i think I've reached a saturation point with paranormal romances.

One problem with this one is that four sisters are the defenders of not just earth, but several worlds. Oh, they have lots of backup, including wealth, great technology, and lots of minions, but I just find this concept difficult to believe. No matter how super strong or fast or smart, one fighter isn't going to be able to defeat odds of say, 100 to 1. Or a thousand to 1. Oddly enough, the women's enemies haven't figured this out yet.

There's also the problem that has begun to gnaw at me more and more, the good guys and the evil nasties. The women basically automatically kill the beings from some planets, say the demons or the dragons, that go to the planets they are protecting. But as the main character finds out, the King of the Demons is not all bad guy. In fact, he seems pretty good. In fact, she falls in love with him. If that's the case, one has to assume there are other good guys, or at least not evil guys, in the groups they've seen as enemies. Seems to me that anytime one is dealing with sentience, it opens the possibility that someone considered good will choose to be bad, and someone bad will choose to be good. Or, like real life, sentient beings are complex mixtures of good and bad.

But given that weakness, I enjoyed the book. It is an intriguing universe, the characters are ok, and the plot is interesting.

Worth a read, but I don't know how diligently I'll track down later books in the series. ( )

The Demon King and I is the first book in a new series by Candace Havens. This series revolves around four sisters who are Guardians. They guard portals to different worlds to protect Earth from its inhabitants. The main character of this book is Gillian and she protects the portal to Maunra. A world inhabited by Demons and ruled by Arath, the Demon King.

I liked the story enough to finish it but I felt the characters were a little flat. In the end I didn't really care that much about Gillian and Arath. Another issue that I had was how the status of the main character being rich, beautiful, successful, wealthy, privileged and a celebrity was constantly being pushed in the reader's face. It got a little tiresome. Overall, I would say it was worth reading and I will probably try the next book, Dragons Prefer Blondes, to see if I like it any better. ( )

Fast paced and witty. Three sisters are in charge of gaurding our world from demons, dragons and fey. This book is like the series Charmed. Three sisters, chosen to save the human race from things that they can't/don't believe in. I enjoy reading Candace Haven. Her style is witty, and intelligent. The heronies are definetly worth reading about. ( )

The Caruthers sisters are heiresses with privilege, wealth, beauty, and brains. But these party girls have something extra. As the Guardian Keys, possessors of an ancient family secret, they hold the fate of the world in their hands.

Gillian, the eldest, is a sensation in the art world-- this world, that is. In her other world she's the Assassin, a knockout who snuffs out dimension-jumpers who foul up her personal space. She never expected to join forces with one. But when a plague of murderous demons plunges the earth in darkness, she has no choice but to get a little help from a being who knows his stuff.

I really wanted to like this book. It started off promising, but Gillian quickly grew annoying, especially with the first person event log. I'd rather have read in third person during the scenes, so it didn't feel as much like a report. She flitted all over the place attention-wise, chattered on about unimportant things, and glossed over battles and murders. She went off on tangents about law, art, technology, and clothes...things which had no real impact on the story. She seemed vapid and self-involved, even for a celebutante heiress.

It was so slow that I ended up speed reading through it, only slowing down to read scenes between Gilly and Arath in the hopes that their romance would be good, which was a waste of time, since they had zero chemistry. Also annoying was the fact that Gilly and Arath fought a lot, then Gilly would get whiny and insecure and would apologize and grovel to Arath. The murders, mystery, and invading demons took a backseat to a very forced "romance", which was more like sexual attraction than love. I would have liked to have seen more emotion between them - a better connection - so I could believe there was more there than just wanting each others' bodies ... as it went though, I ended up wishing Havens had spent more time on the action, since the romance was a dud.

It was hard to remember Gilly's sisters' names because they all sounded and acted alike. Havens differentiated between them with hair colors and choice of clothing, not personality. Characters were in no real danger because a portal always opened for them ... or they got healed ... or there was an herbal remedy that made them magically better. Convenient, definitely. Gilly liked to chop off demon heads with a big old sword, but when that failed to make a dent during a big battle, she whipped out a snazzy laser gun and took down twenty demons in a few seconds. Why she didn't use the laser gun from the beginning is beyond me.

There was no real character development, and no reason for me to root for anyone. Everything seemed too easily accomplished for the one-dimensional Caruthers sisters. I do credit Havens for trying to build an interesting and complex new world, but she could have spent more time making the characters interesting and likable. The big mystery was only partially explained, so this was basically a setup for a series ... a series I won't be continuing. ( )