Customer Reviews

Personal Demons

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Personal Demons is a sexy, intense and action-packed thrill ride that takes us back and forth between light- the sweet angel, Gabe. And dark- the dangerous and seductive demon, Luc.

This novel definitely balances all of the things that paranormal fans will go gaga over; handsome angels, sexy demons, intense intimacy, suspenseful action and love triangle to top all love triangles. And let's not forget that Frannie is a kick-ass character who refuses to take her newly dubbed fate laying down. I really enjoyed her persistency to keep herself grounded, even with an angel and a demon pulling her in two different directions that could mean the end of normalcy for her.

The one thing, and probably the only thing, that threw me off about this book was Frannie's back and forth jumping between Luc and Gabe. She loves Luc one day, possibly loves Gabe the next, hates Luc and then loves him all over again .. it left me so dizzy at times. I did enjoy her conflicted feelings, because it even gave me conflicting feelings of what team I wanted to be on, but I felt like the dance between the two could've been knocked down a few levels.

Overall, Personal Demons is an intense page-turner that's sinfully sexy and edgy and passionate and gah. The lines between good and evil are blurred in this wonderfully written debut, and I urge all of my fellow paranormal fans to pick this one up immediately!

I had really been looking forward to reading this book since the beginning of the year. After reading so many positive reviews on how great and sexy the book and Luc were, I was even more excited to read it. Personal Demons, unfortunately, wasn't what I expected.

Luc Cain is sent to tag the soul of an ordinary teen girl, Frannie, who has a special gift that will strongly benefit Hell. All is going well for him until new guy Gabe flies into town and also wants Frannie's soul but for Heaven. Which is where the battle for Frannie's soul commences.

I hate to say this, but the award for Most Desperate to Get Laid goes to Little Miss Mary Francis Cavanaugh. This girl went from wanting to hook up with one boy, to semi-hooking up with the other, and then back again to the first guy when the other one refused her. Plus she had a ton of those "sexy" fantasies and dreams with both boys even though she claimed to "love" one of them. That's pretty much all it was with her. She did have one or two positives though. I liked how she had a close relationship with her grandpa and how she wrote in her journal to her dead brother. Other than those two things I thought she was selfish, immature, naïve, and had a ton of growing up to do. I didn't think there was anything special about her other than being totally easy, oh and possibly being the "next Hitler or worse".

Lucifer Cain has to be one of the most cliché names for a demon, but the author did say that's what she was going for, so I can't really complain too much. He's supposed to be a thousands of years old demon, but he came off exactly like the teen boy he was pretending to be. Gabriel wasn't really developed much in the book. All we get of him is what Luc and Frannie think of him, so his character was pretty much what you would imagine a goody -goody angel would be like. It would have been nice to have some perspective from what he was experiencing. "El Diablo" had a few appearances as well, and he was the stereotypical version that we've all heard of. He wasn't all that scary even though Luc claimed he was so powerful and evil with his pitchfork.

I wasn't a fan of the book. It kind of falls into the Fallen category for me, with shallow characters, good vs. evil, unanswered questions. It did have an interesting premise, but just wasn't executed too well. Unlike with Fallen though, I might be willing to read the sequel and give the characters another chance. Lisa Desrochers is a great writer, I just didn't click too well with the characters or the storyline.

I found the writing a bit too ho-hum and the whole play on the angel and demon scenario wore thin very quickly. And when your main characters act more like immature kids better suited in grade school and not thousand plus year old supernatural creatures, along with a heroine who is considered to be a rebel on the sole basis of her thinking naughty thoughts, you can't help but wonder what the author is trying to get across. This is a very tame, lacking tween love triangle that strides too hard and fails.

The basis of the plot is that Luc Cain (how about that play on words?) has been sent to Earth as a teenager to tag Frannie Cavanaugh's soul. Frannie comes from a large family with parents who are devout Catholics. Frannie is not into her religion as her parents and some of her siblings are, and was kicked out of Catholic school for questioning the existence of God since her beloved brother, Matt was killed. She goes to Haden High aka Hades High (note the play on the words again) and is partnered up with Luc in her English class. He rubs her the wrong way since he comes across as a bit egotistical, dark (in the literal sense from his hair and his clothes), and too handsome for his own good. And yet she's strangely attracted to him (dare I note the Twilight comparison here?)

