Dear Author » succubus

REVIEW: My Fair Succubi by Jill Myles

Shuzluva — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 20:41:32 +0000

Dear Ms. Myles,

You are another author whose books have caught my eye, but I haven’t managed to pick up. I’ve realized I need a lot more free time for loafing on the couch and reading. Does anyone want to give me that as a belated Hannukah or surprise Christmas gift please? Anyways, I’ve seen the (HOT) covers of the previous books in your Succubus Diaries series and thought My Fair Succubi would appeal. If that isn’t the epitome of judging a book by it’s cover, I don’t know what is.

Being a n00b didn’t deter me from jumping into the third book in the series, and I am absolutely sure that I’m lacking understanding of the nuances of what’s going on in the world of Jackie Brighton. This is both good and bad. The good: I didn’t have to deal with page after page of info dump boredom. The bad: I’m still a bit confused as to some of the aspects of worldbuilding, but it didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book. My understanding is that Jackie Brighton is a super-hot succubus with two masters, Zane, a gorgeous 4,000 year old vampire (fallen angel) and Noah Gideon a gorgeous 4,000 year old Serim (also fallen angel). Jackie loves them both, but the devil (har-de-har) is in the details.

Jackie and Noah are in the jungles of Mexico on the verge of a big find at an archaeological dig. It’s clear that Noah is in love with Jackie, and she’s…not quite there. Jackie isn’t able to sort out her feelings for both Noah and Zane and can’t figure out where she stands on being attached to a four thousand year old angel after living for 20-something years. Before she’s able to ruminate on it for any amount of time the two of them are unceremoniously dragged off to face the Serim council (a group of Earth-bound angels) for crimes they have apparently committed. Luc, an Incubus that must’ve had a starring villainous role in a prior book, manages to convince the Serim that a buncha shit that went down is all Jackie’s fault and he’s been wronged by her. Jackie is held in solitary, her watchman a Nephilim council enforcer named Ethan (his description makes me think of Dwayne Johnson with long hair…I do love me some of The Rock). Ethan, along with the Archangel Gabriel, are to bear witness to her punishment, which I’m not going to describe here because it’s horrible and hilarious at the same time. Jackie manages to get the drop on a Serim and wrangles a deal with Gabriel to retrieve the halo of the former archangel Joachim. Conveniently, Joachim is busy possessing the body of Jackie’s SuccuBFF Remy. The halo of an archangel holds an unimaginable amount of power, and Jackie wants to free Remy from Joachim’s possession, free Noah from the Serim and have the charges against her dropped, so she’s willing to go up against the odds to make it happen.

Jackie goes from one seemingly impossible situation to another, and while her actions in the face of danger may seem Marysuetastic, it wasn’t hard to remember that she’s Immortal (yes, she CANNOT be killed…she’s actually immortal) unless she’s deprived of sex for more than a certain amount of time. She’s navigating the supernatural world without a map, no one has bothered to take the time to give her the stereo instructions on being a Succubus. While this could be seen as a trope used to spring things on her, I felt this easily put the reader squarely into Jackie’s perspective without feeling like something was missing. The book is written in first person from Jackies POV, and Ms. Myles has done something that I consider amazing: Jackie’s thoughts and feelings are clear as a bell, but the first person doesn’t dampen the heat during the sex scenes or fail to convey the feelings of the other characters. And trust me, the sex scenes? I was surprised that the book and my eyeballs didn’t spontaneously combust while reading them.

