Death himself.

Trust me being undead isn’t for amateurs and it’s not playtime with the paranormal. All the scary things that go bump in the night are real and you should pray you never come into contact with them in their true forms. They exist and are all around us. From the butcher and baker on St. Anne, to the little old doll maker on Royal, to the captain of my football team who happens to be a werewolf. In fact, your favorite restaurant could very well be run by an entire family of shape-shifting bears. And who knew the girl I had a crush on comes from a long line of people who watch over the vampire slayers?

How do I know?

No, I’m not one of the undead. I just work for them now.

And I love every minute of it.

I really like this series. I liked Nick in the DH series until he turned evil and was stunned with the development of his mother. So seeing Nick as an innocent appeals to me.

This is one that never quite grabbed me. I think I was to tainted by what happened in DH

Perhaps this month I may check out the comic book and see if it can hold my attention.

Dawn wrote: "This is one that never quite grabbed me. I think I was to tainted by what happened in DH

Perhaps this month I may check out the comic book and see if it can hold my attention."

Dawn, I read the whole DH series back to back to back, and holy geez is that a lot of dark all at once! So I held off on reading CON until I won Instinct in a contest in another group, and though it is a whole different world and league than DH, I still really enjoyed it. And it seemed to take no time at all to read, which after getting caught up in the Acheron cycle of sadness, that made it all the better. Actually the whole tortured hero thing that happens with every DH hero got to be a lot after 21 books. So for Nick to start as a 14 year old who'd lived in abject poverty his whole life, getting crapped on by everyone except a few select people, and the kids at school like to say his mom is more than a stripper just to get a rise out of him. My best advice if you do decide to read these, put the whole DH story line out of your mind. Kenyon says the series is a prequel and sequel at the same time, and it truly is. But if you keep that DH timeline in your mind, you'll just end up confused.

Thanks Angie

My hesitation was that I was never fond of Nick so it is good he is so different.

Also totally agree no one does tortured hero like SK which at times is good but at times it is like enough already.

Anyways I figure the comic should be a good intro without me having to invest in a book.

I haven't started CoN yet although I have them all on my Nook HD because I bought them for my grandson. I am currently re-reading the Dark-Hunters and trying to work in some other unrelated books and meet some challenges for May so I probably will wait until June to start the CoN.