Customer Reviews

Personal Demon (Women of the Otherworld, Book 8)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hope Adams, heiress and half demon daughter of Lucifer, finally gets a chance to pay her debt to the Cortez Cabal and show her ex, the werewolf Karl, that she can handle a tough case on her own.

It's a simple job, according to cabal leader, Benecio Cortez. All he wants is for her to infiltrate a Miami-based youth gang to determine exactly what kind of trouble these kids are going to pose for the cabal.

Hope gets clearance from Luke Cortez, Benecio's declared heir, who works with the Council. Lucas, who is Benecio's youngest and illegitimate son, is an opponent of the cabals--seeing them as exploiters of the supernatural employees, so he's advising Hope to use caution because Benecio may well not be telling her everything he knows.

Both Hope and Lucas end up in danger as they try to sort out precisely what is happening. There's a serious threat to the Cortez Cabal as well as Hope herself. Both Hope and Lucas have to face their own personal demons to see this situation through.

"Personal Demon" definitely advances the overall story arc for this fascinating series. As always, Kelley Armstrong is excellent at character development and she's worked hard to keep the storylines consistent throughout.

Both Hope and Lucas have interesting stories to tell, but the point of view switches are not as smooth as I've read in previous novels. Plus, some of the 'mindwork' that Hope has to do in order to feed her demon can be confusing and awkward to read.

"Personal Demon" did add an interesting element to the mix of talents and a new adversary to watch out for. The book's definitely worth a read.

Rebecca Kyle, March 27, 2008

Well, it's that time of year again. Somewhere between late spring and early summer when the latest installment of Kelley Armstrong's bestselling "Women of the Otherworld" series comes out. This year "Personal Demon" is added to the 8 novel series, featuring Hope Adams, a half demon who's father is Lucifer (not Satan-different person altogether) and has a thing for chaos. A thing that sometimes takes over her better side and just wants to enjoy watching people be tortured or dieing. Like Jamie Vegas in "No Humans Involved" while Hope has a power, it can do nothing to defend her-expect warn her that danger (chaos is coming.) Luckily the chaos alarm keeps there from being a lot of wining about being powerless like Jamie indulged in.

Needless to say Hope isn't completely comfortable with this power. But she's had some help to deal with it, the interracial supernatural council and Karl, the latest edition to the Werewolf pack (who can also be found in books "Bitten" "Broken" and "No Humans Involved") and until recently, a romantic interest of Hope's. But after one night of passion Karl ran out, leaving the only tie between the two a mutual debt to the Cortez Cabal for getting them out of a spot of trouble.

Hope's just trying to work on a completely false werewolf story for the tabloid she writes for when Benicio Cortez decides the time has come to call in the debt. He wants Hope to infiltrate a supernatural gang operating in Miami and access their organization and threat to the Cabal. It's a strange request because, well, almost nothing has the power to threaten a cabal (think mob with magic), especially not a half dozen young supernaturals pulling off relatively small heists. But Hope, seeing the potential for guilt free Chaos takes the gig.

It all seems like harmless, well organized chaos inducing fun to Hope until (just after Karl arrives to help out) two of the gang members-including a potential love interest of Hope's- disappear, apparently kidnapped by the Cortex Cabal. This development brings in Lucas Cortez (the youngest son of Benicio and unwilling heir to the family business), along with his wife Paige to town for support. Soon everyone is doubting if the gang had inside Cabal connections, if one of Benicio's older passed over and power hunger sons is helping them....and if so, what's the big plan?

Of course this is all combined with lots of sex, supernatural fights, sleuthing, musings on being a supernatural but never being able to tell you're parents...the usual for an Armstrong book.

But there are a couple of big changes since "No Humans Involved." For one thing, half of this book is narrated by Lucas. Yup, that's right-a guy. Considering the events in this book it's not really a bad decision but it is breaking an established pattern and certainly had me confused at first. In the end though, while Lucas never really did come off in his narrative as I had pictured him, it was a decent portrayal.

Now that I think of it, it's not like I would be adverse to a "Men of the Otherworld" series.

Also I had a pretty hard time reconciling the Karl in this book (a werewolf jewel thief whose gruff but sensitive, loving, protective, worried about the girl he loves) with the one who committed such heinous acts in "Bitten." I mean people (and not so completely people) change but this is kind of a drastic 360. Although I guess being in love...Whatever. I still have a hard time seeing him as any kind of hero (interested in the gig or not.)