I mentioned in a recent review that I don’t look for stories with love triangles, but hot damn, I think I may have a thing for them. It’s weird, because I really thought I didn’t like them. The ‘good lover/bad lover why is this woman so damn confused when the choice should be obvious’ can make a wall look like a pretty appealing target at times. However, the relationship between Jackie, Noah and Zane is totally plausible and not book-toss inducing. Jackie’s confused feelings read as completely genuine, as do Noah and Zane’s actions and reactions. I guess when a love triangle is done well, it just may be my cuppa. I hate describing books as quick, fun reads because it makes them seem disposable. This book happened to be an extremely quick (a day and a half for me, and I have three kids, a job, general insanity and I’m not the world’s fastest reader), super fun (I laughed, I got turned on, I was dying to read what happened next) read. But definitely not disposable. I’m going to pick up the Succubus Diaries backlist and get myself totally up to speed in the sexy, supernatural, mixed-up world of Jackie Brighton. B+

~Shuzluva

GUEST REVIEW: Gentlemen Prefer Succubi by Jill Myles

Guest Reviewer — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:00:14 +0000

FTC disclaimer: I won this ARC in the competition to write a review of Jane’s nonexistent weregerbil novel.

Review disclaimer: I don’t read a lot of paranormals, so take my judgments of the worldbuilding, mythology, etc. with a grain of salt.

Husband’s comment on the ARC cover: “‘Maybe bad girls do have more fun’? So, the guy on the cover is actually a bad girl??”

General summary for those who want to avoid spoilers: Jackie Brighton was living a perfectly normal life until the day she woke up in an alley and learned that, due to a series of bizarre events, she’d become a succubus. Now she’s adjusting to her new body and its needs, learning about an entire world of supernatural beings, and being pulled into intrigues that she really doesn’t understand.

This is definitely the first book of a duology if not series; don’t expect all the threads to be wrapped up at the end, and don’t expect a definitive HEA at this time. I enjoyed Jackie’s voice, found the worldbuilding interesting, and generally liked the writing. However, one of the male leads didn’t work well for me.

Possible spoilers below.

The worldbuilding generally works well for me, as far as the paranormal entities go. As I said above, I’m not a big paranormal reader, so I don’t know whether Myles’s mythology is fresh or derivative, but I found it interesting. The method of creating succubi — a combination of being drained by a vampire and sleeping with a fallen angel — was interesting (and explained why they weren’t all over the place). The side effect of being controllable by the angel and the vampire who create the succubus also added interest and tension.

Plot — the early part of the book is mostly Jackie learning about succubosity and meeting people. I put down the book about a third of the way through and forgot about it for a month and a half. But once I picked it back up and got a little further, the plot became more active and sucked (heh) me along. The Vampire Queen is definitely a scary adversary, as is Uriel. Jackie’s career turns out to be relevant to the plot, giving her some insights into the Vampire Queen and what’s going on. (I’d have been more satisfied at the end, though, if the climactic scene had been resolved by a definite action on Jackie’s part rather than an accident, and if there hadn’t been that blatant problem-for-next-book of Remy getting possessed.)

As for characters: Jackie reacts to being turned into a succubus in ways that I find eminently logical — initial disbelief, and various mistakes as she figures out how to use her new abilities. I like her general attitude; she doesn’t spend a lot of time moping or wondering “why me?” She tries things; she learns from her mistakes (and doesn’t excessively blame others for them, though I think she’s entitled to a few rounds of “Look, did you give me a copy of The Complete Guide to Succubus Life? No? Then stop being so shocked when I screw something up!”).

What especially strikes me about Jackie is how alone she is. Sure, there’s Remy, a fellow succubus, but learning succubushood from Remy is like learning algebra from a math professor who doesn’t realize that you’re deficient in basic arithmetic. (Speaking of Remy, I was very thrown on her introduction; I’ve only seen it as a male name in real life. Myles does give an explanation for the name later, but until then I was thinking she’d made a research gaffe.) Noah and Zane both have agendas of their own; other characters even more so. There’s no one who I really felt was firmly on Jackie’s side, looking out for her interests rather than primarily their own.
That’s especially true of Zane. Maybe I’m just not feeling the bad boy appeal, but Zane, while witty, didn’t charm me at all, and I didn’t buy Jackie’s decision to trust him. Noah may be less flashy, but I’m willing to believe that he won’t actively harm Jackie, even though he has the ability to do so; I’m unconvinced about Zane yet. (This might also be why the sex scenes, though hot, didn’t grab my emotions).

