Review: The trouble with publisher hopping...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 04 23, 2013
Phenex is a fallen angel who, along with several of his fellow fallen, has been cast out of Hell too. Working for the vampires as a protector of the supernatural hidden city of Terra Noctem his talents as the former Angel of Song get him by but leave him very little true pleasure. Unable to compose new material he's become surly.Human, Sofia Rivera, finds herself thrust into the supernatural world she never knew existed when she attempts to protect one of her roommates from an attacker. Her attraction to her new protector post-attack only complicates things. Having a fling with a demon is one thing, but dwelling in darkness with him forever is another story. As a faction of vampires and demons working together for nefarious purposes creates danger, can the pair find safety in one another?I'm sad that I didn't get into this one. I really wanted to after seeing the cover, it's an awesome cover! I was definitely expecting there to be a lot more music-centric stuff in the overall storyline, but it's just not as central to the story as I'd anticipated. To complicate things further this has the slowest pacing imaginable. I literally caught myself saying "nothing's HAPPENING!" ala a certain cartoon bird from a childhood favorite movie when I was about halfway through the book. If that wasn't enough, there were frequent references to characters and situations that were confusing.Upon further investigation I figured out that Castle has a couple of previous titles under the Harlequin Nocturne imprint and that is where the references to Raum and Ember, Justin and Vivi's romances came from. If you haven't read them already--which I have not since I was unaware they were tied to THE DEMON'S SONG--you may find yourself as confused as I was. While it's not essential to have read them to be able to read it, I got the impression there's world building in them that might have helped solidify the world here.Slow-pacing and world building issues aside, THE DEMON'S SONG wasn't a bad book, I liked Sofia's personality a lot and Phenex was a hero worthy of a HEA. I think it will appeal very much to readers who like category romances with a paranormal bent, but if you lean toward meatier paranormal romances you might want to skip it in favor of one of Castle's other series.Notes: ARC received via publisher.