Tori's Review: Where Demons Fear to Tread by Stephanie Chong

Paperback: 368 pages
Price: $7.99
ISBN: 978-0778312475
Released: August 23, 2011
Publisher: Harlequin 
Author's Website: Stephanie Chong 
Buy it: Amazon
Obtained: Netgalley 
Genre: Paranormal Romance 
Series: The Company of Angels 
Book Order:
1. Where Demons Fear to Tread 

Fledging guardian angel and yoga teacher Serena St. Clair dares enter Devil's Paradise nightclub on a mission—to retrieve the wayward Hollywood "It Boy" she's assigned to protect. But she's ambushed by the club's owner, arch demon Julian Ascher. The most powerful demonic entity in Los Angeles, Julian is handsome as sin, a master of temptation who loves nothing more than corrupting pleasure–seeking humans. He won't release the lost soul Serena is supposed to guard. Unless she accepts his dangerous wager…
 

After the disastrous way his human life ended, Julian vowed that no woman would get the better of him again. Yet this sexy–sweet angel, smelling of fresh ocean air and happiness, triggers centuries–old feelings. Now, their high–stakes game of seduction, where angels fall from grace and where demons fear to tread, will lead them either to an eternity in hell.or a deliciously hot heaven.

My Rating: DNF

My Opinion:
Started to read WHERE DEMONS FEAR TO TREAD, but I think I'm going to pass on this one. There is far too much showing and info-dumping for my liking, and both happen way too soon in the story. For example, in the first chapter, readers learn how the hero became what he is now and his life leading up to that event. I don't know the characters well enough to care about their pasts yet, so why am I already being told about it? Where is the mystery? At the very least, I wished that scene--which had the potential to be compelling and heartbreaking--could have appealed to my senses and emotions. Perhaps I would have felt more invested if that were the case.

I don't know how many chapters I was into the story, but at about 15% (on my Kindle), I had to give up for the night. The writing is decent, but there is definitely room for improvement--and I do feel the author will improve in time. But, since I was unable to connect with the characters, and because there was no humor or anything else to really keep me invested, I couldn't continue.

I'm a bit disappointed, since this sounded like it could be such an awesome story. Perhaps I'll give this book another shot at a later date. I am unwilling to write this author's future books off just yet, but for now, WHERE DEMONS FEAR TO TREAD is a DNF.

Amanda's Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor

Hardcover: 420 pages
Price: $11.31
ISBN: 9780316134026
Released: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Author's Website: Laini Taylor
Buy it: Amazon
Genre: YA, fantasy, paranormal
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Book Order:
1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. 
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. 
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. 
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out. 
When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

My Rating: 2 Stars

Between the raving reviews on Goodreads and the Goodreads Choice Award nominations, I had high expectations for Daughter of Smoke and Bone. That said, I can’t imagine myself loving this story, expectations or not. There were a lot of things that just didn’t work for me.

I nearly gave up and put this in the DNF pile numerous times, but I somehow managed to keep trudging forward.  The story, while well written, just didn’t connect with me on any level. There were moments that caught my interest, the first of which was two hundred pages in. At this point, the romance comes into play, and it endeared me.  Momentarily. I thought there would be some development. Lord knows the first 200 pages of the story drug enough, why should the romance be immediate? Yet, it seemed to come out of nowhere. Like flipping a switch. Karou and Akiva didn’t really know one another. They were supposed to be enemies. Souls singing to each other? The yearning to touch one another? (I would probably have the yearning to touch Ryan Reynolds too, but that doesn’t make him the love of my life.) This doesn’t work for me.

The way Karou handled her ex-boyfriend made me think she was badass. Finally a female character with a backbone. Then comes the romance, and Karou dissolved into a puddle of hormones, like most of them do. So what was the point in all of this ex-boyfriend business? To make me think she was badass, only to strip her of that when the beautiful angel shows his face?

Sometime in the second half of the novel, the writing lost its appeal. It suddenly felt all over the place, and I was reading things I just didn’t care about. Whose story is this again? I thought it was Karou’s. Oh, wait, yes of course. Big spoiler--highlight if you would like to view it. I found Karou being Madrigal to be slightly predictable, but I held onto the hope that maybe my prediction was wrong. But it wasn’t, and that disappointed me to no end. Resurrected soul? Really? So that entire time, the first three fourths of the book, Karou was never really making her own decisions? Her recycled soul was calling the shots? She was never really Karou? Yeah, I realize they are the same person, but Karou doesn’t know this until she cracks that wishbone, at which point we get this huge dump from the past, with characters you only see a handful of times. I just didn’t feel a connection with any of these characters. I'm surprised I remember any of their names. Any connection I had started to form was severed when we found out the truth about Karou’s past.  So many pages are devoted to filling us (and Karou) in on who she is, and this disrupted the flow of the story. If I hadn’t come so far into the book already, I would have given up on it at that point.

The two stars go to the writing and the basic concept. I think there were some great ideas in this story, but unfortunately they’re overshadowed by all of the things I didn’t like.

The story ends in a massive cliffhanger (honestly, what YA book doesn’t anymore?), and I’m sure it’s leaving some dying for the next installment. I, however, will most likely pass.

--Amanda

Click here to see Tori's glowing review of the novel.