Review: Dark Sins and Desert Sands by Stephanie Draven

Title: Dark Sins and Desert Sands
Author: Stephanie Draven
Series: Mythica Series
Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Harlequin (October 18, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0373618719
ISBN-13: 978-0373618712

Escaping a hellish Syrian prison, U.S. serviceman Ray Stavrakis emerged with uncanny mind-control powers and an eerie ability to morph into a mythical Minotaur. As a half man, half bull, Ray had legendary power, but only one woman could prove his innocence. The woman who’d driven him to the brink of insanity with her cool-eyed interrogation and her hot-blooded sensuality.

But Vegas psychologist Layla Bahset had no memory of Ray or her past. Only a feeling of being stalked by a nonhuman predator. Was it Ray…whose eyes condemned her soul even as his hands ignited her body? Or was another evil force at work? But nothing could stop Layla from remembering what she was…and what her evil creator had planned for her and her soldier lover…

There’s something about mythology mixed in with the present that is an instant hook.  I’m a fan of the Mythica Series that Stephanie Draven has been working on.  You can read these books as stand alones.  I suggest reading them all though, you won’t be sorry.

Dark Sins and Desert Sands is the story of two people born of and from war.

Ray is a first generation American, born to Syrian parents.  From traumatic family events, he enlists in the military to serve as a translator, doing several tours of duty.  I can only imagine what a real life Ray would have to go through, being of Middle Eastern descent and serving in the  American military.  The difficulties are touched on, but I can’t help but wonder how tough it really is to be in that position.

For me, Ray was a tortured hero that captivated me as I read.  A man pushed to the limits of what he can handle, with all of this cultural weight on his shoulders.  So often I think we miss out on the complexities of different cultures in books because the heroes are predominantly white.  But Ray brings his Muslim culture to the table and his personal choices to put others in front of himself.

Layla began the book wrapped in mystery.  She didn’t know who she was or where she came from.  Her life is like a white board with nothing written on it.  Ray charging into her life changes things.  Ray makes her feel and do things she can’t remember ever experiencing before, and Ray’s priorities begin to change.

This was more than a story about two characters trapped into a situation by what they were made to be.  There are secondary characters that have spunk and sass and their own lives.  By the end of the book I wanted to know more about Isabel and Missy, where their lives were going and how they were handling things.  The book also touches on torture, and how easily laws can be skirted and people held for crimes they’re not guilty of.

I very much enjoyed the book.  I gave it 4 stars.  The mythology is twisted and turned in a way that makes it fresh and exciting.  The characters are life like and moving.  I’d suggest it for anyone who likes mythology and romance with a dose of the nitty gritty real life possibilities of a darker side.

There is one thing that disappointed me, and it wasn’t on the author at all.  I wish that the cover reflected the character’s nationalities more honestly.  Ray is a Syrian man and the cover model is very American.  Yes, I know the author probably has zero say in the cover, and the rating of the book is by no means a reflection of what I think of the cover.  I just wish that publishers could embrace the sexy of other nationalities.