Title: Demons Are A Girl's Best Friend
Author: Linda Wisdom
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Number of Pages: 384
Source: Sent to me by the Publisher to Read
Edited to add: I am unable to do the readathon here, so if I'm on your list, please cross me off, thanks...
Demons Are A Girl's Best Friend is a new Urban Fantasy out by Linda Wisdom. I have to admit even I after finishing it, I'm still all over the place on my thoughts on it. I kept going back and forth between loving it, to being confused, to not liking it to loving it again.
Maggie is a 700 yr old witch and is apart of the Hellion's Guard-a paranormal law enforcement agency. She loves her job, even if it means she doesn't have much a social life. She's on assignment to catch a creature on the run, it takes her to Damnation Alley, a night club for everything paranormal, and she has a run in with the new owner, Declan half fire demon and half human when the creature she's trying to capture explodes all over the place ruining half of the club he just took over. Maggie doesn't think she'll run into the hot night club owner again after her last case ended so badly, but finds out otherwise. Her newest case involves trying to stop a bunch of demons from bringing back the ancient Mayan God of Destruction, and it leads her right to Declan. The two are forced to work together to help protect
a 15 yr old human teenager, Courtney when it's learned that the demons want to use her as a sacrifice.
With any new series, there is a lot of world building. I thought the first 130 pages or so had so much information on the new world being created that it was a little hard keeping all the characters straight and why they have the magical abilities they have...for example, Maggie, the main character is a witch, and while we're told that she was taken to a witches academy after her family died, we aren't told really why the academy took her in. I have a feeling that this is when it would have been helpful to have read the Jazz series by this author. I'm sure Maggie was introduced there, and some of her back story told. Another character where we had bits and pieces of information thrown at us was with one of my favorite characters in the book, Elle is a black widow spider. While we were told that she has her own mini computer and social life, it wasn't until half way through the book that we learn that she's actually a tattoo on Maggie's arm that can leave it, kind of like Semi and Archeron, (of the Dark Hunters Series) but it's not explained how or why she can do it.
Another thing that confused me was that half way through the book characters from this authors other series are mentioned by Declan. They are just thrown out there and then brought into conversation from time to time, but as I hadn't read that series I had no idea how Maggie became friends with them, and thought it was weird that they while their names were mentioned, they didn't make any sort of appearance to bridge the two series. While it seems like I had a lot of problems with the book, there were a lot of good moments with it as well. What I did like was Maggie's personality and her chemistry with Declan. It took me a bit to get used to the brashness of Maggie's sense of humor, but once I caught on to it, I really liked it. She is also my favorite kind of heroine-tough, independent and not afraid to take chances and kick a little demon butt. I also liked how even though she had her doubts about Declan, and fought her attraction to him, it didn't take over the storyline and somehow worked. I just loved these two. Declan totally has potential to climb into book boyfriend material. He wasn't your typical alpha demon-I thought he kind of let Maggie take charge, and I liked that. He was also the one trying to convince her that they should be together instead of the other way around. I should throw out a warning here-even though there is a touch of romance, it's not the entire story there's just enough of it to make you want more.
While I did have some issues with this book, I can't wait to see where this series goes...I also want to read the Jazz series by this author to see if it helps me with the issues I had in this book. Edited to add: I thought this was the beginning of a new series, but I couldn't find out the series name on Goodreads or Amazon, so I'm assuming that it's a stand alone book.
Curran Crush Meter: Medium-low
Martini Sigh Meter: Medium
Barron's Hero Hotness Meter: Medium Low
Rhiannon Heroine Kick Ass Meter: High
Ethan/Merit Sizzle Meter: Medium-Low
Giguhl Sidekick Meter: High
