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Book Review – Guild Codex: Demonized series, by Annette Marie

I borrowed the audio edition of Guild Codex: Demonized series (by Annette Marie) through Hoopla. I’ve seen the covers around and thought they looked cool. I put off reading the series though, because New Adult fantasy can be too Young Adult-ish for me sometimes. (There’s only a thin line between an upper teen and a lower twenties-something, after all.)

I had a whole trip with this series. I didn’t realize that it’s a spin off (or at least set in the same world as) The Guild Codex: Spellbound when I first picked it up. It’s obvious when the names are put next to one another like this, but I hadn’t been paying attention. The funny thing is that I didn’t make the connection until I’d finished Taming Demons for Beginners and went looking for book two. Then, I had to recognize that I’d actually even read book one of The Guild Codex: Spellbound (Three Mages and a Margarita), which was probably why some of the side character of Taming Demons For Beginners felt familiar. But I really was oblivious to the overlap until that moment. I had a good laugh at myself.

Rule one: Don’t look at the demon.

When I arrived at my uncle’s house, I expected my relatives to be like me—outcast sorcerers who don’t practice magic. I was right about the sorcery, but wrong about everything else.

Rule two: Don’t listen to the demon.

My uncle chose a far deadlier power. He calls creatures of darkness into our world, binds them into service contracts, and sells them to the highest bidder. And I’m supposed to act like I don’t know how illegal and dangerous it is.

Rule three: Don’t talk to the demon.

All I had to do was keep my nose out of it. Pretend I didn’t find the summoning circle in the basement. Pretend I didn’t notice the shadowy being trapped inside it. Pretend I didn’t break the rules.

But I did, and now it’s too late.

This wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I found that I enjoyed what it turned out to be. I liked Robin. She was mousey when faced with confrontation, but a dragon when left to her own devices to do the right thing. Her demon (I’m not even gonna try and spell his name since I listened to the audio) was marvelously sarcastic. But what I really liked was that he wasn’t The Biggest and The Baddest. He’s plenty tough, but not brutish and more interested in being sneaky and smart than physically strongest.

As I said, I’ve come to understand this is part of a bigger world, containing several series. I didn’t know this when I picked the book up. But I also didn’t feel I was missing anything for having not read them. I understood the world, magic systems, etc. Though I will admit that a couple side characters have that cameo feel and I wonder if they are from other series.

All in all, I think dive right into book two.

I’m bound to a demon.

For my entire life, I avoided magic at all costs. Now, I’m responsible for a demon who wields magic more powerful than the toughest mage or sorcerer.

Demons are evil.

That’s what my textbooks say. That’s what I see. He’s ruthless, he’s temperamental, he’s cold. But he protects me without fail. I wonder if he’s hiding a heart behind his hostility.

My demon is a monster.

Whether he’s heartless or not, my contract with him is illegal and beyond dangerous. Together, we must find a way to return him to his own world before anyone discovers our secret. If that wasn’t bad enough, I’ve come to realize something else:

My demon isn’t the only monster I should be worried about.

This was was a fun continuation of the series. It felt a little like the middle book it is, but I still enjoyed it. I very much enjoyed watching Robin and her demon get to know one another. (Again, I’m not trying to spell his name.) We met more guild members here and that was fun too. The villain was starting to feel a little too all-powerful, but they are definite a Big Baddie. I dove immediately into book three.

I thought I understood power.

My parents taught me that magic attracts equal danger, and everything I’ve seen since becoming a demon contractor confirms it. I’ve witnessed how power twists and corrupts–and I’ve tasted power no human should wield.

I thought I knew greed.

Ambition and avarice drove my family into hiding. My parents died for someone else’s greed. I’ve never hunted anything in my life, but now I’m hunting their killer–with my demon’s help.

I thought I’d seen evil.

But with each step closer to my parents’ murderer, I’m uncovering a different sort of evil, piece by hidden piece. I’ve stumbled into an insidious web that silently, secretly ensnares everything it touches. My demon and I came as the hunters…

I sped through this series, listening to them literally back to back. Needless to say, that means I was enjoying it. Like with the previous books, I liked seeing Robing and her demon recognize and settle cultural difference. I liked Robin’s constant attempt to do the right thing in face of problems and enemies far larger than herself. I did think the uncle’s sudden change of heart felt like a drastic and unbelievable shift in character though.

