It's Urban Fantasy with a bit of Spicy Romance...according to KotRT (which is where I received this book), "Spicy" means that there's on screen sex scenes that are written in an artistic and less graphic manner. Sure, I've read urban fantasy and, sure, I've read spicy romances, but never together.
I'm not sure how I feel about the romance aspect. There's nothing more off-putting than reading about demons and the Dark Lord and then having a bonded couple 'coo' terms of endearment. Please do not misunderstand...I love that Deva and Padraig learn from and grow because of each other. I find it interesting that the Goddess has deemed this so because of a past mistake she created. I just wish I wasn't made aware of it all of the time.
That being said...let's break this book down...
Cover: um, yeah, no...I would never have bought this book based on the cover...it looks like cheap porn and not at all like the feel the book gives...even the fonts are wrong.
Characters: At first Deva seemed a little too tough and then she seemed a little too girlie and weak, when she got to be about right the book was over. I think this character progression was on purpose. Padraig was also a character who progressed nicely. My only complaint is that there are too many. This book moves like one of those sweeping sagas...only it isn't that long and I got lost in all the character names, personalities and actions. There were sooo many characters floating around that sometimes I didn't know which were good or had a hint of evil and, sadly I didn't care when any died. And, a lot do.
Plot and Setting: Seriously, fun story about the Dark Lord coming back to claim Earth and the Goddesses' ultimate weapon, Deva, must save the world. It's cool to read a story that moves like fantasy, but is set in the world of Hum-Vs and technology. DeLeon does an excellent job of conveying this world and I love the descriptions of places in the United States that I know mixed with ancient stories. I enjoyed the battle scenes loads.
Style and Pacing: This book had strange pacing that made it really hard for me to get into the first half of the book. I kept on thinking that I'd skimmed over something only to go back and reread and recognize that nothing was missing. There's much detail given to whole days to have weeks summed up in a few paragraphs and whole scenes would sometimes last pages, while weeks would be glossed over. I'm not really sure how much time is given to the whole novel. It seems like years, but I think it's only supposed to be a month or two.
So, while this book is not quite American Gods or The Chronicles of Amber (the only other urban fantasies I can think of that I have read), I enjoyed the added romance novel twist and look forward to reading the 2nd book.
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