But Frannie, who I can't help but compare to a Mary Sue, because she's written that way, has many boys in school who like her. The drama, the angst of who she should pick to kiss and hang out with! She has no clue that Luc has devious plans for her that he can't fail at, or he'll mostly likely burn for all eternity. Things become even more difficult when Gabe (think of the angel Gabriel) shows up to protect her from Luc's tagging. These two boys... or men since they're older than dirt, vie for Frannie's soul while falling in love with her.

Sorry to say, but Personal Demons comes across as too tame, to dull in the sense we've seen this all before in the vast amount of Paranormal YA's that are being published. The writing lacks that originality to make it stand out. The characters, or rather I should say caricatures, are too one-dimensional and have a very been there, done that in the sense of their personality and characteristics. Seriously, do all bad boy demons must wear black, drive hot classic cars and have a piercing or two? I also found Frannie too wishy washy with no sense of direction.

Personal Demons may interest more of the tween reader under the age of twelve, but most likely won't appeal to older teens and adults.

Katiebabs

This book echoes the Twilight saga, plot-wise. Ordinary girl Frannie has two amazing guys vying for her attention. Bella is a newcomer to her school and Frannie's two admirers are the newcomers, but the principle is the same. However, instead of the guys being a vampire and a werewolf, Frannie's swains, Luc (short for Lucifer) and Gabriel, are straight from Hell and Heaven, vying over who will "tag" her for their respective hometowns.

"Tag" isn't meant in the sexual sense--it's the afterlife equivalent of baggage identification. Which destination will Frannie choose--Hell or Heaven or no destination (free will?) at all. Frannie is deeply attracted to both bad-boy, pierced-eyebrowed Luc and radiant, love magnet Gabriel--and has some dark secrets of her own.

The story is told in first-person narrative style, and the point-of-view switches between Frannie and Luc, who finds himself going to the lighter side the more he merges his energies with Frannie. What Stephenie Meyer does for Mormonism, Lisa Desrochers attempts to do for Catholicism, in a heavier handed way. All of Frannie's sisters' first names are Mary--and so is Frannie's. Frannie was raised Catholic but after her brother dies, she questions God's existence and is thrown out of her (Catholic) high school. I'm sure you can guess, at least in part, whether or not Frannie's faith is redeemed.

As a reader, I was very curious as to how this triangle would end--but as a critical reader, getting to the actual ending was a rather torturous process. The banality of the writing intruded on my attention as if it were a succubus of its own, bringing with it its own sulfurous odor.

An example:

"So, let's not go to the cafeteria," I say, not quite ready to face Gabe with Luc in the same room.

He grins. "Did you have something else in mind?"

"I've got some munchies in my locker. It's a nice day. We could just hang out on the lawn."

He slides his arm around me, and I almost purr right out loud. "Sounds good."
***

It reads a little too much like an average 15 year old's diary that hasn't been edited--yet it doesn't sound authentic, either. And when Grandpa (yes, Grandpa) says "ya" instead of "you," I want to shudder. Repeatedly.

On the up side, I like the way the author assigns scents to emotions--rose to sorrow, ginger to sexual interest, and chocolate to love. And even though it turns out that, like Bella, Frannie has her own special powers--hence the reason both Heaven and Hell want her so badly--this isn't a rewrite of TWILIGHT. Though I wouldn't be surprised if a sequel to PERSONAL DEMONS was in the works.

I won't be reading it...unless there's absolutely nothing else in the Limbo library.

Quick & Dirty: Unfortunately, Personal Demons delivers unlikable and clichéd characters, which does nothing to help the formulaic and underdeveloped plot.

Opening Sentence: If there's a Hell on Earth, it's high school.

The Review:

Luc Cain is on a mission. Luc is a First Level, 7,000 year old demon sent from the underworld to tag Frannie Cavanaugh's soul. Frannie, a "good" catholic girl is going through a rebellious phase, battling her "wicked" streak. She's ripe for the picking. As events unfold, Frannie soon discovers that she's not just an average teenage girl. With her ability to shift the balance of power between good and evil, Frannie has the celestials and the infernals vying for her soul. Gabriel is an angel sent to foil Luc's attempts to tag Frannie's soul so that he can tag her soul himself for the good cause. Frannie quickly becomes enamored with both angel and demon, making it hard for her to function, and for them to do their respective jobs. Tag, you're it!

