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    Upon The Midnight Clear
    Upon The Midnight Clear
    Upon The Midnight Clear
    Audiobook4 hours

    Upon The Midnight Clear

    Written by Sherrilyn Kenyon

    Narrated by Fred Berman

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Ever think Scrooge had it right before the ghosts ruined his life? Meet Aidan O'Conner.
    At one time he was a world-renowned celebrity who gave freely of himself and his money without wanting anything in return...until those around him took without asking. Now Aidan wants nothing of the world—or anyone who's a part of it.

    When a stranger appears at his doorstep, Aidan knows he's seen her before…in his dreams.
    Born on Olympus as a goddess, Leta knows nothing of the human world. But a ruthless enemy has driven her from the world of dreams and into the home of the only man who can help her: Aidan. Her immortal powers are derived from human emotions—and his anger is just the fuel she needs to defend herself…

    One cold winter's night will change their lives forever…
    Trapped together in a brutal winter storm, Aidan and Leta must turn to the only power capable of saving them—or destroying them both: trust.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateDec 1, 2011
    ISBN9781427221247
    Upon The Midnight Clear
    Author

    Sherrilyn Kenyon

    Sherrilyn Kenyon is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several series, including the Bureau of American Defense novels BAD Attitude, Phantom in the Night, Whispered Lies, and Silent Truth and the Belador series that includes Blood Trinity, Alterant, and The Curse. Since her first book debuted in 1993 while she was still in college, she has placed more than eighty novels on the New York Times list in all formats and genres, including manga and graphic novels, and has more than 70 million books in print worldwide. She lives with her family near Nashville, Tennessee. Visit her website at SherrilynKenyon.com.

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    Reviews for Upon The Midnight Clear