Still, Jackie’s short-term solution to Noah vs. Zane made absolute sense, and in this universe is especially workable. I’m curious to know whether Jackie will keep that up in the long run or whether she’ll end up relatively monogamous with one or the other. I’m also curious as to what Jackie’s going to do now that she’s been fired from the museum. I can’t yet see her following in Remy’s career footsteps (a very sensible career choice for a succubus, to be sure, but not one I see Jackie being comfortable with any time soon).

Overall, C+. It’s not quite my cuppa, but the writing style is enjoyable, and I like Jackie enough that I’ll check out the sequel if my library gets it.

~Castiron

Editorial note: I consider Jill Myles a good friend and thus I won’t be reviewing the book here on Dear Author. I am thankful that Castiron agreed to let me post this.

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

REVIEW: Wicked Hot by Charlene Teglia

Jane — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:23:34 +0000

Dear Ms. Teglia:

Okay, some background about this review. I had hoped that you would send Wicked Hot as you had all of your other books but I swore I hadn’t received it and when you sent me your contribution for the DA iPhone bookshelf, I tried to hint around that I would love to read the book. Instead of offering, you replied something to the effect of can’t wait for you to see it on the shelves.

So I mentioned that I was excited about reading your book to a friend of mine and she reminded me that not only had I read it a long time ago but that I had recommended it to her. Sadly, my mind being the sieve that it is and I couldn’t find my notes on the book and had to re-read it for the review. In any event, I enjoyed it as much the second time around.

Edna is a succubus. She seduces. Steals souls. Damns people to hell. It’s her job. She got stuck with the position as a punishment for killing someone when she was alive (she died in 1066). So for a thousand years or so, Edna has been feeding off the sexual energy of others. It’s not a terribly difficult job and it does have its perks such as the perfect body and the incredible sexual magnetism, but she’s never satiated and she pretty much is at the whim of her "boss" Nick.

Nick orders her to go forth and seduce Eli, a nephilium. A nephilium is the unholy result of a union between an angel and a human. Supposedly they had all been eliminated, but apparently they have re-emerged to restore the balance.

Edna goes forth, knowing that this is probably a losing battle and that Eli Moss will bind and banish her in an instant. She employs the time honored trick of standing with high heels and a short skirt while peering into her car to engage Eli’s interest. Unfortunately, as Edna suspects, Eli recognizes instantly she is a succubus and binds her and takes her back to his lair which is a cabin where he and his brother live. Their father mated with a human woman and had a set: The Warrior and the Teacher. Eli is the warrior.

Eli and Dal’s mission is reduce the number of demons overrunning the earth. When Eli is given Edna, he sees an opportunity which is not revealed early on so I won’t ruin it. Edna’s tasked with a particularly difficult challenge. When Eli binds her, she must do what he says, from refraining from eating to refraining from seducing. His brother Dal seems to be immune to her wicked wiles anyway. Worse, Eli tempts her with the most dangerous thing of all: the idea that she could be with someone without them losing their soul.

The book includes the fun, ribald reparte:

"She’s the tenth one this month," Dal said to Eli. "I’d say they’re escalating, except sending us a stacked blonde in a miniskirt seems more like laying down on the job."

"I like laying down on the job," I said, winking at Dal. "But sitting, standing, and kneeling all work for me, too."

"She’s a succubus," Eli reminded Dal. "She’s more dangerous than she looks. They’re not laying down on the job, they’re switching tactics."

I could quote funny parts from the book all day long. Also I thought the story included a certain humanity or depth that I felt was missing from the last collection of Teglia stories I had read and maybe that is due to the length of this allowing for greater character development. I felt that there was a good balance between Edna’s outwardly fatalistic attitude and her secretly romantic notion of shedding the curse of the succubus and having some mortal fall in love with and willingly give up his soul for her freedom.

