Tag Archives: Paranormal romance

Book Review: Speak of the Demon, by Stacia Stark

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.

Book Review: Rest in Pieces, by Lucinda Dark

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I received a signed copy of Lucinda Dark‘s Rest in Pieces in the December Supernatural Book Crate.

Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust. If vampires kill your entire family, vengeance is a must.

I can’t say my parents never warned me about vampires. I just never believed them. Not—that is—until six months ago when vampires broke into my home and killed my family. Thanks to all the skills my parents taught me, I managed to escape but I couldn’t save them.

Two vampires down and the rest of the world to go.

My bid for revenge is going to have to wait, though, because until I turn 18, I’m being placed in the loving care of Elizabeth and Jonathan McKnight—godparents I didn’t even know existed. The clock is ticking until I can get back to my goal of eradicating the vampire race. But something is amiss at my new high school. According to my parents, vampires can’t walk in daylight. So, why then, does Torin Priest? If he’s not a vampire, then what is he? Because unlike the obnoxious asshole, Maverick McKnight, who sees me as some sort of bloodsucking leech on his wealthy family, Torin Priest is most certainly not human.

To stake or not to stake, that is the question.

This book starts with a Joss Whedon quote and then continued it’s Buffy cos-play from there. I say that with a little bit of snark, but no real venom. I didn’t dislike the book. But I do think the Buffy comparisons are unavoidable (and probably purposeful). Unfortunately, Barbie is no Buffy.

I didn’t come around to enjoying this book until well past the half-way mark. But by the end I was ready to continue on to book two. I found Barbie needlessly prickly for the first half of the book, and most of the other characters over-wrought representations of their character archetype. In fact, that last point carried through. The bitchy rich girls stayed stereo-typically bitchy. The sex kittens stayed stereotypical sex kittens. The dude-bro jocks stayed assholes. The kind and loving parents stayed kind and loving. There wasn’t really much depth to any of them and cliches and stereotypes were the words of the day, apparently.

Past halfway, the book finally drags at least one wheel out of the familiar Whedon-esque “I’m a sarcastic badass with a bruised heart” to allow the plot to progress. And at this point I enjoyed my time with the book.

I do have to say that it feels like it’s all going to take a very Anita Blake turn, though. This book has some sexual tension, but only one real (fairly mild) sex scene. But if I had to guess the series’ direction, I’d guess it will be soft porn before too long—given the ending. Which is fine. Some people might take issue with the heroine being 17 and the book containing on page sex. But my only true issue with it was that the idea of 17-18 year old boys who look at sex with a goal of pleasing their partner and know how to do it was almost more fantasy than the vampires. Just sayin’. Well, I suppose it also really muddles the genre classification. I don’t know if this is meant to be YA, NA, adult UF/PNF. I don’t sense that the author knows either. It felt more like she’d just forgotten the age of her characters at some point. Honestly, this genre confusion starts even at the cover.

All in all, I don’t think I’d buy book two. But I’d read it if I could get it at the library or as a freebie, etc.