    3.5/5

    399 ratings23 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Aiden is the most handsome, successful actor to come out of Hollywood since Brad Pitt. But betrayals by family members- and by the woman he loved- has made him a bitter recluse.However his family isn't done with him yet. His psycho brother Donnie has awakened the ancient god Dolor (Ultimate Pain) and is dead set on siccing him on Aiden. Little does Donnie know that when he awakened Pain to do his dirty work, he also awakened the Dream Hunter/Goddess who once placed Dolor in stasis for thousands of years.Leta has a mission to complete- stop Dolor once and for all- but when she shows up at Aiden's cabin to help the soul-wounded man who is Dolor's next target she knows it's going to be a tough sell. (He doesn't even want to let her in!) And even though she arranges circumstances to give him no other choice, he's does his best to make her feel less than welcome.No worries, by the time the true reason for her appearance arises- as well as the fact she's a goddess sent to aid him- he's ready to accept her story because he's already falling for her ... and too, he has no other choice but to believe her as she's been in his dreams from the very beginning!The final showdown and it's denouement is the most romantic part of this fantastical tale, and I did find it romantic. (The whole almost destroying the world through ultimate love is always a winner!)But I have one big issue with UTMC that makes this novel- such as it is- my biggest disappointment in the Dark Hunter/Dream Hunterverse.That being the fact it is actually a novella the publishers stretched into a regular sized paperback by making the font bigger. All well and good except they kept the price the same. (Note to Publisher: People don't like feeling cheated. If you continue to do this you'll lose us.)Add that to the fact the story is fairly forgettable, if a tad self indulgent- (I found myself struggling to remember the plot enough to review it and I couldn't help feeling the entire thing was Kenyon getting back at her detractors)- and you get a 2 out of 5 from me.
    • 5/5
      I found this very fascinating and beautiful ending with this couple who never thought that was love for them. She was doing her job and she was caught in the web of lies from one of the brothers who enmity for another led him to kill his own family. While his little brother ? him and give him all. Yet it was not enough for him. He had to learn from living the only one he got in his life.
    • 4/5
      Upon the Midnight Clear was another offering in the Dark-Hunter series that felt like it was hurriedly rushed to publication. I've heard some fans say that the Dream-Hunter stories are the weakest in the series, and I'm beginning to see why. Upon the Midnight Clear was a reasonably pleasant diversion, but it didn't really offer anything new or unique to the paranormal romance genre or even the Dark-Hunter series. Neither the characters, nor the plot had a great deal of depth, and the Christmas theme was something of an afterthought, with the holiday only coming into play during the last chapter of the book. The cover blurb also suggested that the hero and heroine were stranded in a snowstorm, which is a trope I enjoy. However, even that was downplayed by Leta being in complete control of the storm, so technically they weren't really stranded. Overall, Upon the Midnight Clear was a decent read for what it was, but not a particularly memorable one.Aidan and Leta were pretty typical Dark-Hunter characters, both having extreme issues in their pasts which made them rather tortured souls. After being betrayed by everyone close to him, Aidan trusts no one and is essentially hiding away in a remote cabin, avoiding all human contact. I thought that Aidan's backstory as to how he arrived at this place in his life after enjoying a successful career as a movie star would be interesting, but when some of the details started to emerge, they were initially muddled and confusing. It seemed like everyone close to him hated him and was trying to ruin his life for no good reason. As the story goes along, it becomes clearer that Aidan's brother, Donnie, and his nephew were the main instigators. They were quite simply jealous of his success and trying to take advantage of a nice guy. Still for Donnie to be obsessed enough to want to torture and kill Aidan, as well as willingly sacrifice his loved ones, seemed a bit extreme for the motivations given, and I don't remember it being mentioned as to why Donnie was in prison either. Donnie ended up being a pretty one-dimensional villain who was merely a bad seed.Leta had lost her husband and child to Dolor, the god of Pain, centuries ago. She managed to defeat him and place him in stasis using a curse that only made it possible for him to awaken if a human summoned him with a blood sacrifice. At that time, Leta herself went into a sleep state and was only awakened when Dolor was. This was about as much of Leta's backstory as I understood. I never did figure out exactly why she was the only one who could fight Dolor. She does a pretty good job of it, but not without some help from Deimos who gives his assistance for no other reason I could discern except that he felt like it. Leta and Aidan shared a couple of tender moments that I enjoyed. As is typical with this series, they got together a little too fast for my taste, but they did have decent chemistry, fueled by their emotional responses to one another.Upon the Midnight Clear shared a couple of common characters with other books of the series. The Dream-Hunter leader, M'Adoc, is Leta's brother, and as I mentioned before, Deimos helps Leta in her battle with Dolor. M'Ordant and Wink are also briefly mentioned. Despite these connections, Upon the Midnight Clear has little or no bearing on the overall series story arc. Considering that part of the story takes place in the real world with one human antagonist, everything just happened too easily to be entirely credible. The characters make choices with little depth of thought, including Aidan who comes to trust Leta too quickly for someone who has basically checked out on life due to extreme betrayals in his past. Still, for a short novel it was a decent read, and one I'm sure Dark-Hunter fans will probably appreciate.Holiday Gatherings - Holiday Gatherings is a bonus 30-page novella that is found at the end of Upon the Midnight Clear, and from what I can tell, this is the only place it's available. It is a series of short vignettes showing nearly all the main Dark-Hunter characters, both past and future, celebrating Christmas. My favorites were the ones centering on Aimee and Fang, Nick, and Acheron. The whole novella was heartwarming, but the parts about these four characters were particularly tender and emotional. Holiday Gatherings was a fun way to catch up with some of my old favorite characters and get a few teasers for upcoming ones, and was enjoyable enough to make me bump up the overall book rating by a half star. Rating: ****
    • 4/5
      Aiden O Conner, became a famous actor, and is very talented, but was betrayed by everyone he knew, he has no friends and his brother is the worst. When his brother makes a deal with a god, to take him out, his life is in grave danger and there is only one person that can save him. Leta. Leta, knows the danger of her one enemy, and this enemy is after Aiden. A human man who has only known betrayal and injustice and pain. He doesn’t trust anyone, and lives like a “Scrooge” up in the mountains, away from civilization. Leta and Aiden become close despite how Aiden tries to keep pushing her away. This was such a fun short story, that added something different. What was most heartbreaking was Aiden and how he has been treated by everyone he knows, and his brother is just horrid. But Leta is such a wonderful heroine, kind and patient, she handles Aiden perfectly, and I love the way these two come together in the end and fight a god. Great courage and passion is written on each page, and this was a sexy and unique romantic interlude that is perfect for any time of year. It also reminds us the importance of loyalty to those we care about, and that jealousy can destroy us at times….it was an important reminder to me even, to keep close watch on my emotions and not let pride get in the way of the relationships I form. I adore how this author writes her stories, and I have found each story I read from her unique and teaches about human nature and makes us really think about what is really important in life
    • 2/5
      Upon The Midnight Clear
      2 Stars

      Pages and pages of repetitive whining that I could have done without - at least it was short.

      Aidan is a successful actor whose family turned on him and he has since become a recluse believing that everyone he knows will betray him at some point. Granted, his brother does try to kill him by summoning the God of Pain but there is only so much whinging that I can take - get over yourself!

      Leta has potential as a kick-ass heroine, however, the speed at which she falls for Aidan the whiner is unbelievable even for a paranormal romance - less than a day!

      The villain isn't nearly as smarmy as he could have been and is dispatched quite easily.

