For the whole series: By the gods and kittens, that *censored* hurt.

Seriously excellent world building, really strong character development, a fascinating look at ethics without truth, and just... damn. An impressive and in many ways resonating construct, but I'm literally writing myself a note to never pick this particular series back up again because the price is so damn high.

And yeah, it gets five stars. Because it does what it does so very well. And because so many of the underlying structures are absolutely beautiful. ( )

These books are hitting a lot of my feel-good buttons. Fantastic action, overpowered characters, and a world so chock-full of tech and magic that it feels like Blade Runner had a love child with Kim Harrison's Hollows.

A human turned half-demon necromancer bounty-hunter with demon lover gets mixed up in a plot of Lucifer's. Sound good? Add trust issues between her and her demon lover and throw in some immolations, boss battles, and impossible demon-hunting action and a lot of miscommunication and play-acting, and we've got ourselves a fun novel. :)

Do I like how her lover is back? Yes. Do I appreciate that Dante is whining less? Yes. Do I like how the trust issues keep popping up? ... sort of. It seems realistic but not all that pleasant. I want more action and intrigue and big developments, not this kind of drag-ass.

But it ain't bad. Not saying it was bad. I just can't deal with more than one novel's worth. :) Trust your man, Dante! Even if he is a fallen demon. :) ( )

Synopsis: Dante is being called by the devil. He wants her to be his 'right hand' and to bring back/kill the demons that have left hell. What she and Japhrimel don't know is that Eve actually led the rebellion. Both Dante and Japh have bargained away 7 years so that Japh gets his powers back and Dante gets protection from the devil while she fights the demons.
Review: In some ways this was a really exciting book, in other ways it was annoying because Dante is whining about how Japh is treating her. I'm getting tired of the 'poor broken girl' with trust issues. ( )

The beginning of this story takes place awhile in the future – apparently Dante has quietly snapped from her last ordeal. The ordeal was focused on in the first book and brought to glaring light in the second, it would have broken almost anybody. She is back with Japh and he has slowly been healing her, but also sheltering and protecting her without her knowledge.

Now they have no choice but to get back into the meat of things as Lucifer tries to be creative in tricking and destroying them both. Once they leave their safe haven together, Dante grows suspicious, hostile, and downright difficult. This is the point in the series for me where I really started disliking the character. She is ungrateful, quick to jump to conclusion, can’t trust anyone, refuses to listen to reason, says cruel things to those who care about her, and is a little too Unfeeling about killing.

She is a necromancer but again little is done with this power. The author prefers focusing on her transformation and the mystery with it rather than her supernatural ability. More focus is spent on her with swords and fighting than anything else. I still really dig Japh – he didn’t reveal everything to her, sure, and he has flaws, sure, but he’s still more than she deserves the way she starts acting to people.

There’s a lot of action in this short novel, like the others, so it’s a quick read. There’s a lot of personal angst that started getting on my nerves and the struggle is focused more on that than anything else, but action scenes when present are fierce and exhilarating.

This dark series is gritty and complex with its unusual hierarchy of demons. Not many of supernatural creatures or people exist. Overall another great book in the series, but not as enjoyable in some ways as the other two; on the other hands, parts of it are more enjoyable than the other two. Go figure.
( )

So Japhrimel really annoyed me in this book. He was pushy, bitchy and all around just annoying. He gets up on his high horse and thinks that because he is a demon- or something- that he knows best. And that means that he does not have to talk to Dante about anything. But other that wanting Dante to kick Japhrimel to the curb I really liked this volume. We get to see more of the world and get a really good idea about how it works. Other non-human species are introduced and are talked about in some detail. In addition we get to see what the devil was doing with Eve from the first novel. The only problem is years have past and we do not know that at the start of the novel and have to figure it out as we go.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. ( )