Personal Demons turned out to be a rather disappointing read. I was initially intrigued when I first heard about this series. I loved the premise and thought that the setup would make for a compelling story. The first two chapters setup what appeared to be a titillating, seductive, and all-consuming read. Unfortunately, Mrs. Desrochers settles into a dull and clichéd rhythm, which leads to a series of painfully predictable moments. Personal Demons starts out with a sizzle, but quickly turns into a fizzle.

Personal Demons is told in first person narrative with alternating POV's between Luc and Frannie. The narrative voices aren't particularly distinct from each other, making it hard to really care about or feel attached to the characters. Luc doesn't ever seem worldly let alone evil. I certainly didn't expect a 7,000 year old demon to be so immature and unsure of himself. I initially thought the idea of incorporating scents with emotions was great, but it quickly turned annoying as I couldn't remember them all. These are just some that I remembered to flag as I read along: Anise = Envy, Bitter Garlic = Hate, Black Pepper = Fury, Chocolate = Love, Citrus = Fear, Ginger = Lust. But uncharismatic characters and contrived scenes aren't Personal Demons' greatest sins.

There's nothing dark or dangerous about this story. On the surface we are told what could happen and about the "evil" beasties involved, yet it's not clearly shown to the reader. Fundamentally, this story lacks that sense of real danger and fear given the fact that the "evil" overlord himself has sent various henchmen to tag Frannie's soul.

Frannie isn't terribly sympathetic or likable, and the frequent use of the words: "`Cause", "Whatever", and "Mmm" literally drove me mad. Frannie is driven by lust and paralyzed by ambivalence when it comes to making her own decisions. I don't have an issue with her sudden lustful fits and teenage angst because it's actually one of the only believable aspects of the book. The major issue is that there isn't ANYTHING else to Frannie. Her character is completely vacuous and superficial on every level. But for the fact that Frannie's "innocence" is mentioned in the book, she would be known as the town bicycle. Her constant falling all over and making out with Luc and Gabe at seamlessly the most random moments felt shallow. I never felt that necessary romantic and emotional connection. Beyond the fact that Frannie is just a horny, annoying, selfish, and immature person, she's just not that interesting. I simply couldn't find one redeemable quality about her.

It's a shame that Luc turned out to be such a lackluster character because he had the most potential to be interesting. Luc is supposed to be an "evil" demon sent to seduce Frannie and lead her down a sinful path so that he can tag her soul for his boss, but he NEVER does anything evil. Imagine watching a movie about a serial killer who never kills anybody. Preposterous, right? Luc is probably one of the most pitiful characterizations of "evil" that I've ever read.

Gabriel and Luc are essentially one in the same, where any "hot" guy will fill that lust void for Frannie. The "love triangle" in this book is basically non-existent. Gabriel is yet another severely under developed character whose chief draw to Frannie is that he's unbelievably "HOT".

Overall, I found Personal Demons to be a deeply flawed novel, with little character depth and development. Ms. Desrochers fails to adhere to the realities within the fantasy she created. She writes about a conflict between good and evil, but never presents us with anything remotely evil, or particularly sinful. Other than Frannie's sexual frustrations and sudden boy obsession, and a poorly constructed love triangle, this story doesn't seem to have any real purpose.

Notable Scene:

Finally, my head starts to clear, and I reach my sanctuary: the sliver of Hell from my wall mural. I walk along the cragged banks of the Lake of Fire until I reach the southernmost tip, where the lake meets the Walls of Hell, and the river Styx flows in from the south. Here, the distant shrieks of the damned and the mirthful laughter of the infernal blend and echo off the high walls like a dissonant choir. This is my cathedral.