And sadly, this series has reached the point where not only can novels in this series not stand alone, but if you're not following along with the (free!) short stories on the author's website, there are going to be parts you won't understand. Nothing major, but with a cast of characters this large and each book about a year apart in time, things happen and not all of that can be stuffed into the books. Of course publishing a short story anthology could fix this....

As always. I advise new comers to start at the beginning with "Bitten" no matter how attractive a later book sounds because there will be research to do to understand characters, back stories, supernatural stuff...

In the end I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. While "Personal Demons" does get off to a kind of lame start, once things heat up, well, things heat up. I can't say this will make my top five for the series but it had much more depth than the slightly shallow "No Humans Involved" and it's certainly not going to deter me from purchasing the next book, "Living with the Dead". However if like me, you prefer the early books to the later one's, you might want to wait until this comes out in a cheaper edition.


Four point five stars. (The extra added for the oh so cute little tidbit about Clay and Elena's twins!)

Hope Adams may seem like an ordinary tabloid reporter but she's something rather more than that, being a half-demon whose demon nature feeds on and revels in chaos. When she has to pay off a debt by carrying out a difficult and dangerous undercover mission amongst a gang of young supernaturals she jumps at the chance to prove herself, especially to Karl, her erstwhile lover. However Hope turns out to be rather good at her undercover job and infiltrates the gang deeply, soon realising that all is not well in the supernatural world. When becoming involved in murders and having to try to overcome her own attraction to the chaos of some of the gang's events she finds she has to rely on Karl as well as Lucas and his wife, people who might just see her as a young and silly girl. When the four of them start to investigate a string of murders Hope learns that things aren't always as they seem, despite her talent for seeing visions of events.

The book is told mostly from the perspective of Hope but there are some chapters from the viewpoint of Lucas Cortez. I wasn't entirely sure of the reason for this as I did feel it slightly interrupted the flow of the narrative and that this alternative point of view didn't add a great deal to the story; however it was interesting to read of Lucas's difficulties reconciling his situation as heir to his Father's Cabal (a supernatural business/cult) and his personal opposition to the Cabal system that operates almost like slavery for some.

Hope has appeared in previous books in this series which did mean that sometimes the reader felt like they had missed rather a lot of the plot of this book before it had started. This is particularly with regard to her relationship with Karl although their awkward discussions and embarrassment with each other following their former failed relationship were well written. The strong points of Kelley Armstrong's books are her characters, the supernatural world which they hide amongst the humans and her excellent pacing and timing. This book was always enjoyable to read, the various characters all felt very distinct and interesting and the world of the Cabals was a great setting to a story about a young woman growing up and growing into herself as well as finding someone who can understand and support her. Well worth a read, even for those who haven't read others in this series.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

Personal Demon at first appears to be Hope Adam's story. Hope is the tabloid journalist and half chaos demon who first appeared in Armstrong's short "Chaotic" in the Dates From Hell anthology where Hope hooked up with werewolf jewel thief Karl Marsten and Hope also appeared in Armstrong's No Humans Involved (Women of the Otherworld, Book 7) where I was disappointed to discover that she and Karl had parted ways. While Hope does get a chance to shine on her own for part of Personal Demon and to learn more about her demon powers, she loses the spotlight to Lucas Cortez, Paige's sorcerer husband, and the unwilling heir to the Cortez Cabal who is on board to act as safety net for Hope as she goes undercover to infiltrate a gang making trouble for the Cortez Cabal in Miami.

In her gang member role Hope participates in some daring robberies, which up her adrenaline and begin increasing her demon-side's taste for chaos and challenging her control. Soon Hope begins to question herself and wonders if she were in the position of choosing the chaos `kick' over doing the right thing, whether she would end up being more demon than human after all. As part of her role as 'socialite Faith joining the gang for kicks', Hope decides to put her rejection by Karl behind her by pursuing a fling with fellow gang member Jaz who is handsome and appealingly happy go lucky -- Jaz trails chaos in his wake which adds to his appeal for Hope. But just as she's getting to the point where things are starting to steam up with Jaz and where her undercover role is starting to produce results, the gang is attacked apparently by rogue members of the cabal. Jaz and fellow gang member Sonny are kidnapped and another gang member is murdered. As the situation begins to get dicey for Hope, Karl shows up to cover Hope's back and Hope and Karl finally deal with the issues that tore their relationship apart while persuing the gang's attackers.