Much of the story rests upon the sexual nature of the characters and explores the worldbuilding from that standpoint, which is another way of saying that world building is not the focus here. However, it provides a nice backdrop and some added tension to the conflict. Other complaints include that I thought Eli is an ass some of the time. Okay, a lot of the time. He irked me with his constant menial commands. I mean, he had her bound, did he have to treat her so poorly at times? It annoying. Further, I wasn’t sure I really believed in the resolution. Was it a cheat? Did it really fit? I couldn’t decide. Having said that, the book is smoking hot, funny, and I enjoyed my time spent with it, both times. B

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased in trade paperback from Amazon or Powells. No ebook format.

REVIEW: Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead

Jia — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:00:04 +0000

Dear Ms. Mead,

I don’t share Jane’s reservations about the succubus story, even in novels billed as romances. These days I take the romance label on spines with a grain of salt since there are an increasing number of books shelved in the romance section that are anything but. So I had no problem with the idea of a succubus having sex with everyone except for her boyfriend. It made sense to me. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean I don’t have any criticism. Because in addition to not being very romantic to a romance reader, its meandering plot and inconsistent characterizations failed to work for this fantasy reader as well.

Let’s start with Georgina. Ignoring the discussion of the strict heterosexuality of the succubi/incubi and preachy moralizing brought up in Jane’s review (which I also agree with), Georgina just doesn’t act and think like a succubus. When Seth’s novella is published and her co-workers assume the elevator-loving dominatrix character is based on her, her first reaction is outrage and embarrassment. Why? She’s been a succubus for several centuries. That can’t possibly be the most outrageous and humiliating thing that’s ever happened to her. We know it’s not. How can she be so blasé about being raped when talking about her past with Seth and so upset when people think she likes kinky sex?

Then there’s her incubi friend Sebastien and their scheme to take down the conservative talk show host. For two demons who specialize in sex and temptation, they can be rather unobservant about sex and temptation. I figured out the deal with Dana halfway through the book. Why did it take them until the very end to puzzle out the exact same thing? It makes me wonder if all sex demons are this incompetent, if Georgina and Sebastien are considered the cream of the crop.

As for the plot, why does the main storyline involving Georgina’s co-worker Doug take until Chapter 15 to get going? All the previous chapters were devoted to Georgina’s relationship issues with Seth and Georgina’s disastrous attempts to help Sebastien corrupt the conservative talk show host. Neither of those storylines are strong nor compelling enough to carry a book, but including them in the same novel doesn’t result in a cumulative effect either. Instead I’m left with a book that has a few smaller storylines but no main attraction and certainly nothing tying everything together.

After reading Succubus Blues and Succubus on Top, I can honestly say I have no idea what this series is aiming for. It doesn’t work as a romance because Seth is so passively accepting of their uneven relationship that we’re left to rely on Georgina’s internal conflict and that only emphasizes how inconsistent her thoughts and beliefs are with being a centuries-old succubus. It doesn’t work as a fantasy because the plot lacks focus and wanders aimlessly for the first 15 chapters of the book. There’s little drive to push the reader along. If it’s trying for both, I’m not sure how either group of readers will be satisfied.

Combined with preachy moralizing that was as subtle as an anvil dropping on my head, this proved to be a very unsatisfying read. And I’m afraid I feel absolutely no compulsion to pick up the next one. C-

My regards,
Jia

This book can be purchased in trade paperback format. No ebook I could find.

REVIEW: Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead

Jane — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:00:47 +0000

Dear Ms. Mead:

Thank you for sending us a copy of this book. I know that Jia will be reading it sometime so you may get a different review from her than from me and won’t regret sending it. Overall I think that I am not well suited for the succubus story, particularly one that is trying to be a romance. Having sex with other guys while professing to love the one you aren’t having sex with never seems terribly romantic to me.

