Thursday, March 8, 2012

Review of The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark



Title/Author: The Demon Lover (Fairwick Chronicles #1) by Juliet Dark
Publisher/Date published: Ballantine Books, December 27th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "Since accepting a teaching position at remote Fairwick College in upstate New York, Callie McFay has experienced the same disturbingly erotic dream every night: A mist enters her bedroom, then takes the shape of a virile, seductive stranger who proceeds to ravish her in the most toe-curling, wholly satisfying ways possible. Perhaps these dreams are the result of writing her bestselling book, The Sex Lives of Demon Lovers. After all, Callie’s lifelong passion is the intersection of lurid fairy tales and Gothic literature — which is why she finds herself at Fairwick’s renowned folklore department, living in a once-stately Victorian house that, at first sight, seemed to call her name.
But Callie soon realizes that her dreams are alarmingly real. She has a demon lover — an incubus — and he will seduce her, pleasure her, and eventually suck the very life from her. Then Callie makes another startling discovery: He’s not the only mythical creature in Fairwick. As the tenured witches of the college and the resident fairies in the surrounding woods prepare to cast out the incubus, Callie must accomplish something infinitely more difficult — banishing this demon lover from her heart."

This sounded absolutely fasciniating, I mean, falling in love with an incubus? Hello complicated relationship! Or at least that was what I had been expecting. And don't get me wrong, this book was pretty enjoyable, but I had just expected something more from it I think.

Callie is an interesting main character, she's a smart girl as in book-smart. She's not always as smart when it comes to men and she's in general not a real good judge of character. I did think she dealt really well with the whole 'this town and all your co-workers are magical creatures and oh yeah, they do actually all exist' thing. I liked Callie, she was a nice girl and although she doesn't always make the right choices, she was a nice heroine.

I also liked some of the other characters in The Demon Lover, mainly one of the students and the head of the college. I did feel that most of the others were a bit two-dimensional and just lacked that extra something that makes them really come to life for me.

The thing that annoyed me at one point was that all the characters in The Demon Lover didn't make the connection between what was happening and who was the most likely suspect. I could smell it from MILES AWAY! Seriously, and these people call themselves mystical creatures that have been around for AGES! You would think they'd learn how to read people over the years...
I also thought that the relationship between Callie and another character progressed very quickly and the whole thing just felt off to me.

I just noticed The Demon Lover is the first in a series, the second book isn't on Goodreads yet, but while reading it, it felt like there should be a sequel, cause it felt unfinished. And now I know why :)

This was an enjoyable read, not amazing, but good enough for me to finish reading it.
My rating: 3 stars

6 comments:

  1. Mmm
    I remember seeing this book in NetGalley but I didn't request it, I think because it was kind of long, though I liked the premise.

    It sounds like it needed a bit more developing though, :P and I would probably grow frustrated if I saw who the culprit was a mile away but the characters didn't.

    It still seems to be an okay book, so I'm going to wait to see how the series turns out and put it in the maybe pile for now.

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    1. Me too! It's not really adding to my enjoyment of the book if I'm yelling at the characters to open their eyes and see what's happening right in front of them...

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  2. I'm glad that I skipped this one and didn't request it. It looks like I didn't miss much. Hope book 2 is better for you!

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    1. Book 2 won't be at the top of my list, but I am kind of curious to see if there will be a happy ending after all, so I might just read it after all :)

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  3. Aww, isn't it such a bummer when books just aren't as good as you expected them to be? I'm sorry this one fell flat for you!

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  4. This book sounds pretty interesting, but I don't think it's the type that I'd read. Maybe I'll check it out someday....

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