A Note:

6/2/13

I once told myself: IF I am accepted into grad school, this blog would no longer be updated. As it turns out, in April, I received news of my acceptance for the Fall 2013 semester, where I will attain a Master's degree of Science in Nutrition.

Running a blog, as many of you may already know, is a demanding side job once the excitement wears off. And once I fell out of the blogging community's loop (have you SEEN how many blogs there are now? Wow!), it was like the kiss of death. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get into a blogging routine once this happened due to the disconnect I felt from the community.

So I took a break. I struggled with the loss and with missing my blog. And then I realized I didn't have to run Book Faery to still be a book reviewer; I could read my books and post reviews online. I'm still a book review blogger, just not in the traditional sense.

I'll still be online. You can chat with me on Twitter, where I'll be posting links to my reviews and talking books. I'll also be posting links to nutrition articles. And if you'd like to connect with me where I guarantee I will post reviews, just add me as a friend on Goodreads.

So that's all, folks! It's been a fun and amazing journey, and I thank you all for listening to my thoughts about books. I hope we all can keep in touch elsewhere :)

Tori

Monday, September 13, 2010

Tori's Review: Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers


Obtained: ARC Tour
Genre: Young Adult
Series: 

1. Personal Demons
2. Original Sin
3. Hellbent

Lisa's Website
Buy it via the Publisher
Buy it via Amazon

Hardcover - 368 pages
Price: $9.99
ISBN 10: 0765328089
ISBN 13: 978-0765328083
Released: September 14, 2010








Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She's spent years keeping everyone at a distance—even her closest friends—and it seems her senior year will be more of the same...until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can't seem to stay away from him. What she doesn't know is that Luc works in Acquisitions—for Hell—and she possesses a unique skill set that has the King of Hell tingling with anticipation. All Luc has to do is get her to sin, and he’s as tempting as they come. Frannie doesn’t stand a chance.

Unfortunately for Luc, Heaven has other plans, and the angel, Gabe, is going to do whatever it takes to make sure that Luc doesn’t get what he came for. And it isn't long before they find themselves fighting for more than just her soul.

But if Luc fails, there will be Hell to pay…for all of them.



My Rating:

My Opinion:
Ahh, the all-too-familiar love triangle. Do you side with heaven's representative, or hell's? Do you go for the bad boy, or stick with the safe route and fall for the good guy?

Like Frannie, our heroine, I was torn between both men. Gabe was a sweetheart, though he didn't play that huge a role in the first part of the book. Luc was the resident bad boy-gone-good. The girl in me, the part of me that daydreams about helping the sexy hero overcome some obstacle from his past, gobbled Luc up. Jerk tendencies aside (only one scene with him being a true jerk, my sweets. You'll forgive him soon enough), he captured my affections much more successfully than Gabe did.

I thought angels and demons, alive for about 5,000ish+ years, would have a bit more sophisticated language despite trying to fit into the teenage scene. Or maybe I expected that archaic language to slip past their defenses maybe once or twice. This is something I'm struggling with in my own WIP, so I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the modern day ancient's speech patterns.

Frannie's parents bugged me. Likewise, the conversations with people saying "if you hurt her, I'll kick your ass" grew tiresome.... As were the phrases "whatever" and "as you wish". "Whatever" made Frannie come off as more a brat than a heroine I would like. "As you wish" made Luc sound like a genie, which made me chuckle. Not sure if the latter two phrases were toned down a bit in the final print version (I read an ARC), or if they stayed.

Talking about Frannie and Luc, I don't think having both sides written in first person worked. They spoke similarly, and more often than not, the scene switch would confuse me. I ended up flipping back pages to double check and see which POV we were in next after a change. And both say "mmm" way too much, which furthered my confusion during POV swaps.

As tragic as Frannie's brother's death was, I couldn't help but roll my eyes and wish that they would just get on with it towards the end. It always came back to that, and after a while, the pity party got old.

I hope I don't come off as bashing this book. Despite the aforementioned complaints, I gobbled this story up between last night (stayed up til 4AM) and this afternoon. I adored Luc. The interactions and struggles between the trio were mentally exhausting after a while, but they were also funny at the start. So funny, that I woke my mom up the other night because I was laughing so hard/loud.

There's been a bit of buzz about this story. I think a lot of people will enjoy it, despite my complaints. As for me? I'm still looking forward to book 2 in this trilogy.

    10 comments:

    1. I do not know...nope I just can't tell if I would like to read it or not. But nice honest review

      ReplyDelete
    2. Sounds good. Might put it on my bday list. Hearing good things about it.

      They say "As you wish" a lot? I was thinking Princess Bride after you said that before your genie comment!

      ReplyDelete
    3. Your review's the first I've read that didn't give PD 5 stars. I'm glad you mentioned those little details that nagged you and I'll keep them in mind once I read the book; still, I'm happy that you found PD to your liking! Thanks for being so honest :)

      ReplyDelete
    4. Blod, it's iffy; at some moments, I recall the story with a certain fondness (now that it's been a few days). At other times, I grit my teeth remember quite a few pages I had to plow through.

      Jessica, I think you'll enjoy it, especially if you enjoy YAs and love triangles :)

      Luc says "As you wish" about 3-5 times in the same section. They might have removed it for the final print -- I read an ARC, don't forget -- so I'm not sure. But for the copy I read? YES, and it both annoyed me and made me crack up.

      Sandy, I was nervous posting this because I know a lot of people loved it :( Hopefully a few of the details that got to me will have been resolved by the final copy. But if not? It's not enough to turn me away from the book. I still want to read book 2 :)

      ReplyDelete
    5. I have been looking at this one. Demons as a species for writing give one so much leeway! The names were a bit obvious tho' Luc(ifer) and Gabe (blow-your-horn- riel). He is the angel with the horn right. Anyway your bog design looks new — love it.
      Fangs, Wands and Fairy Dust
      email: steph@fangswandsandfairydust.com
      twitter: @fangswandsfairy

      ReplyDelete
    6. Does he have a horn? Eh, well Michael's in this one too, and he's not a very... good guy.

      ReplyDelete
    7. I really didn't like this one. It seemed so cliche. It was fast paced though and not horrible - just a little cheesy for my tastes.
      Luc was so far from evil it wasn't even funny but I loved him.

      ReplyDelete
    8. Would I be a horrible person if I say that demons in YAs are such wussies now?

      ReplyDelete
    9. Well, it's true. It seems that to make us believe in the romance they have to show a good side but have gone to far me thinks :-)

      Luc was downright wonderful! Why on earth is anyone trying to protect her from him? lol

      And is it just me or did you find Gabe kind of creepy?

      ReplyDelete
    10. Luc was way sweet (even though he did have that one "player" moment in an attempt to make Frannie jealous).

      Gabe... there wasn't enough of him for me to really give a crap. I didn't understand why he was in this story, to be honest. He shows up, then is missing for a good chunk of the middle.

      I never felt hesitant about Frannie being attracted to Luc. I was just like "oh whatever, you know he's gonna be pussy whipped at some point, get it over with already." Didn't care about her soul going to hell.

      And the ending... With the new guardian angel, and then the treatment of Luc even though he's reformed and pussywhipped... Yeah umm... Gag

      ReplyDelete