Personal Demons (edition 2010)

three and a half stars. I don't know if it is only the kindle version, but there were a lot of typos and spelling mistakes - and that kills part of my reading pleasure.
Also, some of the actions were a little long-winded, and could have been done in a faster pase IMO.
I totally love Luc, and Frannie is good, as well. But she's a little whiny sometimes, and that's not what I like in my female heroines.
Still good overall liking of the book, and if there will be a second book, I'll read it too. ( )

I had fun reading this book. This is a great popcorn read. It has two charismatic guys and a leading lady with a bit of depth. I think you'll find it hard pressed not to fall for Luc, even though you know his intentions are so not good. And Gabe, well, it takes a while to really get his character, but once he becomes more involved, you'll love him, too!

More at my blog:
http://brookesboxofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/10/review-personal-demons-by-lisa.html ( )

This book was ludicrous on a number of levels. Perhaps most obviously obnoxious was the writing, which definitely learned from Twilight. Here is a brief selection, which will demonstrate the nature of the entire novel:

"He smiles his wicked smile and nearly stops my heart. And when he leans in to kiss me, I'm pretty sure it does.
I can't stop my hand from reaching for his face. I feel him shiver in answer and he locks gazes with me. 'Let's get out of here,' he says into my lips.
An achy tingle spreads through me and I smile a shaky smile. 'I know just the place.'" (164)

While the writing tends to be grammatically correct (which unfortunately is not always true), it also does not show any particular special talent at crafting sentences. The first real problem is that his smile nearly stops her heart (not creative, but a fairly common phrase), but (oh noes) his kiss actually does her stop her heart. Umm, no. Am I the only one who has a problem with this? Her heart does not actually stop; this is mere 'romantic' exaggeration. It doesn't stop there, what with her apparently being some sort of puppet on strings, since she 'can't stop' her hand from going to his face. Again, I am not buying it. Then he speaks into her lips. Awkward and ineffective, anyone? Of course, you cannot forget the achy tingles spreading through her throughout the book. He's hot and you want to have sex with him. We (the readers) get it, thanks. No emotion or phrase is not continually harped on, so be prepared for the repetition of these already banal teen exhibitions of love and lust. Not to mention that these phrases fail to achieve their goal, which is to make the reader believe in the love and deep connection between the two. I, for one, am not buying it.

Beyond this, I feel compelled simply to point out a few absurdities bullet-point style.

1) Frannie (actual name Mary Francis) is one of five daughters, all of whom have the first name Mary. Even for Catholics, I see this as incredibly inane.

2) Luc can smell people's emotions. Love smells like chocolate, lust like ginger, anger like black pepper, etc. This is actually kind of a neat idea, but mostly it got on my nerves. Had it been used effectively, it would have been cool.

3) Frannie wants both the angel (Gabe, short for Gabriel) and Luc throughout almost all of the book, even though I am supposed to believe in her deep, forever love for the latter boy. Bull.

4) "He thinks I don't know he's following me all the time. He knows I want my life, and he's trying so hard to let me have it. I don't want to burst his bubble, so I don't say anything, but, really, I like knowing he's there" (302). Frannie on Luc in an example of the Twilightishness of this book. Being a stalker is super hot!!!

5) The book is told from the perspectives of Frannie and Luc. It's kind of hard to play up a love triangle effectively if only one of the boys gets his point of view shown. I mean, obviously, Frannie will choose the guy we never hear from. Right...

6) Apparently all demons look the same in human form, such that Frannie cannot tell which one is lover boy and which wants to eat her soul. That's true love.

I will wrap up with six, what with that being a number the demons would approve of (at least in triplicate). Recommended only for those who believe that Bella and Edward's relationship is the pinnacle of true love. ( )

I wanted to get into this but I just couldn't. I didn't feel any emotional to the characters unfortunately. ( )

This one was a little tough for me. I was completely into this story up until the point where I wasn’t. Right out of the box, it’s fast, suspenseful and oh so sexy. Then it’s kind of like, if you divide the book exactly in half, the first half was totally captivating and the last half was, eh, well- it just wasn’t.

Riddled with YA cliche, (In insta-love with the new boy who is now her class partner, new boy is smoldering hot, girl is clueless as to why all the guys want her, enter the love triangle, yada yada) this story could have very easily been a disaster. Surprisingly, the aforementioned elements worked in this scenario, again, up until the point where they didn’t.

Frannie is a normal high school girl, with average everything- including an average soul. It seems that Heaven and Hell have been playing a rather nasty game of dodge ball, and each side is trying to claim the best players before the other team lands them. Frannie’s soul has been firmly on the fence for years. Having lost a brother at a young age, she has some serious issues with the guys upstairs. Her strong Catholic upbringing has kept her on the straight and narrow but with her doubts and one really dark, painful secret she could just as easily tip towards the other side. Heaven and Hell each send their individual ambassadors to entice Frannie toward their side. And of course, Hell sends Luc- that smoldering, wicked looking new guy who just exudes dark hotness. Heaven counters by sending Gabe, a tall handsome blonde who threatens to make Frannie feel the one thing she has sworn off since her brother died- love. The battle over Frannie’s soul begins and quickly turns dangerous, and neither side is playing fair.

Let me point out, that even with all the heaven and hell goings on, this is not some underhanded attempt by an author to sneak a little God into your reading. In fact, given the elements, it was delightfully surprising to find not one ounce of religion in this book. So don’t run screaming.

My issues where never with the plot, because well, a demon and an angel fighting over your soul- that’s just hot. Where Desrochers drops the ball is in her attempt to balance the players in her love triangle. Gabe seems to have been randomly thrown in without ceremony and almost written as an after thought. He has very little dialogue or presence and Frannie’s feelings for him just have to be assumed because Frannie said so. Her constant struggle against her feelings for Luc was where the real action was. The front cover asks the question:

“If you had to choose between Heaven and Hell, which would it be? Are you sure about that?

...which would lead you to believe that you’re in for some serious friction. Nope. Frannie never even made it a choice- Luc does, because he’s awesome like that. So I got a bit turned off in the second half of the book when the only chemistry was between Frannie and Luc but Gabe was still considered to be a contender and we’re suppose to believe that Frannie still doesn’t know which one to choose. Why didn’t Gabe get any chapters from his point of view? That would have made me feel a bit more connected to him.

Frannie annoyed the hell out of me. If she said “Whatever” one more time, we were going to have words. I can think of a lot of people more deserving of a hot demon lurver (pick me! pick me). But don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike this book, the actual story was amazing and I was hooked on the heat from page one, she just lost me in the second half when everyone was so decidedly vague- which should be near impossible to pull off.

Will I read the sequel? Yeah. I will. ( )