      On the whole, The Dream Hunter series is pretty lackluster compared to the Dark Hunters and add little to the overall story arc.
    • 4/5
      I wasn't a fan of the characters in this book, but the story was decent and the end was happy. Good enough!
    • 3/5
      It was enjoyable, but predictable. It was easy to figure out what would be needed to defeat Pain. And the fate of Leta.
    • 3/5
      Audio- It was so cheesy, so predictable, and ended with such a common resolution. So chewy sweet I think I got a cavity. 2.5 stars. I didn't hate it but it was just Meh for me.
    • 2/5
      All I can say is SLOPPY, SLOPPY, SLOPPY! This was not a good book.

      1. Aiden seemed to know things he hadn't been told.
      2. Even though it was in the Dream-hunter/Dark-hunter universe it added virtually nothing to it knowledge-wise.
      3. None of the regular well-loved characters were in it.

      I don't think I like the Dream-hunter books much, they are not as interesting or as quirky and the Dark-hunter ones.

      What I did like was that it was short which some disliked. Oh and I loved the extra short Christmas story about almost all of the characters from previous books. This is why I'm giving two stars instead of only one.
    • 4/5
      I really liked it. The characters were pleasantly great together and the ending of the book was surprisingly sad and then incredibly sweet. I just missed some of the characters from the other books.
    • 3/5
      This was short. It is only has 248 pages and is very large type, close to large print. Although I like short stories, I just didn't get into this one too much. I enjoyed it but won't re-read if I re-read the series. It didn't have the Dark Hunters in it but you did get a little of the Honoroi and also a glimps of Zeus. This might have been the first actual siting in these books.

