Private Demon

Why is it reasonable that a woman can be seduced in her dreams and then, at some point after she's had "dream sex" several times and been used for blood-feedings, she finds out it wasn't actually a dream, but instead of being mortified that she's been raped (having sex when you think it's a dream is not consent for real sex) she realizes she's in love with her rapist.

The story itself is not bad but... I'm just tired of Viehl's confusion between rape and sex (this occurred in her first book in this series too).

JR Ward and J. Frost both do great vampire sex scenes - and it's all consensual, or, if it's not consensual, it's intentionally identified as rape.

I'm not reading any more in this series, even though the originality of the show more vampirism is interesting. show less

Weak in body but not is mind, the heroine lives each day knowing the diabetes will eventually kill her. She does live her life like she’s already dead though. She’s in the huge family mansion with her controlling and manipulating mother. She works in the basement of the museum where no one even acknowledges she even exists. And she longs for a family and a husband and all the things her disease has denied her. The hero is on the run from his kind after he attacked his wife for betraying him and their son. He’s haunted by her ghost and is slowly losing his mind. On the trail of that man who attacked and brutally scared a woman, he’s lead to the heroine. Wounded he drinks from her in an alleyway and immediately filled with remorse show more and guilt after learning about her illness. But it doesn’t stop him from entering her dreams every night and soon he can’t bring himself to leave her alone though he knows he should. She doesn’t deserve to have another demon in her life. My god this book was a disaster. From start to finish it was a muddled mess. First of all, the book is only 300 pages long and literally half or more than half of it isn’t even on the hero or heroine. Every other chapter would be about the other vampires and their problems. As a result only about 150 pages were actually centered on the ‘main’ characters. So everything was rushed and disjointed and they were just tossed together haphazardly. I was really disappointed because if the author had cut out all the other nonsense I think the characters could have been allowed to shine through. But instead I felt like only the surface lay was lifted in regards to the hero and heroines true character makeup. The hero was nothing more than a tortured criminal who stalked the heroine in her sleep (totally creepy just FYI). He had zero character development and though the heroine was a little better in that aspect, she was still the psychically p. That was another thing I didn’t like. The two characters spent 90% of their interactions in her dreams. Then the first meeting which doesn’t happen until the very end of the book, the hero is bending the chick over to screw her against the wall! It was so bizarre with ZERO romantic chemistry. Also, the plot was just a disjointed puzzle. I couldn’t tell what the damn thing was about. This was truly awful. show less

I enjoyed If Angels Burn and wondered if Private Demon would be as good and it was, actually in some ways it was better because the world building grows in this story.

This story focuses on Jema Shaw, she's a diabetic and believes that she doesn't have long to live but still she wants to give something to her community and do rather than be passive and she works in the museum founded by her father. Her mother disapproves, in fact her mother disapproves of any sign of independence by Jema. She has ensured some control over her daughter by hiring a full-time doctor to keep an eye on her.
Next door to her lives a vampire, and she doesn't know it, he's been a family friend for years. There's another vampire around though. Thierry Durand was show more tormented body and soul by his people's enemies and by his wife. He's attracted by Jema and starts invading her dreams.
It's fun, light but I felt myself becoming involved with the characters and rooting for them. The world continues to grow and become more interesting. show less

It's really hard to think of this series as a romance, it's more urban fantasy with a dash of romance. The charachters this time were a bit better believed. I think this book could have been more involved, things were skipped over that if expanded would only add to this series. The romance isn't really all that, the steamier scenes are lacking. Again its the plot that has me interested, and the fact that I have the rest of the series taking up space on my shelves.

2nd in the series, it still jumped around a lot without explanation. I did figure most everything out by the end, but if I weren't so stubborn, I'd probably have given up on this one before it straightened out. One thing that bugged me a LOT was in the initial fight scene where we meet the hero, he says "Connor" several times, and "we" once. ***spoiler, sorta: I guess the "we" might have been a giveaway, if I hadn't been totally confused by that point, but finally near the end of the book, it dawns on me that he was speaking French, and since we were in the heroine's POV, "Connor" and "we" was what she heard, instead of oui and whatever the French word was that I'm guessing means bastard or coward or something else bad. Good thing Antje show more warned me about the mangled German and the fact that the author thinks people drive on the left in France & Germany. *rolling my eyes* But other than those niggles, it was a good story. I liked that there were a lot of different things going on--Darkyn politics, skinhead ex-priests, secret plots, unrequited love, a couple of different familial angst threads... This was one of those few books that would have benefitted from an extra 50 - 100 pages. If it had been more fleshed out, I'd likely have given it 5 stars. show less

Continuing the story of the Darkyn first established in If Angels Burn, Private Demon is the story of Thierry Durand, a Darkyn warrior driven nearly mad by brutal torture at the hands of the Brethren and the devastating betrayal of his wife.

Thierry travels to Chicago, ostensibly to hunt down the attackers of a woman in order to extract vengence, but he encounters Jema Shaw and becomes hopelessly drawn to the her. Sickly and frail since birth, Jema lives a quiet life, henpecked by her overbearing hateful mother. When a mysterious stranger with golden eyes begins appearing in her dreams and fulfilling all of her darkest fantasies, she isn't sure if she's losing her mind or if something else isn't going on.

This book was fast paced and kept show more me reading nonstop. The only complaint I have is that too many characters are introduced and too many plot threads are followed. At times I became confused, and often I wasn't sure why I was supposed to care about one character or another. Too, it seemed that everyone in the story was being targeted for death or in the process of being attacked. It wasn't until the end that the big picture was revealed, so the whole thing felt rather rushed.

I am looking for the third installment in the series, however. I enjoy the writing style, the dialogue is excellent, and the story is just dark enough. show less

PRIVATE DEMON is the second installment of the Darkyn series after IF ANGELS BURN. Lynn Viehl brings back the characters - Alexandra Keller and Michael Cyprien - as they play an equally important role to capture Thierry Durand, this book's hero.

Thierry centers in on Jema Shaw at a homicide crime scene, believing she can lead him to members of the Brethren, an evil group of monks set on destroying the Darkyn. He enters her dreams in order to discover information, but loses his heart instead.

One thing the book lacks is hot steamy romance scenes. Instead, the reader gets dark snippets inside Thierry mind which explains his past. Also through Jema's dreams a bond is formed with Thierry that goes beyond physical.

One thing that should be show more highlighted about this book is Viehl's ability to add subplots without disturbing the story. In J.R. Ward's book, DARK LOVER, the extra characters distracted, where as Viehl blends the characters together to perfection.

Staying true to the dark motif, there be no fairy tale, everyone walks away happily ever after ending. I don't want to say more as it might ruin it for the reader. You'll have to judge whether or not you like it or not. I admire the author for not taking the safe road and veering into new territory.

The only problem I had with the story was the same as with the first and that's believability. I just didn't buy the story hook, line, and sinker. Even so, it's one of the best dark fantasy series out on the market. I would suggest you start with the very first book, IF ANGELS BURN.

http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/ show less