I promised to avenge my parents.

But their killer is still on the loose, and he’s stolen more than my parents’ lives. Now, as he draws closer to his mysterious goals, he’s poised to destroy what little I have left.

I promised to translate an ancient grimoire.

But it holds the secrets of my family—and the secret history of demon summoning. I fear its answers as much as I need them. Who was the foremother of Demonica…and who am I?

I promised to send my demon home.

But the way he watches me, the way he protects me, the way he touches me⁠—how can I cast him away forever? I swore I would do this for him, but can I? Should I?

But I promised—and I will keep my promises even if they cost me my heart, my soul, and my life.

I found myself finishing this last book in the Guild Codex Demonized series in a shockingly short time. (I’m series. I think I finished the 4 books in 3 days!) I enjoyed it all the way to the end. I did think the ending was a little predictable and I thought there were a few too many hurt feelings and misunderstandings for two people who could read each other minds (even if only some of the time). But I also like seeing the two of them work their problems out and really come to trust one another. I’m going to have to actually come back around and read the Guild Codex: Spellbound series now. I enjoyed Three Mages and a Margarita when I listened to it in 2019. I think I meant to finish the series then, but got distracted.

Book Review: Awakening, by Amanda M. Lee

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I picked up a freebie code for an Audible copy of Awakening (Covenant College, #1)
by Amanda M. Lee floating around the internet somewhere, probably from FreeAudiobookCodes. I listened to it as part of my March Awakening Challenge.

College was supposed to be all about booze and boys. For Zoe Lake, though, it’s all about monsters and mayhem.

An incoming freshman at Covenant College, Zoe is excited to meet her roommates and attend her classes. There’s only one problem: Covenant College isn’t all it’s purported to be.

First off, there are attractive — yet mysterious — men skulking around every corner. Then there’s that persistent professor that thinks he knows some secret about her past that even she isn’t aware exists.

Then there are the rumors. You know the ones. The ones that say Covenant College is home to more than just humans — but vampires and werewolves, too.

Not only is Zoe going to find herself in the middle of madness — but she’s going to have to try and pass finals while she endeavors to solve the mystery of what a monster really is.

The writing and narrations were fine, but the main character is so unpleasant I couldn’t enjoy the book. I’m not one who thinks all heroines have to be polite and pleasant, but Zoe is like someone took a Mean Girl and centered a book around her. She’s not just rude and abrasive, she’s needlessly cruel, shallow, and narcissistic. She even says she’s a narcissist at one point and all I could think was, “Being self-aware doesn’t make it any more tolerable.”

She’s also cliched in a hundred ways. She’s ‘not like other girls,’ can fight well ‘because she hung out with more boys than girls growing up,’ effortlessly good at everything, sarcastic even in the face of death, pretty, wears Star Wars, Marvel t-shirts and Chucks. She’s a self-centered walking cliche.

I did appreciate that she is unabashedly and unapologeticaly sexual. But I could have done without the roommate constantly calling her a slut for it. (Just as I could have done without the virgin character simultaneously being bashed for being a virgin over and over again and being solely focused on ‘losing her v-card.’) It was an unpleasant.

Zoe does step up and save the day more than once. But honestly, every-time she did I rather thought it out of character for her. There’s a scene at a frat party where an inebriated girl is being ‘cut from the herd’ by two guys and Zoe feels uncomfortable about it, but decides not to intervene (given the rest of the plot, this girl was almost certainly later raped). That was a reaction that fit the Zoe Lee crafted far better than the times she steps in to help.

I’ll also note that the use of date rape drugs and the subsequent rapes are included as pretty cheap plot devices and dismissed almost jokingly in the big climactic finish. No one is caught or punished, nor is there any indication that it’s stopped. It is treated as unimportant to the ‘real’ plot. Leave that crap out then, IMO.