Sitting on the pitted lava outcropping over the Lake of Fire, I let the music of Hell welcome me home for the last time. I stare out over the lake at the glossy black hulk of Pandemonium, perched above all of Hell on Flame Island. I admire the orange and red roiling molten lake swirling around the large crags of brimstone, pointing like accusing fingers at Heaven. Its accompanying light show-flickering scarlet and indigo with blue and white flame eruptions-is like Hell's fireworks. And as the clouds of sulfuric gas emanating from those eruptions engulf me, I breathe them in, savoring the smell of brimstone as it stings my human nose. It's easy to forget how beautiful home is, at least to us demons.

The Personal Demons Series:

1. Personal Demons

2. Original Sin

3. Hellbent

FTC Advisory: Tor Teen provided me with a copy of Personal Demons. No goody bags, sponsorships, "material connections," or bribes were exchanged for my review. In addition, I don't receive affiliate fees for anything purchased via links from my site.

Why I picked it up: Cause I love the whole good vs. evil thing

Why I couldn't put it down: I almost DID put it down, a few times. The first 150 pages or so were downright tedious for me. Let me sum it up for you...

Luc shows up at school, he thinks Frannie is hot, she thinks he is hot.
Gabe shows up at school. Frannie thinks he is hot.
LOTS of tingling going on.
Lockers, lunchroom, lockers, lunchroom.
Frannie kisses Luc, thinks she might be in love.
Frannie kisses Gabe, thinks she might be in love.
Tingle, lockers, tingle, lunchroom.

Oh and lots of Luc "smelling her ginger" whenever Frannie was feeling attracted to him. Was I the only one who found this phrase a little ewwww worthy??

In other words, nothing really interesting happens for the first half of the book. Now granted, I understand characters need to be introduced and things need to be established early on, but by the time any real action gets underway, I was so tired of keeping up with who was sitting by who at lunchtime that I really didn't care about any of the characters. Frannie's so called possible love for these guys was based on nothing more than physical attraction. It would have been nice for her to have something else to go on before she started locking lips with whichever one was in closest proximity. When it comes down to it, I really didn't like Frannie that much.

And as for the boys...Luc's description was NOTHING like the Luc on the cover...did the artist even read the book?? Not to mention that for being a demon, he really wasn't that bad of a guy. And Gabe...well, Gabe felt more like a secondary character than a contender for leading man.

I will have to say things did get more interesting halfway into the book. Desrochers delivers some clever and unique ideas that I think would ultimately have worked better if the hormones had been scaled back and the personalities played up. When it came down to it, I didn't really care enough about either of the guys (or Frannie for that matter) to be invested in who she chose and what everyone's fate would be.

There are a lot of great concepts introduced though, and I'm hoping the next book will focus more on them than the hormones and the love triangle. I know there will be lots of people who DO like this book, it just wasn't one of my favorites.

This book was ludicrous on a number of levels. Perhaps most obviously obnoxious was the writing, which definitely learned from Twilight. Here is a brief selection, which will demonstrate the nature of the entire novel:

"He smiles his wicked smile and nearly stops my heart. And when he leans in to kiss me, I'm pretty sure it does.
I can't stop my hand from reaching for his face. I feel him shiver in answer and he locks gazes with me. 'Let's get out of here,' he says into my lips.
An achy tingle spreads through me and I smile a shaky smile. 'I know just the place.'" (164)

While the writing tends to be grammatically correct (which unfortunately is not always true), it also does not show any particular special talent at crafting sentences. The first real problem is that his smile nearly stops her heart (not creative, but a fairly common phrase), but (oh noes) his kiss actually does her stop her heart. Umm, no. Am I the only one who has a problem with this? Her heart does not actually stop; this is mere 'romantic' exaggeration. It doesn't stop there, what with her apparently being some sort of puppet on strings, since she 'can't stop' her hand from going to his face. Again, I am not buying it. Then he speaks into her lips. Awkward and ineffective, anyone? Of course, you cannot forget the achy tingles spreading through her throughout the book. He's hot and you want to have sex with him. We (the readers) get it, thanks. No emotion or phrase is not continually harped on, so be prepared for the repetition of these already banal teen exhibitions of love and lust. Not to mention that these phrases fail to achieve their goal, which is to make the reader believe in the love and deep connection between the two. I, for one, am not buying it.

Beyond this, I feel compelled simply to point out a few absurdities bullet-point style.