I didn’t have a super clear recollection of what went on in book one of the series, Succubus Blues, so I think that readers who are new to you won’t have a trouble entering the series at book 2. The series is based on the life of succubus, Georgina Kincaid, who has lived for over 400 years.

Currently, Georgina is in a sexless relationship with her boyfriend, Seth, due to the fact that when they have intimate contact, Georgina can suck the life energy out of Seth and reduce his life span. So they sleep together and have other small intimacies but mostly their relationship is defined by their non sexual activities. Weird things are going on at work with her co worker’s band taking off and an old friend turning up. It’s clear to the reader, but not to Georgina, that something strange is afoot.

What strains the idea of this “true love” match is that Georgina must, on a regular basis, “feed” which consists of engaging in sexual acts with another person. I think that you try to soften this blow by alluding to the fact that these acts by Georgina are more compulsions and because they are something she must do, it really has no impact on her relationship with Seth. I can’t really buy into this because Georgina enjoys these sexual encounters so much that the compulsive overlay appears contrived.

What I really found odd in this book was the constant moralizing that was coming out of the characters’ mouths – mostly Georgina, a succubus, and Bastien, an incubus. The book had strong politically correct overtones to the point that I felt hammered down midway through the book.

Bastien, an old friend of Georgina, comes to town to take down the head of a right wing conservative coalition. The reason? Not for the pure pleasure of sucking souls out of people to serve hell. Instead,

When I manage to lure the illustrious Mrs. Dailey into physical pleasures surpassing her wildest dreams, there’ll be a camera rolling. We’re going to record this for posterity, then go to the press. Full exposure, full takedown. No more radio empire preaching to the masses to return to pure, decent ways. Even her husband’s political campaign will be marred, thus opening the door for some liberal upstart to take his place and help get this area back into the corrupt rut it so desperately longs for.

These characters are equal opportunity moralizers – there are the customers who return books that they’ve read that keep hell in business:

I finished up with the customer, telling him nicely that we couldn’t accept books in this condition. Maybe if the alleged other books were in better shape, he could bring those in. He pouted and argued a bit before finally skulking off. I rolled my eyes once he was gone. One thing that never changed among humans: there were always those who wanted to get something for nothing. It was what kept hell in business.

To the support of intellectual property of bra designers and the suffering of third world labor:

He held up the black mesh bra and peered at me through it, as though imagining how it would look on. “Although I still don’t know why you buy this stuff. Just shape-shift it.”
“I have a respect for ‘intellectual property.’ Whoever designed this deserves their pay.”
“Even if it was constructed by third-world labor?”
I made a face. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

If Bastien and Georgina are really minions of the evil underlord, wouldn’t they be thrilled with the hypocritical right wing faction as well as third world labor? Let’s assume that Georgina has a conscience, does every immortal being working for the devil also have one? That doesn’t make any sense to me. I got really tired of Bastien and Georgina proselytizing about the evils of the right wing conspiracy and that whole story line was really dull, probably because there was so little movement.

As for Seth, is there a more emasculated man in romance right now? He’s held up as this heroic fellow because he doesn’t need to sleep with Georgina to have a relationship with her and he’ll still be with her despite the fact that she goes out on a regular basis to screw other men (has to get her fix); and she goes out with other men, spends the night with them (just like she and Seth spend the night together). Seth is so understanding that I think he must be a non-sentient being. He’s an automaton.

I can’t figure out what she is giving Seth that is of any worth. She’s not honest with him. Her intimacies are no different than she has with other men. He’s not a special confidante of hers. She’ll confide in just about anyone. She can’t be physical with him. What’s left?

Weirdly there are almost no other decent women in the book. There’s a minor role played by a subjugated female who seems normal and “nice” but everyone else is a minion of hell or “crazy-bitch-dyke”. So of course, Georgina’s entire circle is men.

