I have a signed copy of Beatrix Hollow‘s Suddenly Summoned. However, I cannot remember if I got it in a subscription book box or bought it during an online author-signing event.
Luckily, it doesn’t take much social confidence to plot a massacre. All you need is an ancient ancestral grimoire, a shameful obsession with demons, and the proper motivation. Check, check, and check.
Yep, I’ve raised a demon from Hell. The first person that dared to summon in three hundred years. I gave him my eternal soul and in exchange he gave me a vicious bloodbath.
The world knows me as Beauty, the coven massacre slayer, and I’m stuck living out my pathetic life at the supernatural prison, Dreary Isle.
Now I have a savage demon magically chained to me–petting my hair and rasping in my ear how he wants to kill me. I’ve also got Max, my frustratingly platonic best friend who I’m responsible for getting locked up. Then there’s my broody leprechaun with mischievous eyes, who makes a lot of flirty promises–including escape.
Lastly, there’s the warden. He’s insane and has a grudge against my ancestors. A devil owns my soul but the warden is what frightens me. He’s something more heinous than a violent demon…
He’s a psychotic god.
I thought this was an OK read. I liked the main characters and where the story seemed to be going. But it was also far too slow a burn for me. I don’t just mean for my preference, either. The slow-slow burn made the book feel like it dragged, not hitting the expected plot points when expected. (There is no sex, for example, because no relationship has progressed far enough.) And while that isn’t necessarily bad, there wasn’t really enough other stuff to fill the void. So, it felt a little mid.
All in all, however, I liked it enough to try and buy the next one in the series. Unfortunately, there isn’t one, and isn’t likely to be one. The author appears to have pulled it from publication and has it listed on her website as something she intends to re-edit and re-publish, but she has no ETA for when that might happen. (And obviously, there is also no apparent work on the rest of the series.) So, I suppose here ends my Faustian adventure.
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