After five years of working for the Devil, Claire Cooper believes she lives an otherwise normal life. Until she finds herself in jeopardy for a murder she did not commit. Desperate to save her life and soul, she enters Purgatory, but runs afoul of the Devil’s sister, Pagan Queen Mab. Mab has her own agenda and uses Claire to get even with the Devil. Claire learns each ruler is in a race to … discover “the girl” in the prophecy to fix time. As Claire peels away clues to the real killer, she realizes she must outwit the Devil’s children or end up a prisoner in Purgatory forever.
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This book is not at all what I expected. It is much darker in tone. Claire is a kick-a$$ heroine. She takes whatever is thrown at her and keeps on moving, and a lot is thrown at her. Claire, the devil’s assistant, is trying to solve a murder before she becomes the prime suspect. The world building is excellent. The main story is brought to conclusion but there is so much information left to discover. I look forward to continuing the series. My only issue with the book is I prefer at least a bit of romance with my urban fantasy and paranormal books. That is definitely missing here. Otherwise, it is a great read.
Wow. There is a LOT in this book. This is the first book of a series so there is a lot of world building that is occurring. One has to pay close attention to catch all of the clues. I am definitely completing this series because I want to know how it all unwinds. Great work by the author with pulling me in. A must read.
Audiobook Review:
Overall – 5
Performance – 5
Story – 4
I feel like I keep saying this over and over… Dark Hope isn’t my usual type of story to read but I’m attending a conference and the author will be there so I wanted to read one of her books before then.
I have to admit that I had a difficult time getting into the story. There could be a couple of reasons for that: I was listening to the audiobook performed by Lauren Fortgang so I was multitasking and not as focused on the story as I probably should have been. The other reason is most likely because this just isn’t my favorite genre to read.
Having said those things, I also have to say that I really enjoyed listening to Lauren Fortgang. As far as I know this is the first book I’ve listened to that she performed and I would definitely be willing to listen to more by her. The story picked up for me and it finished strong. There wasn’t exactly a cliffhanger but it definitely left me wanting to know more about what happens next with Clair. I purchased the Omnibus edition of the audiobook (a fantastic value, over 38 hours of audio for only one credit) so it’s likely that I will listen to the rest of the series at some point.
H.D. Smith does a wonderful job creating an easy-to-love character who just so happens to be the devil’s assistant.
I’m not sure how more people haven’t heard of this book! It has A) original world building B) a kick-ass heroine C) a hell-of-a plot (no pun intended) and D) it’s just impossible to put down. Okay, it’s a bit messed up, and instead of a romance it has a very sociopathic attempted rapist whose obsessed with the main character, but…it’s amazing. If you like Dark urban fantasy give this one a try.
I loved it!