      The chemistry was OK and the HEA seemed forced.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. It was the first Dream Hunter book that I didn't mind reading in the midst of the Dark Hunters. I thought it was a well thought out, well written story and I think that if all the books were written that way, it wouldn't bother me to have multiple series meshed together.
    • 2/5
      I was not impressed with “Dream Hunter” – it was not up to the level of the series before it. Unfortunately, this follow-up didn't improve that – it was just an okay story. This was actually more of a long novella than a novel, and the shorter length didn’t help matters. Dolor, a god of pain, has been summoned from sleep to kill someone. Leta, an Oneroi with no emotions who is suddenly starting to feel some, must protect his target. Aiden is consumed by bitterness and pain from the betrayal of those closest to him. That is all we know, or ever really know, about these two. As in the previous book, they are not fully-developed characters and I had trouble caring about them or believing the relationship that suddenly develops between them. And the plotline was actually reminiscent of Zarek’s story – wherein he is trapped by a storm with a woman who is far more than she seems. Overall, this felt like a throwaway story that should have ended up in an anthology. It doesn’t add anything to the canon/mythology, or to any overarching plot. It was a very quick read, but readers could easily skip this and miss nothing.
    • 2/5
      Largely boring and pretty stupid.
    • 4/5
      This was a short story but I truly enjoyed it. If only for the reason that the back of the book held a "catch-up" of sorts for all the couples that have come before. It also gave glimpses on what is to come :) It was also an interesting twist to have the lead be a female with the powers and the human be the male. It was a really nice twist!
    • 3/5
      Aiden is the world's most popular movie star (even beating out Brad Pitt as world's sexiest guy!) whose fame has brought him to be wronged by everybody and his brother, forcing him into early retirement. Leta is a dream goddess wronged by Zeus and the god of pain, Dolor, leading her to curse Dolor and retire them both to a millennium in stasis. When Aiden's insane and imprisoned brother makes a blood sacrifice to bring Dolor back Leta is determined that she will not allow Aiden to become a victim. Now she must use her womanly wiles to gain the trust of a man who has sworn never to trust again. This certainly wasn't one of the more impressive books by this author. It seemed to me that it would have worked out much better if Aiden's redundant whining about how he got screwed over by everyone he ever loved, which went on for pages, was pared down and this had been simply left as a short story. I will say that once the characters and plot actually got moving towards the end it did get a bit better, but it was really a case of too little too late.I found the little Christmas excerpts interesting, I'm especially looking forward to Aimee and Fang's story (I'm certainly interested in seeing Nicholette eat a little crow) and, of course, Nick's predicament always gets me as well.Overall, the main story felt either like it was something the publisher rushed the author to complete or a short vignette that the powers that be ordered into something more than it should have been. Either way, padding a story out with pages of insipid feeling sorry for yourself woe certainly doesn't work for me. Typically I adore Kenyon's stories and am very glad this is not one of the first I read by her or I might have missed out on some really good stuff!
    • 4/5
      Aidan O'Conner is tired of his life, he's tired of people sponging off him and he wants away from the world. Leta is a goddess who is on the run from the world of dreams and Aidan can help her fight the evil.The two of them spark off each other and the story is pretty predicatable but this series entertains me.
    • 1/5
      I read this book because it's a Dark-Hunter book. Not being of a Harlequin mindset, I hated this installment of Dark-Hunter/Dream-Hunter lore. The writing was unbearably shallow, the story formulaic and rushed. Since it does nothing to move the larger DH story along, you will luckily miss out on nothing except the hour or two you waste reading it.
    • 2/5
      This is the second Dream-Hunter novel that I've read and although I am a huge fan of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s - I was sorely disappointed by this one. It’s lacking in a lot of things. Her characters weren’t developed enough for you to actually grow fond of them. Aidan was just to whiny and needy for me to like him, and Leta just never really amounted to much when it counted either. Too much happened in too short of a time period. It didn't feel very believable and it almost felt more like a chore to read rather than a delight for the mind. If nothing else, this book was used just to fill us in on some of the background information on Zeus’ curse on the Oneroi. When you see this book, it seems short for a paperback. When you open it, it seems REALLY short for a paperback - they have used double spacing, wide margins, and a large font. Now, either Kenyon's publisher is formatting books for her older, more myopic fans, or this was a short-story that was made into a novel. Add a little padding and a huge font and, presto-change-o, you have a very short paperback that you can still sell for the full paperback price. Grrrrrrr! On the bright side though, at the end of the book there was a short story called Holiday Gatherings - It brought back some of her other characters and was really a treat to read. If you haven't read any of Sherrilyn Kenyon's books, I would suggest to stay away from this book. Start off by reading the "Dark-Hunter" series and then make your way to this new Dream-Hunter spin-off.
    • 1/5
      WEAK. I did not like this as much as I've liked her Dark-Hunter series. It's not even as good as the earliest books in that series, which are really just romances with little sense of danger. I sort of picked this one up accidentally -- it wasn't until I started that I realized it said "Dream" and not "Dark" on the cover -- and I hope I don't accidentally pick one up again.
    • 2/5
      In traditional Kenyon style, Upon The Midnight Clear is very formulaic. Boy meets girl, boy (or girl) has a troubled past, girl (or boy) helps them get past it and everyone lives happily ever after. It's a great formula which has made her books not only successful sellers but very popular in the paranormal romance genre. Her Dark-Hunters continue to be popular and this second book in the Dream-Hunters off-shoot was much anticipated. So why the two star rating? I can't speak for the many others who have reviewed or commented though I can say I see many valid points presented. From the opening of the book the large print and strangely laid out chapters were a red flag. Something was certainly different this time around. One could argue this was a bad thing but if this was the worst issue I think most readers will get past that. This is the story of Leta and Aidan. Both characters have reasons to be doing what they are doing as the story starts that could have made for a good story. The trouble is the action started so quickly and moved so fast I wasn't sure what motivated the characters beyond the basic emotions. Aidan is angry and doesn't trust anyone... but why? I kept finding myself asking "Okay, but why?" over and over as I read. When the story was done I was still left wondering why on many things. I hate to use the analogy but this book reminded me of Swiss cheese. It's cheese and it's likable... but there are holes in it. I feel that this story would have been a very suitable addition to an anthology like Holidays are Hell with its timeframe set at Christmas. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't backed by one of Kenyon's usually well built plots. I'd have liked to see more Dream-Hunter mythology presented in this book and hope that when book 3 comes out it will give us that. If you go in expecting a diet sized story you shouldn't be too disappointed and the Christmas catch-up with all of the couples we know and love from the Dark-Hunters series is certainly a fun little tidbit. Buy it if you're a collector or hate an incomplete series, borrow it if you'd rather save your money for a stronger story. Sit down on a free night with a glass of wine and enjoy it in one sitting. Enjoy!
    • 3/5
      Aiden, a famous actor, has been betrayed by his family and is now jaded and hiding away from the world in Tennesee. When Leta, a dream goddeess visits him to warn that his brother is coming to kill him with the aid of Dolor, the god of pain, he wonders if there's hope. An OK addition to Kenyon's world. I particularly enjoyed the brief look into past character's lives in the three vignettes at the back.
    • 1/5
      Wow. This book was just a wreck. Everything seem contrived and lacked any emotional development. I believed nothing. The whole history of Aidan and who has betrayed him and all that, was just laughable. And with Leta.. I felt like I should have felt something about her whole family issues, but I just couldn't muster up the concern.I had high hopes since I thought Devil May Cry seemed to indicate SK was back on her game, but this makes me think twice about purchasing any of her future books. Unless someone gives 'em to me or I found some cheap used copies.