Caught in a magical world he never knew existed, Dante has only one choice: fight or die. Things haven’t been easy for sixteen-year-old Dante Banner. Abandoned by his father, he has been dealing with his mother’s unexplained fits on his own. He has always coped. Until now. After he inherits a haunted house, a pair of demonic cards appears on his doorstep. A mysterious voice urges him to … mysterious voice urges him to ‘save him or all will be lost’. His search for the meaning of those words just begins when things spin out of control. Demons are coming to kill him and the ghosts residing in the home can only protect him so much. He has to do what the voice tells him, or he will lose everyone he cares about.But danger lurks around every corner. Even those closest to him can’t be trusted. Will he be able to fight off the monsters trying to stop him, or perish along with the rest of humanity?
A gripping novel for fans of Supernatural, Charmed and Anna Dressed in Blood.
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I liked Dante and loved watching what happened to him as his summer began. It begins with a simple house he inherits from his father and leads to a paranormal adventure with ghosts, demons, weird cards, and a demon or two. It was fun to read and kept me entertained and reading tot he end just to see what would happen next and what his power would end up being and how he would find out what it was. All the characters were a blast and I had to keep reading to see what was up with his mom.
This is book one of the Cards of Death series and follows Dante Banner from the last day of his junior year at high school, and facing a summer alone looking after his mother, while his four friends all go off to enjoy the break. His mother has been suffering from extreme bouts of fits, where she tries to destroy everything in her path and speaks in tongues. She has been doing it as long as he can remember and he has little memory of his father, who left him when he was a toddler. So, it is just him and his mother and he is very protective towards her. His friends are busy packing for the start of their adventures and he ends up with a surprise of his own. A strange letter appears at their door, addressed to him and reports that Dante has inherited a mansion in the better part of town! It was owned by his missing father, so whether this means he is dead or not, is still unclear.
What he doesn’t realise, is that his life is now going to change immensely. The old mansion is deserted and looks like it is unlived in, until he sees ghosts! He soon finds that they are what is known as his ‘Shield’, D’Maeo, Mael, Vicky, Taylar and Jeep. He has been able to see monsters since he was young, but now learns that they were actually demons! And his father had to leave him and his mother, to continue in his life as a demon hunter. The inheritance of the old mansion is just the first step into his new life and the powers that will soon be revealed from within him. But he is going to have to hurry up and figure them out quickly, or he and the members of his Shield will be dead before he gets started.
He receives two cards, which he is told are commonly known as’ death’ cards and his first task is to decipher what they are pointing to and who he is supposed to save. If he can’t work it out and save the life of this stranger, then the whole world could fall to the Devil himself. He can’t tell any of his friends what is happening to him, as they are all away, but that may not actually be true, as he sees two of them following the man he is tasked with saving! He has to deal with the fact he may not know the friends he has grown up with, quite as well as he thought, whilst also needing to find the courage to face death and battles, with little to no powers of his own yet. He has his wits and will be learning everything else on his feet!
A weak spot to this realm is about to be breeched, leaving more demons to be defeated. Dante is shocked to find out more about his father and his decision to leave them, as well as the battle he struggled with, that sent him mad. Lots of references to the brothers in Supernatural, in particular, as Dante and the members of his Shield get closer to each other and learn to work as a team. They have become the like a family to him and he will never leave one of them behind, like his father did. An interesting storyline, with so much more to come and a few books to follow as well. I look forward to reading them and see what Dante and his team face next. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.