BOTS 2: Jenn Bennett

Jupe Butler: Earthbound Demon and Sidekick Extraordinaire
by Jenn Bennett


Okay, so I know I’m supposed to be getting you revved up about a super-hot sidekick. But what if the sidekick in my urban fantasy series is a thirteen-year-old boy? It would probably be pretty creepy for me to tell you about him in a Sexy Capacity, right? I’m a certified Heathen, but I’m not barbaric. So I will admit that he’s not quite swoon-worthy yet, but he’ll get there eventually. He’s good-looking, charming, slightly geeky, and he’s got a hell of a lot of panache for a kid his age. I think that qualifies him as worthy of consideration in any sidekick battle.

Jupiter Butler—Jupe, as he’s known—is an Earthbound demon, which means that he’s descended from a line of demons who inhabit human bodies. Earthbounds aren’t Evil Demons © with horns and tails and a taste for human babies; they are good and bad, just like humans. Besides, you wouldn’t know he was a demon to look at him, as my lead, Arcadia, notes when she first meets him in KINDLING THE MOON:

An adolescent boy stood inside the open doorway. Taller than me, he was lean and gangly, all arms and legs. Dark brown hair rose up in a mass of long, frizzy spiral curls that defied gravity and sprung out several inches from his head in all directions. His skin was the color of a chocolate milk shake.

Jupe’s father, Lon, is a photographer, and they live alone on the central coast of California. Lon calls Jupe “motormouth,” because of the boy’s easy confidence and gregarious nature. That’s a polite way of saying that Jupe is a handful. A loveable handful, though, and infectiously happy. He has a tendency to say far too much at inappropriate times, always eager to offer you his opinion about an infinite number of things. He’ll point out errors or things so obvious that they go undetected, which is exactly what a good sidekick should do, yes? For example, he shares his thoughts on the moral issue of his father censoring his swearing around strangers:

“Don’t let him fool you,” Jupe said, “he drops the F-bomb like a billion times a day, but he only pretends it’s wrong in front of other people. H-Y-P-O-C-R-I—” he began spelling.

Or the worth of his father’s professional photographs:

“A thousand dollars! Can you believe that? Who would pay that much for a photo of the stupid beach? All they have to do is walk outside and see it for free. Man, people are dumb.”

Or schooling the masses about classic horror movies:

“Ya know which one I’m talking about? Bride of Frankenstein? Elsa Lanchester had her hair kinda like that. She was really the Monster’s bride—Frankenstein was the doctor. People always screw that up.”

He may not be sexy (he thinks he is, if that counts), and he may not be old enough (yet), but his manic energy and firecracker enthusiasm more than make up for that. Besides, in a Battle of the Sexies, he’d totally vote for himself and pester the rest of you into voting for him too. No use trying to ignore him, either; he won’t stop bugging you until you cave.

(Jupe's movie review blog: http://jupe-b.blogspot.com/)

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Giveaway

Meet Arcadia Bell: bartender, renegade magician, fugitive from the law. . . .

Being the spawn of two infamous occultists (and alleged murderers) isn’t easy, but freewheeling magician Arcadia “Cady” Bell knows how to make the best of a crummy situation. After hiding out for seven years, she’s carved an incognito niche for herself slinging drinks at the demon-friendly Tambuku Tiki Lounge.

But she receives an ultimatum when unexpected surveillance footage of her notorious parents surfaces: either prove their innocence or surrender herself. Unfortunately, the only witness to the crimes was an elusive Æthyric demon, and Cady has no idea how to find it. She teams up with Lon Butler, an enigmatic demonologist with a special talent for sexual spells and an arcane library of priceless stolen grimoires. Their research soon escalates into a storm of conflict involving missing police evidence, the decadent Hellfire Club, a ruthless bounty hunter, and a powerful occult society that operates way outside the law. If Cady can’t clear her family name soon, she’ll be forced to sacrifice her own life . . . and no amount of running will save her this time.

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