I thought when I first read this series that it was going to be subversive; that the story would take the original mythology and turn its on its head. Instead I find that the story has only a slight basis in the myth which is Georgina’s need for regular sex. In nearly every other way, Georgina is merely the average romance heroine who is trying to be pure in heart even though she can’t be pure in body. Her constant questioning of whether she was “in love” with Seth showed me that she really wasn’t.

The story picked up steam when the mystery of Georgina’s co-worker takes center stage but that is not until Chapter 18 or so. Georgina and Seth’s relationship which serves as so much of the emotional plot for this story reads too false for me to be interested and the mystery, while good, took far too long to develop. I think this is probably the end of the line for me and Georgina. C-

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased in trade paperback format. No ebook I could find.

REVIEW: The Road to Hell by Jackie Kessler

Jane — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:00:28 +0000

Dear Ms. Kessler:

I think The Road to Hell suffers from a mistaken identity. It is a book that would be better as a straight urban fantasy rather than trying to shoehorn into the romance genre. The ostensible conflict in this story is the female protagonist trying to maintain her relationship with her boyfriend and supposed true love, Paul Hamilton, a New York City vice cop. Problem is that Jesse’s body can’t stop responding to other men’s touches. Her stripping joint is shut down. She’s being tortured in different ways to come down to hell and save her former best friend who betrayed her. Everyone wants a piece of Jesse, particularly Hell where she escaped.

Writing a succubus turned human within the romance genre has it perils because if the construct is a couple (or a committed threesome), then one who plies her sex trade with glee has an inherent conflict with the genre construct. To that end, if the book wasn’t meant to be a romance and if it didn’t try so hard to sell the reader on the idea that Jesse, former demon and now stripper extraordinaire, was in love with and wanted a committed relationship with Paul, it would have been much more readable.

Jesse’s first two sexual encounters were with men not Paul. In fact, when I started reading the book I thought perhaps Paul and Jesse had broke up. From the first chapter:

Watching Ranger transform from a blushing boy into a seasoned man sent a delicious tingle up my spine. Yum.

Stop that, Jesse. Don’t get all hot and bothered by the nice customer. A friendly chat, a little drink in the mega-expensive Champagne Room, a private dance or two, clothing optional. No more.

Then, out on a date with Paul, Jesse encounters her former coworker, Daun, an incubus.

Invisible fingers stroked my tits until I groaned. He said, “I love a challenge.”

“Bastard.”

“Flatterer.” The ghostly fingers moved down my body until they brushed against my inner thighs. Wetness gushed against my panties, and I shivered in Daun’s arms. My mouth opened wide as I gasped with pleasure, and Daun crushed his lips against mine.

I wasn’t sure why Harris was with Paul. Her self proclaimed soul connection seemed sorely lacking when her body was entertaining several others. I felt that the self stated true love between Harris and Paul was an attempt to appease the romance hea-loving crowd. Paul, however, is one dimensional, prosy and boring. I could not for the life of me figure out why Jesse was with Paul. I suppose he represents the “good” and Jesse represents the “bad” but that type-casting leads to stale storytelling.

Jesse and Paul argue a bit over her over familiarity with other men, but Jesse tells him that he is unfairly jealous, after all, he was dancing with some chick who was not Jesse. Tit for tat, I guess. The creation of this emotional tension was contrived for me because Jesse’s heart clearly wasn’t in it. She is too easily distracted by the pleasures of the flesh and given her background, who can blame her. Problem is she is off professing that Paul was her one true love. The asserted devotion to one man seemed to be forced, no matter how many times Jesse chanted the mantra. The shoe simply did not fit.

I know I would have liked this story so much more if there was no romance. If it was just Jesse– enjoying pleasure with as many guys as she pleased and kicking as much demon ass as possible. The forced and contrived romance and the lackluster characterization of Paul overshadows the detailed worldbuilding and tarnishes the charm of Jesse Harris.

