A signed paperback copy of Stacia Stark‘s Speak of the Demon came in my December Supernatural Book Crate.

I hunt demons.
I don’t work for them.

And I promised my mom one thing before she was murdered: Under no circumstances, would I ever go near the high demons.

But I’ll break that promise over and over again if it helps me avenge her death.

When my only lead turns to ash in the middle of demon territory, I’m suddenly a dead witch walking. Violence in Samael’s club is an automatic death sentence… unless he can use you.

And it turns out that the most powerful demon in the country has a use for little ol’ me.

Demons are being slaughtered. His demons. And as a bounty hunter, it’s up to me to find out who would dare hurt his people.

I’ve got two weeks to find the killer, and if I fail, I’m bonded to Samael. Forever.

Samael’s certain that I’ll be his, but I’m not the kinda girl who risks her freedom for a demon.

I’m the kinda girl who won’t let anyone get in the way of her vengeance— not even the Machiavellian control freak who thinks he can run my life.

The problem? I’ve pissed the wrong people off.

Now I’m the one being hunted, and someone’s coming for me with everything they have.

But I’m never more dangerous than when my back is up against the wall.

And I’m ready to come out swinging.

This was a fun urban fantasy (maybe paranormal romance); hard to know exactly where the line between the two is sometimes. I liked that Danica was smart and resourceful. She was mouthy and angry a lot of times, but managed to avoid it coming across as her whole personality (as sometimes happens in such books). I appreciated having Samael’s POV and thought he was sexy. I sense it’ll be a good pairing in future books.

However, here in this book, I don’t feel like we were given enough interactions between him and Danica to feel more than we’re told in exposition, certainly not get to know you sort of interactions. So, the ‘romance’ aspect of the book fell pretty flat for me. (I felt more spark with Vas, simply because she spent more quality time with him.) Also, while we’re told Samael is super powerful and scary, and we see him unleash that on enemies at times, he’s so soft around Danica that it undermined the whole ‘big, bad alpha a-hole’ persona the reader is supposed to believe he carries.

The world and history was interesting, but I don’t feel like we were really given more than an outline of it. Honestly, the whole book felt like a second book, where I should be finding the first for all that world-building. (Edit: Apparently there is a .5 prequel. I just didn’t know before reading this book.) All in all, I had some complaints, but I’ll be happy to continue this series.