Review: And Justice for some
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 15, 2013
I read Death Is A Bitch, and loved it so much I bought Cursed in hopes it was as dazzling with the characters and world building. Ms Masters tells a well balanced story using expert pacing, intriguing but human characters, and a writing style that is near poetic.The story starts off hot and steamy with Azrael sweating through his first meeting with the immortal ranks under his new title as Director of the Department of Death and Dying. The one employee he is most anxious to impress, Death herself, appears the least impressed by his management style. Especially when his first conversation with Death leaves him fumbling to rectify an unintended insult.I liked how efficiently Ms Masters introduced the world, the hierarchy, the main characters and the love interest. While firmly setting the story in the paranormal, the reader easily envisions a comparable real-world corporate environment. The atmosphere is not a exploration of right and wrong, or even a good-vs-evil fight for human souls. Its about Justice vs Injustice, and the lengths a jilted, jealous lover will go to win her back.Not that Damien the Demon should feel the loss of one potential flame. He is as beautiful in form as Azrael, and a sociable charmer who uses his forked tongue in more intimate places than whispering in a lover's ear. He has willing partners by the dozens. But he doesn't like being rejected, and he is hurt to his hellish roots when both Death, and the soul he has arrived to procure a devilish deal with, leaves in the comforting light of Azrael.Tensions mount as Damien sets a trap that involves releasing King Sisyphus from his eternal damnation, capturing Death within her own gilded cage, and instigating a series of miscommunication between Azrael and Death so that when the two burgeoning lovers are together during the course of performing their duties, they are too frustrated to follow their lusty hearts.Ms. Masters keeps the sexual tension high, and moves along both the romance and several story plots, all while showing that romance in the after life is as complex as the judicial system that weighs deeds of demons and mankind alike. The ending of this story is satisfactorily wrapped up, even as the status quo remains intact.I give Death Is A Bitch by Cate Masters 5 stars for steamy romance, sexual heat, excellent world building, and one of the most entertaining stories I've read all year.