Remove the romance and you remove interesting character motivation but some other motivation, maybe just the exploration of being human after being a demon and fighting off the various beings, including her so called friends, that are wanting her newly gained soul would have been enough. I’ll never know, of course, what could have been. C-

Best regards

Jane

This book can be purchased in trade paperback. (no ebook format I could find)

REVIEW: My Immortal by Erin McCarthy

Jane — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:00:26 +0000

Dear Ms. McCarthy:

I have liked your lighthearted works in the past but I wasn’t at all disturbed that you were exploring a darker side of your writing. On a superficial level, this book worked and I thought it took chances, but a deeper examination revealed some character trends that I found unappealing.

The story opens with Damien, an 18th Century dissolute and wealthy southern landowner, taking a demon into his arms and asking her for a favor. The favor is granted and we fade to black. The story re-engages in the modern day when Marley Turner makes a stop at Damien’s plantation in search of her missing, irresponsible sister. Marley Turner is the perfect temptation to Damien who has been abstaining for 200 years as a self imposed punishment. If he takes Marley, he endangers whatever soul he may have left to his succubus/incubus masters.

I was initially fascinated by the idea of the redemption Damien du Bourg. In the initial scenes, he is cruel and selfish. I almost wondered if he was really the hero. The problem is that I never got to see the redemption of Damien du Bourg. He was simply reformed in the pre-book years. I learned why he reformed and how he reformed, but I never go to see it and that reduced my pleasure in the storyline. I almost felt like there was some revisionist history that took place to reform him, as if the scene that depicted him taking pleasure without regard for others really didn’t exist like it unfolded at the beginning of the book.

Marley Turner is a school teacher and to some extent is stereotypical. She’s unmarried. She’s sexually repressed. Her sister is irresponsible and sexually wild. To some degree, I felt like there was a clear demarcation of the women in this book. On the one hand there were the good women – the ones that needed awakening to sexual pleasure, like Marley. On the other, there were the bad, ammoral, and evil girls like Marley’s sister or the demons who gave Damien his wish for immortality – and they all loved sex, in all its various incarnations. I don’t think that this was intentional because I felt like the message, if there is one, in this book was that sex was a good and wonderful thing but the patterns that emerged were disturbing and contradictory.

The best parts of the book, I felt, weren’t necessarily the ones between Marley and Damien but rather between Damien and his wife in the 18th Century. This story was told to Marley by a woman living on Damien’s property and through the use of letters. What happened to Damien’s wife was crucial to his redemption was the most compelling part of the story. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that the story was very, very erotic and part of the sexuality was provided by the atmosphere and not just the intimate scenes.

I liked the darker aspects of the book and wish that they had been explored more fully. I am hoping the next book is about the conflicted demon, Rosa, who both tormented and protected Damien. She’s got a story to tell and I want to read it. B-

Best regards,

Jane

REVIEW: Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

Jane — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:00:05 +0000

Dear Ms. Mead:

When I pulled up your book out of the stack to read, I thought that if I had to read one more female first person narrated paranormal that I I may poke out my eyes and never read again. Then I began to read and remembered why I had read so many female first person narrated paranormals in the first place. When the lead is charming and unaffected and the alternate reality is richly drawn, it is easy to escape into the author’s world.

Georgina Kincaid is a succubus who draws life energy from having sex with mortals. She sold her soul to Lilith many thousands of years ago to rectify a mistake she made and she now pays for it with her life. Georgina does not, in any way, feel sorry for herself. She has made the best lemonade she can from her situation but the hundreds of years that have passed have only heightened her state of loneliness. She cannot love because every intimate touch draws life away from the mortal and who kills the person that they love the most? [rhetorical question, of course]

Georgina is currently inhabiting a cute ~~redhead’s~~ brunette’s body and has made a life for herself in Seattle as an assistant manager of an independent bookstore. She obviously has no love life. Her looks are unimportant as she can shape shift. Her John Cusack look alike boss, Jerome, wants her to seduce more men. There is a succubus quota that Georgie’s not quite filling. She’s kind of a slacker succubus. Plus, someone is going around hurting Georgie and her friends (an incubus and a couple of vamps) and it may lead to an immortal throw down of some epic kind.