As the gang appears to be under attack by the Cabal, the Cabal also suffers a major attack and the story transitions to Lucas as he is forced to deal with the aftermath of a several connected incidents that threaten the very foundation of the Cabal. Hope's story was entertaining but Lucas' was gripping, a real page turner -- I just had to finish and find out what happened. I am sure that the events here will shake things up for Lucas and Paige permanently and it looks like Lucas will have some serious decisions to make in the future that may challenge his ethics in order to save the very institution he has spent years fighting. Personal Demons left me eagerly awaiting Living with the Dead (Women of the Otherworld, Book 9) to see what happens next to Lucas and Paige, who along with Jeremy, are my favorites in Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series.

Personal Demon is the 8th full length novel fro the Women of the Otherworld series and takes advantage of much that has come before. Lucas and Paige are introduced and developed in Dime Store Magic (Women of the Otherworld, Book 3) and Industrial Magic which provides alot of Lucas' character and background on his relationship with his father and the Cabal and you will enjoy Hope and Karl much more if you read the short "Chaotic" I mentioned above. So if you've been following Armstrong's series all along you will appreciate everything she's pulled together in this book and its events seem pivotal to the series -- you won't want to miss it. If you are new to the series, Armstrong does explain enough that it shouldn't be too confusing, but part of the satisfaction in reading a long running series is being intimately acquainted with the world and the characters, so I would recommend at least reading Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic to bring you up to speed on Armstrong's world.

If you looking for more Armstrong to hold you over until the next book and haven't already discovered Armstrong's website you should check it out. Armstrong has presents for her fans in the form of a bunch of great fill-in short stories for her series. Even though Amstrong has pulled a few stories from the site (these are set be released as an anthology, Men of the Otherworld, with its proceeds will going to charity) there are still some great gems left, including ones on Lucas, Paige, and Karl.

I know, that isn't very objective, but there you are. Armstrong's books just keep getting better and better.

This book features Hope and Lucas, but mostly Hope. Hope Adams is a tabloid reporter and an Expisco half-demon, daughter of Lucifer. As she says, "Not Satan. A totally different guy."

Hope is approached by Benicio Cortez to try to break in to a gang which seems to be wreaking havoc on the supernaturals of Miami. She agrees and immediately gets drawn into gang life. The gang is, apparently, trying to put an end to the Cortez Cabal. Clearly Benicio, as head of it, has an interest in finding out what's going on.

Having two narrators was confusing, if I forgot to read the title of the chapter to see who it was, otherwise, it was good to have both perspectives.

I don't want to give away the plot, but let's just say that Lucas reconsiders his anti-Cabal stance and may be working with his father more closely. Hope has the "adventure" she was looking for and explores her relationship with Karl more fully. The ending surprised me, which also delighted me. I think you'll enjoy it.

I never thought the day would come where I would give Kelley Armstrong fewer than five stars. From her very first book, I have devoured the series, each book getting better and better than the last. I love keeping up with characters that are nearly family to me at this point. With that said, this latest installment was a disappointment. I nearly stopped reading for the first 150 or so pages. I was bored, found the new characters flat, and felt like I was reading a poorly developing mystery/crime fighting novel (all of her books have the `who-done-it' premise, but are, most of the time, so much more). The story felt rushed and forced. I know Kelley has started a new crime series that is not supernatural (which is great, always wonderful for an artist to spread their wings), and it seemed like this book attempted to be a crossover between what the series has been thus far and what her new fiction has been about. Nearly halfway through the book, I finally got hooked, and tore through the last half. It felt like I was reading Kelley Armstrong again. The first part of the book I would rate 1 star, the second 4, so I am compromising and labeling a 3. If you are a loyal fan of Kelley, you will still enjoy this book. If you are new to her, read her other work first and build up to this one. While Hope Adams is my least favorite Woman of the Underworld thus far, I have high hopes that she can be further developed in the next installment. She has great potential as a truly deep and multifaceted character.

While I've enjoyed all of the books in this series, I found Personal Demon to be below my expectations. The biggest detraction for this edition of the Women of the Otherworld series is that it employs multiple first person sections, alternating between the perspective of Hope and Lucas. The main thrust spends time with internal dialogue of Hope Adams with minor points spend in Lucas's thoughts. If this was a setup for a future novel exploring Lucas's anticipated ascension as his father's heir, I believe it could've been better served in 3rd person or a novel on its own. As is, it was initially confusing (Armstrong has not done this before to my knowledge) and distracting from the focus of Hope as the main character.

