Personal Demons by Stacia Kane

I'm sunburned today, and I don't mean just a little bit pink. NOOOOOOO, we spent the day at the lake yesterday and I toasted myself. It's insane. I do this every year now, burn really bad once and then tan over, but dayum, I don't think I've ever had a burn this bad before. The good news is that I now have the burn out of the way and won't have to deal with it again this year. The bad news is I have to survive the pain from this one. So, if you have any recommendations besides aloe (because it doesn't seem to be helping) for a burn I'm all ears!

Before I start let me just remind you about the contest I'm running right now. Click here for details. Also, you may have noticed I've changed the look of the blog, and I still don't like it much, so don't be surprised if you see many more changes. Don't worry, the content will stay the same, it's only the layout that will be changing. And now on with it...

Personal Demons by Stacia Kane
(BCC)

Megan promises listeners to her new radio call-in show that she'll "slay their personal demons," and they believe her. So do the personal demons. Although she doesn't know it, Megan is the only human without a personal demon on her shoulder. This, coupled with her psychic abilities, makes her a valuable weapon for any demon "family" that can gain her allegiance. It also makes her a serious threat - not just to the personal demons, but to a soul-sucker known as The Accuser who has an old score to settle.

Megan and her allies - a demon lover who both protects and seduces her with devilish intensity, a witch with poor social skills, and three cockney guard demons - have to deal not only with The Accuser, the personal demons, and the ghosts of Megan's past, but with a reporter who threatens to destroy Megan's career.

I actually like this BCC. If I were to pick this book off a shelf and read it, it would have the desired effect - I would buy the book. Although the last little bit of the copy makes it sound as if the book is almost light and slapstick - y, in fact, I don't think I really even smirked throughout my entire reading of the book.

Megan is a therapist who also happens to be psychic (and is it just me or does that word look funky?), To tell you the truth, I couldn't really understand what exactly her psychic power allowed her to do. I know that when she discussed problems with clients, it was like she was living what they were talking about, and she could see their lives somewhat - like friends, work, etc. - I think what she was most specifically was perhaps a mind reader? I know that's a lame term, but I can't think of any word better than that, and I'm too lazy to use Google at the moment.

Anyway, she agrees to do a call in radio show "Personal Demons" where she attempts to help callers and the catch phrase suggests she is slaying the demons. Well, the demon world stands up and takes notice and after the first night on the air Megan is visited by a demon, Dante. Of course, she first thinks he's a lawyer.

Soon, Megan finds out that the real personal demons feel threatened by her and feel that she really is trying to slay them, and that a really big bad is out to get her as well. If that's not enough, Megan has some demons of her own to deal with - her past.

With the help of Dante, Megan tries to focus her power, avoid the demons, and flat out stay alive. At the same time, she has to deal with a reporter for a tabloid that is doing a feature on her as publicity for the radio show. All while being extremely attracted to Dante.

To tell you the truth, I liked the book - but I didn't. There was no real flow at all to the course of events. I didn't feel the attraction between Megan and Dante, and that made it seem incredibly forced. The events leading up to the "big bad" just seemed to take up too much space, and the ending seemed rushed to the extreme.

The cockney demons sent by Dante to protect Megan did endear themselves to me, and I can't wait to see those characters again. And while I did have trouble with all of the bits that make the whole, I did enjoy the whole. I actually found myself liking Megan and Dante and routing for them. I like the concept of the book, and look forward to seeing what happens next with the characters (this is the first in a series). However, this will not be an auto-buy for me. Not yet anyway.

The premise is intriguing, if not as well executed as I had hoped. There was humor, suspense, paranormal, and a bit o' horror, but they weren't quite blended together seamlessly. I can only hope that in the future that is remedied, because I can see this turning into a really phenomenal series.

Take Care