carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one. I went into this book with really big expectations. I absolutely love Stacia Kane's Downside Ghosts series so I had hoped to find a new series to love. I found this book really had a hard time holding my interest during the first half. Things did pick up and by the end of the book and I ended up really enjoying myself but it did take a long time to get to that point.

I loved the idea behind this book. Speare is a Private Investigator living in Las Vegas. He is forced to commit sins in order to keep his demon in check. He really has no choice but to be a bad guy in some ways. He needs some help solving a crime involving a demon sword so he asks a local thief, Ardeth for some help. I liked the mystery in the story well enough. It was really just enough to keep me going in the story. I never knew exactly where things were going and there were a few twists that surprised me.

I think that the main issue with this book was that the first half was so incredibly slow. The focus seemed to be on the characters more than anything and they just were not clicking for me at all. As the mystery picked up speed, something changed for me and the book became much more enjoyable. The romance between Speare and Ardeth never felt completely authentic. I simply couldn't feel the chemistry between them that I had hoped.

I did really enjoy the last parts of the book and I am very hopeful about future books in the series. There were a few threads planted that I am hoping to see followed as the series continues.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Random House Publishing Group - Loveswept via NetGalley for the purpose of providing an honest review.