Rafe Deleon is summoned by the high council. Chaos has broken out in the demon world and they need Rafe’s help. His sister has sacrificed herself for the lives of the other demons and he wants to go save her but the council has other plans. The Chest of the Damned has gone missing and it has ended up on Earth. Rafe must retrieve it before the other demons find it and bring hell upon Earth.
Lucy Gregory owns a hip beauty salon and enjoys spending time with her eccentric friends. Her friend, Serah, brings an antique chest to her shop and insists that Lucy translate the Latin inscription carved into the box. When they learn that the box is damned, they all become paranoid, especially because Lucy keeps getting shocked whenever she touches the box. It’s Lucy who ends up opening the box and unleashing chaos into her world.
Rafe discovers that the box is located in the salon and tries to retrieve it but he is stopped by a sexy succubus. The problem is that Lucy doesn’t even know she is a succubus which creates more problems. When she opened the chest, it unleashed her sexual powers and she is struggling to come to grips with the fact that she is a sex demon.
With Rafe’s help, they must fight off the bad guys and protect Lucy from the clutches of Belial, a dangerous and powerful demon. My problem with the story is that it is clear up front what will happen but the execution is poor. The action is almost non-existent until the very end and frankly by then, I wish there had been more to keep me more entertained.
The characters are fun and witty. At times the funny banter seems a bit juvenile leaving me wishing for more developed and mature characters. The possibility of dangerous demons coming to harm Lucy is a very serious situation but they constantly brushed that aside to make jokes and act as though everything is completely normal.
There is entirely too much dialogue without explanations. The author gives background information in small doses. When starting a series, world building should have been more detailed and concise. The story moves slowly in spots especially the beginning. There is constant anticipation that the story will pick up speed and action will follow in pursuit but it falls short, therefore resulting in Demon Prefer Blondes being a decent read but not fully reaching its potential.
Overall, good start but this book has definitely hit some of the first series issues that are common with new authors.
~ Samantha |