I read the anthology involving Karl and Hope and was surprised to hear that Hope would get her own story. There was just nothing special enough about her to justify a book of her own (in my opinion). But, given the possibility that I could be wrong, I gave the book a try. Guess what? She really wasn't interesting.

I should have known this was coming after I read "Exit Strategy". I liked both it and "No Humans Involved"; I just didn't love either book. The same can be said for "Personal Demon". It's a decent story, but not a good story. This storyline is more suited to established protagonists like Elena/Clay or Paige/Lucas.

Also, there is more about Jazz than Karl in this work (if you don't count Hope's flashbacks). I had a problem with this. Not that Karl is very interesting outside of occasionally flavoring an Elena and Clay tale. Jazz is such a boring young man, which is inexcusable despite Karl being a boring old man (is it me or did Karl seem more youthful and appealing when dealing with Elena in "Bitten"?). I didn't care for Jazz's syrupy personality. If he has to show up in future books, I hope KA gives the poor guy a little more bad-azzedness. This story didn't fit urban fantasy enough for me. Yeah, yeah, chaos, morphing, whatever. The trend in the Otherworld books seems to be to take more of the fantasy out of the urban. I say let Hope and Jazz have each other. Two boring mixes might pop out something interesting.

On another point of contention, Hope talks too much. Rather, there are too many of her thoughts on paper. What's appealing about Elena, Eve, and Paige is their ability to take action, then explain. The results of their actions encourage quicker comprehension of a situation than a wordy explanation. Hope explains more irrelevant thoughts than I cared to read about--most of which had no bearing on the story. Considering how very useless her "special" abilities are (unless you have a criminal tendency), this might be justified. The bad guys all seemed to think having her around was a wonderful idea. In light of the artillery at their disposal (supernatural and otherwise), I had to differ with them on that point.

"Personal Demon" is okay if you're a die-hard fan of KA and must build on your collection. But I wouldn't recommend it for anyone looking for a good example of her works.

The "Women of the Otherworld" series is one of my favourites. Armstrong's choice of a different narrator every couple of books (although each narrator is an integral part of the supernatural world, and has a connection, however slight, with the characters from the previous books) helps keep the series fresh, and her characters generally are well-rounded and three-dimensional.

In this instalment, the narrator - half of the time - is Hope, who was introduced in the previous book, "No Humans Involved." For the first time, though (as far as I can recall) Armstrong uses alternating narratives, and certainly this is the first book featuring the perspective of one of her male characters. It's an interesting change from the previous novels, but unfortunately, I didn't feel that it totally succeeded. In the past I could barely put one of the "Otherworld" novels down once I started, and have re-read the early ones at least once. This instalment was a real struggle - I actually put it aside halfway through for several weeks, before eventually finishing it - and I can't see myself rereading it.

My main problem was I couldn't really care about Hope as a character. Because she first appears in the preceding book, and I really did not get a firm sense of her, I did not have the same sentimental connection to her as to some of the previous narrators. Furthermore, Hope herself is comparatively rather dull and insipid. I would have been more drawn in, I think, had the story centred on characters who have made more than one previous appearance, and who are much more vibrant and three-D - for example Elena, Savannah, or even Cassandra the vampire. The relationship with Karl Marsten also didn't quite ring true, in contrast to the other pairings in this series.

What did partly succeed though was Lucas as a narrator, which gives me high hopes for the forthcoming "Men of the Otherworld."

As always, Armstrong writes vividly and evocatively, and I have no real complaints about the plot and narrative structure. It was the choice of protagonist for this book that made it hard for me to get into it. Maybe there's something in a previous reviewer's theory that it was rushed to meet a deadline.

Finally, for those who are encountering the "Women of the Otherworld" series for the first time: while each book theoretically can stand alone in terms of plot, the series will not make complete sense unless read in chronological order, and the reader runs the risk of missing out on some of the more subtle developments of plot and character that connect the novels in the series.

I'm a Kelley Armstrong fan, and although I have read (and in this case listened) to many of her books, she has written a few duds, and this one is one of them. My biggest issue with this story was that Hope was just boring. For someone with the moniker 'Lucifer's daughter' she's as interesting as vanilla pudding. I just did not care about her or her 'chaos sense' power, her relationship with Karl or Jazz or the demons and the cabal.

Hope shows little remorse and little humanity in her actions. The gang itself, the workings of the club and its initiaton rites were boring. I just kept losing interest.

I didn't finish this one and I doubt I ever will. Here's hoping (no pun intended) the next one will be better.