This is Month 8 of the Women Of The Otherworld reading challenge and that means Personal Demon! Hopes book though Lucas also narrates a few chapters! It's not my favourite of the series cause Hope isn't my favourite character but it still ranks pretty high cause of all the action in it and cause of Karl (who I love) and Paige & Lucas! Namely Lucas cause we get a rare insight into him and his thoughts on his family as well as the cabals. It also introduced and never-before seen supernatural type, an improvement on one we met briefly in Stolen but more evolved with more ability.
Personal Demon by Kelley ArmstrongHalf-demon tabloid reporter Hope Adams has a secret. Like full demons, she loves chaos. She thrives on it. She needs it.
Most of the time, Hope feeds the hunger by helping the interracial council. But it’s never enough. So when Benicio Cortez offers her a job infiltrating a gang of young supernaturals, she thinks she’s found the perfect solution. Instead, she finds a tinderbox of greed, desire and ambition. And when it ignites, a world is going to explode.
Narrators: Hope Adam & Lucas Cortez
Originally published Fall 2008
My Review
I do love this book but it isn't my favourite in the series, mostly cause while I do like Hope a lot she isn't my favourite! I do love Karl though, plus Lucas gets some chapters to narrate and I loved getting in his head a little when he was dealing with his father, brothers and the cabal. Poor Hope did go through hell in this though most of it was because of her own naivety, stubbornness and refusal to see the truth.
She latched onto Jaz to get over Karl and when Karl came back and they got together she still pined over Jaz and refused to accept that he and Sonny could be bad. She was blind pretty much up to the end. Not entirely her fault of course, Jaz was pure chaos, which attracted her demon as he was a veritable chaos feast which left his thoughts impossible to pick up. Whereas she could read the negative thoughts of other characters in the book she never picked up Jaz's thoughts even once cause his mind was too high speed and chaotic to read anything.Jaz was a sociopath, he couldn't see that what he was doing was wrong and even at the end he's still convinced Hope loves him and they'll be together one day! Totally delusional as well as sociopathic!
I loved how she and Karl worked through things and Karl admitting he ran cause he was afraid of the attachment he had to her. How he's fought all his life against his wolf instincts and she's triggered one of the biggest, one he didn't believe existed, the instinct to be with his mate, that mate being Hope. I love how she gave him no sympathy over it, instead responding with sarcasm and put-downs to keep him on his toes! She really does know how to ground him and bring his ego down when needed!
I wasn't personally upset to see Lucas's oldest brothers killed but I was upset for Lucas and Benicio having to deal with their deaths and their aftermath. I kinda wished that Carlos was killed instead of William! Of all the brothers William seems to be the least threatening as he doesn't have Hector's level of intelligence or Carlos' level of viciousness!
I liked that Kelley had two narrators in this book, so you got a more rounded insight to the plot and what was going on. Lucas could fill in plot points that Hope couldn't and give insight she couldn't. Hope is still quite new to investigating and under-cover work, as a result she misses lots of things that the others wouldn't, which is why she needed Karl there to point out the possibilities she didn't want to see due to being too close to the gang. A great book overall, not my favourite but not my least favourite either!
