Book Review: The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark

The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark

Series: First book in a series, though no sequels have been announced yet
Genre(s): Contemporary Fantasy
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: 27 December 2011
Available Formats: Trade Paperback, Ebook
Description:
I gasped, or tried to. My mouth opened, but I couldn’t draw breath. His lips, pearly wet, parted and he blew into my mouth. My lungs expanded beneath his weight. When I exhaled he sucked my breath in and his weight turned from cold marble into warm living flesh.

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 her having written the bestselling book The Sex Lives of Demon Lovers. Callie’s lifelong passion is the intersection of lurid fairy tales and Gothic literature—which is why she’s found 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: Her incubus is 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 demon, Callie must accomplish something infinitely more difficult—banishing this supernatural lover from her heart.

This review is based on a copy received from the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

This is a difficult review to write because even a few days after finishing this book, I’m not quite sure what I think about it. The concept is interesting, and I like the setting, but the plot is uneven and heavy-handed and there are almost too many characters to really get a feel for any of them. I would read a bit, get bored, then read a bit more and find myself really interested, but within the next chapter or two, I was bored again. Overall, it was just a very uneven read.

Also, it looks like Amazon is marketing this book as a paranormal romance. It’s not. It’s a contemporary fantasy with erotic content, but please do not go into this book expecting the happily-ever-after that you would expect from paranormal romance. That’s definitely not the genre of this book, and the lack of the HEA is not a flaw. It’s just not what the author was doing here.

The descriptions, particularly of Honeysuckle House and the Gothic university campus, are atmospheric and very creepy. I also like how the author has co-opted various mythologies and blended them into this new world. It’s hard to discuss the concept and setting without spoilers, so I’ll have to be vague. I like books that deal with hidden magic in our world, and this one handles that pretty nicely, with the magic right under the protagonist’s oblivious nose, which actually leads me to one of my biggest issues with this book.

The set up for the big surprise is so obvious that I was left feeling like the protagonist, Dr. Cailleach “Callie” McFay, was either completely blind or just kind of dumb. I had the feeling that her demon lover was supposed to be suffused with mystery, and that I as the reader wasn’t supposed to be able to see exactly what was going on. However, I figured out exactly what the shadowy dream figure is very early on, and as soon as the other characters started dropping enormous hints in the form of paintings and myths, I spent the next however many pages before Callie figured it out rolling my eyes and feeling impatient that this supposedly smart character didn’t catch the hints.

I’m not usually the best sleuth; I like being surprised by the final reveal and anyway, I’m just not a great reading detective. I’d figured out who was what mysterious creature and who was responsible for draining the life out of students WAY before the end of the book. I was a little surprised by one small plot twist at the very end, but overall, I felt like the mystery’s clues were way too heavy-handed.

I still don’t know if I like Callie or not. She’s in her mid-twenties with a PhD in Folklore and a bestselling nonfiction book about the sex lives of various demon lovers. Universities are courting her to teach folklore. I have a Master’s in English, and just from my own experience, folklore isn’t a subject with a lot of job opportunities, especially not at large universities. It makes sense that a small college like Fairwick, where Callie ends up working, would jump to hire her, but the idea that she has multiple offers to teach exactly what she wants to teach just isn’t believable. Sorry, I don’t buy into the idea that universities are desperate to have someone teach vampire literature. I also don’t buy the idea that she could make a crapton of money in an advance for a nonfiction book about the folklore of vampires and incubi. It’s a popular subject, yeah, but… Callie as a character reads more like an English major’s wet dream than a believable character.

On the other hand, aside from her professional life, Callie’s personality is believable to the point of being uncomfortable. She’s a city girl, raised by a wealthy grandmother, and she’s… well, kind of a snob. I definitely bought into that aspect of her personality, what with her snobby reactions and first-person narration about Christian Louboutin shoes and dresses from high-class stores. It’s not that I completely disliked Callie–she did have her moments–but at the same time, she came off cold to me. I wasn’t terribly sympathetic to her because she’s the kind of person I would probably actively dislike in real life.

There will obviously be more books after this one, since it ends with major hints of upcoming problems for Callie. I may pick up the next book in the series, but I have to admit, I don’t know if I’m emotionally invested enough in the characters to care.

Preorder It Now:

Reviews Elsewhere:

Dark Side of the Covers
.bibliophile. .anonymous.
Book Savvy Babe