Cassandra has recovered from the grand revelations of the
first book, but the shadows still haunt her. Particularly, they haunt her
dreams –dreams about Hell and it being a home to her, calling to her demonic
blood.
But she has her own reason for going to Hell – her father
is still trapped. A demon, but one her mother loved and one she desperately
needs back to help her mother deal with the major changes in her life. A demon
who turned his back on Hell – especially since Cassie’s blood contains the power
to change a demon back to a Guardian.
But the one person who can help her get to Hell is Caleb,
the ex-demon she is not sure she can trust, is constantly trying to seduced her
and has his own ultimatum – she can rescue her father but Hunter, the man, the
demon, she loves must remain in Hell, no matter what tortures he is suffering.
This book, this world has such a gem of potential. The
battle to save souls between the tempting and devious demons and the Guardians
who, driven by prophetic dreams and visions, try to twist fate back the other
way. The grand battle between the angels and the demons to save or recruit
souls to fill their armies. It’s both epic and, because the battles are about
personal visions, also deeply personal. It’s about a war on a grand scale and
What saddens me is we don’t really see any of the wider
world, or this epic struggle or even the daily dealing with the struggle.
Instead we focus on Cassandra and her personal aims – which entirely focuses on
men. Either a man she loves, a man she’s attracted to, or her father.
I would quite like a story about her rescuing her father
for her mother’s sake – but even then I’d appreciate more backstory than we got
in the first or this book. Who is her father? Is he important in a grander scale?
Is there a reason why we can be sure that he, as a demon, is going to be trustworthy?
He is, after all, a demon. It could be more of a driving quest if we had seen
more of Cassie’s mother, of how the missing father had affected them both, if
we could get a little more of a sense of how important or resonant a mission
this is for Cassie
I’m not sold on either Caleb or Hunter – Cassie hasn’t
known either of them very long but finds both compelling, attractive and, on
some level, trustworthy. But they’re demons and a relatively short acquaintance
of good behaviour doesn’t deserve the level of trust she shows, I think. I
especially don’t like that we’re expected to see the suspicions of Cassie’s
friends – and a particularly stubborn angel – as perhaps a little unreasonable
when it’s really quite natural.
While I’m much happier with Cassie taking charge of her
own life and choices in this book, even adamantly refusing to accept the
dictates and ultimatums of the men around her.
But… her choices aren’t great. They’re not awful to the
point of spunkiness, but they’re unfinished. She wants to get to hell to rescue
her father – that’s fine. But that’s a statement of intent, not a plan. But so
much of Cassie’s planning follows that same path – she wants something, she
intends to act to achieve it – but there’s no detail and it eventually falls
apart. Ultimately her plans collapse because they’re not plans – she arrives in
Hell and hopes that the rest will become clear – or that Caleb or Hunter will
be able to take it from there. She makes deals with demons because she hopes
they will work out – or she thinks she has no choice. And sometimes she doesn’t
have a choice, but she’s only in the position of having no choice because of
her previous shoddy decision making.
Her poor plan in the beginning leaves her and Hunter with
few choices and none of them good, ending up being more of who can sacrifice
dramatically for who. We end up being in the unpleasant place of Cassie making
a poorly thought out decision and hoping that Caleb, then Hunter, can finish it
off or work it out for her. It doesn’t help that the book ends with a quite
literal Deus Ex Machinae – which is unfortunate because that’s pretty much how
the first book ended as well. Flailing around with ill thought out plots until
the divine one rescues you is not decision making.
I’m afraid I can’t really get behind the evil either. The
big big bad who, given who he is, should be so very bad indeed just felt a
little cartoon villainy and just so overdramatic without anything to really
back that up. I’m also a little non-plussed that the worst torture Hell can
offer is watching your ex make out with someone else. I mean, really? Because I
think of 83 things you can do with a pair of pliers alone that strikes me as far
worse. In fact, perhaps due to my unpleasant imagination and broad reading
selection, I can think of literally thousands of things that would be far far
far worse than watching Beloved go at it with an entire football team.
This is one of the reviews that’s hard for me to write
and not just because I like the author but, sadly, am not a big fan of this
book. It’s hard to write because the book didn’t do a lot that was overtly
objectionable to me – but nor did it do anything to really engage, excite or enthral
me. I didn’t enjoy reading this book, I didn’t hate reading this book. I don’t
like the characters, I don’t hate them.
I don’t like the story, I don’t hate it. There are elements that annoy
me, but don’t outrage me. There are elements that intrigue me, but don’t
fascinate.
There’s just a lot that isn’t quite to my taste but not
enough for me to say anything truly bad about it. I think this series could
really go somewhere – if Cassie started coming into herself more, realising her
own power, making good, informed decisions and the focus was broader than the
men Cassie loves.
A copy of this book was provided by the author for a review