Georgie’s personal life heats up with the arrival of her favorite author, Seth Morgenstern, in the bookstore for a signing, and the appearance of a very attractive stranger, Roman. Roman aggressively pursues Georgie and while she enjoys the attention, she knows that she cannot be intimate with him. Meanwhile, she and the very shy Seth begin developing a relationship which can also go nowhere.

Georgie’s dissatisfaction is completely believable. She wants a personal connection but her nature denies her. Her life is spent hanging out with her guy friends and reading books. She’s a bit neurotic but she’s had centuries to refine her seduction tecniques to perfection. The shy Seth contrasted with the bold Roman was a great touch.

The problems are that the story is completely devoid of any other meaningful women. There are passing appearances but Georgie has not even one immortal female friend. It seemed odd. A cast of a thousand men appear in this book and many of them could be future love interests for Georgie which makes me leery of future books. [I like to call this the Anita Blake effect]. There was also an issue I had with an event at the end of the story which I felt was unexplained but in clarification I will state I thought while it was explained it seemed weak and contradictory to the fundamental rules that had been built up for Georgie and her world.

Having said that, Georgie is very appealing. The dialogue is smart and the story sped by. I will definitely be aboard for another book. B

Best regards,

Jane

REVIEW: Hell’s Belles by Jackie Kessler

Jane — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 09:00:53 +0000

Dear Ms. Kessler:

As you said when you sent me this book, hell is the new black and you must be glad that your book is released at the forefront of the paranormal romance craze to redeem demons and Hell. This is a first person story told by succubus turned mortal, Jezebel. She flees Hell after there was been a regime change. In order to avoid a fate worst than death, Jezebel turns into a mortal to avoid being sensed by demons. There is a big bounty on her head to the demon who can find her. Jezebel finds that the perfect occupation for a reformed succubus is stripping. She knows all about how to turn a man on and how to use her body to do it.

The plot focuses on Jezebel turning from demon to mortal, from being amoral to caring about others and the reason, of course, that she is fleeing hell after centuries of stealing men’s souls. This was the best part of the story. That and Jezebel’s frank enjoyment of the hedonistic pleasures of the world: from drinking coffee and eating chocolate to having sex. Another interesting part of the book was the very vivid descriptions of Hell which was a kingdom of its own.

The problems this book had were few, but disruptive. First, there seemed to be world building inconsistencies. I.e., Jezebel is around for thousands of years and knows about McDonald’s, Boston Coffee Exchange, and Au Bon Pain but isn’t sure why Krispy Kremes is spelled with a K. She knows all about ATMs, panty liners, and G-strings but not about pop culture. Second, I was unclear as to whom gets tormented by demons like Jezebel. Initially it seems like demons are only allowed to torment bad guys, those who have sold their soul to the devil or something like that. However, early on we meet Paul who is a recent victim of Jezebel’s and there is nothing in his story to suggest he deserved a nighttime visit from a soul sucking succubs. Another disappointment for me was the lack of sleuthing that the beginning of the story intimated. (or I thought was intimated). This was less a mystery romance than a chick lit-find-your-mortal-heart-inside-the-demon-body.

The one other challenge this book presents to traditional romance readers, although I can’t say it bothered me tremendously, is that Jezebel has sex with more than one character whilst she has feelings for the “hero” in the story. I have to confess that I am still not entirely sold as to who Jezebel’s match is.

Overall, this story features a strong female lead whose unabashed joy in her own skin made for a fun read. B-. This book is due to be released on January 1, 2007. An excerpt is available here.

Best regards,

Jane