Personal Demon

This is the 8th book in the ‘Women of the Otherworld” series, and is a blast. I greatly enjoyed reading it. Unlike some series, where the author tries to throw a little bit of each of the previous characters into every book, this one doesn’t have unneeded mention of characters that aren’t involved. Yes, there are nods to previous books and prior characters make an appearance when it makes sense. But it does make sense.

This particular book is the first in the series that has two narrators. Every previous book has been told from the first-person point-of-view from the female protagonist. This one also has a male first-person POV (and not the heroine’s love interest) that was included because there were some elements to the story that can’t be told from her eyes. She would have no way of seeing some of the things that happen; instead of telling them second-hand, or fabricating a reason for her to be present, Kelley used dual-narration. I really like it. I think the narrating style works well. The story told by Hope (the heroine) is truly only half the story; adding Lucas’ half really makes the book.

I don’t know that I would call this book my favorite in the series. Hope is not my favorite of the characters (though not my least favorite either) and so the book’s not quite the same as the books where I really connect with the narrators. Lucas, however, is a favorite, and so I love his sections. Even without this being my favorite, however, Personal Demon does make the short list of my favorite books from the past couple of years. ( )

Hope is conned into a Cabal investigation. Spying feeds her need for chaos, but nothing is exactly as it seems, pulling Lucas, Paige and Karl into her investigation. Hope has to come to terms with her demon half and sorting out her relationship with Karl and the Cabal.
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So I can't get into this book, I know we were introduced to Hope and Karl before but they aren't charterers I really care about I think this and the next book I'm going to skip ( )

I wasn't sure I'd like Hope at the beginning. I didn't know what to make of her, I didn't want to read about another super-powerful demon, I was worried she'd be either too powerful or the thing that hindered her power would be too crippling. I ended up liking her. She's, well, normal, or as normal as you can be as a half-Chaos demon, tabloid reporter, former debutante. The drawback to her powers is that she likes the feelings of chaos, harm, death, and she doesn't like that she likes it. Instead of turning that into some moral tale, Hope has to learn how to live with it, enjoying what she can despite her ethics, while still keeping in control and not causing the chaos she desires.

I also liked Hope working for the Cortez Cabal. I like Benicio Cortez. Okay, fine, he's a sorcerer but I like him. I don't like Karl and his wolfness being all possessive. (Least favorite werewolf trope? Close to it.) In many ways, I liked the supernatural gang. I could understand why they sought shelter with each other and fought against the cabals; they don't have much choice in their lives.

I was so bummed about Jaz being the bad guy. I liked Hope having fun with him, with this guy who laughed and wanted to have fun. I liked her relaxing and just letting it be. She may be a supernatural, but she's young and she deserves fun. Jaz was fun.

One thing I wish was different was her name. Hope is Indian and there's a thing about how her name doesn't reflect it even though her looks do, but I wanted her race to be just sort of matter of factly there. This might be me wanting this to reflect my friends of Indian descent and their names, but it also seems it would be easier to not have people constantly comment on her name and ethnicity not going hand in hand. ( )

I enjoyed learning a lot more about Hope in this book, and I always enjoy it when Lucas and Paige pop up. The brief view of Cabal politics and infighting was interesting (but honestly about as much as I want of that). I think it's an unpopular opinion, but I don't care for Karl. I don't hate him as I hate Clayton, but the whole alpha male "I know whats best for you better then you do" thing just doesn't work for me at all and there's a little too much of that here. He does have a few more redeemable moments here, and because of that I can accept Karl and Hope as a pair. The secondary characters introduced here were interesting enough to care about, and it's a pretty good mystery as well. ( )