1) Frannie (actual name Mary Francis) is one of five daughters, all of whom have the first name Mary. Even for Catholics, I see this as incredibly inane.

2) Luc can smell people's emotions. Love smells like chocolate, lust like ginger, anger like black pepper, etc. This is actually kind of a neat idea, but mostly it got on my nerves. Had it been used effectively, it would have been cool.

3) Frannie wants both the angel (Gabe, short for Gabriel) and Luc throughout almost all of the book, even though I am supposed to believe in her deep, forever love for the latter boy. Bull.

4) "He thinks I don't know he's following me all the time. He knows I want my life, and he's trying so hard to let me have it. I don't want to burst his bubble, so I don't say anything, but, really, I like knowing he's there" (302). Frannie on Luc in an example of the Twilightishness of this book. Being a stalker is super hot!!!

5) The book is told from the perspectives of Frannie and Luc. It's kind of hard to play up a love triangle effectively if only one of the boys gets his point of view shown. I mean, obviously, Frannie will choose the guy we never hear from. Right...

6) Apparently all demons look the same in human form, such that Frannie cannot tell which one is lover boy and which wants to eat her soul. That's true love.

I will wrap up with six, what with that being a number the demons would approve of (at least in triplicate). Recommended only for those who believe that Bella and Edward's relationship is the pinnacle of true love.

I've read a lot of reviews that said Frannie was an annoying character. At the time I was thinking: how bad can she be? But after I read the book I understood what they meant. Frannie as a character started out as good. She had her flaws and good points but later on just kept having these mood swings and just became an all around irritating and annoying character. For example she gets angry at someone for doing something she did too. Which is very hypocritical of her. I didn't like Gabriel either he just didn't seem to have much of a personality, liking Frannie and being an angel seemed to make up his entire personality.

I thought Luce had a good personality though, I enjoyed his sarcasm and humor. He was a good character. That is, if he was a teenage boy. But being over a millennium year old demon, you'd think he would have had a little more insight. And although Gabriel doesn't have his own a point of view in the book, I can say the same - for what I've seen of him so far. Not all the character were horrible I did like Luce besides that one point and I did enjoy reading about Riley and Taylor, Frannie's two best friends.

The book goes back and forth between Luce and Frannie's point of views. And they didn't seem to have much of a different voice honestly and at times I found myself getting mixed over who's point of view I was reading.

The book wasn't all bad otherwise I would have gave it a one. I didn't like the romance between Frannie and Gabriel, mainly because Gabriel didn't have much of a personality. But I did enjoy the romance between Frannie and Luce. It seemed real and not forced or shoved in your face. I also really loved the close relationship between Frannie and her grandfather, you just don't see much of that in books anymore. Like family isn't important at all.

It was an overall good read and the plot kept me interested. I will probably read the next book, Original Sin, but if Frannie's character doesn't improve by than I can't say much for reading the book after Original Sin.

Personal Demons is everything the cover promises. It's steamy, intriguing and addictve. The dual perspectives work to clue the reader in, the writer's invention of Limbo and Hell is interesting and the characters are easy to fall in love with. Reader's beware, Luc might literally charm the pants off you and be grinning about it the whole time.

I'm a sucker for dual perspectives and is an example of a novel that needs it. Luc's head was interesting, intense and just foreign enough to give him that air intrigue. It's great to read character that are full of confidence and Luc's got confidence in abundance, being the spawn of pride and all. His thoughts are generally pessimistic and humorous and his tongue is loose enough to let out some of the quick wit. What I found most interesting about Luc was that he was techinically on top of his game in the beginning and was rapidly losing his powers which is a complete 180 from most paranormal novels. Frannie was a firecracker herself. She's was sure of what she wanted and didn't let things hold her back. I was afreaid she might be too harsh for my taste but then we get the scenes with her grandfather which really work to show her sorrow and soft side. She was the perfect blend of sweet and sour, and it made complete sense why both Heaven and Hell would be vying for her.

While I loved the dual perspective, I think I would have liked to see Gabe's side of the story too. I almost wish I'd gotten three sides-- heaven (Gabe), hell (Luc) and limbo (Frannie). More of a preference and Luc was so much fun, I'm not sure hearing Gabe would have changed my mind. From the beginning there was no question for me who to pick!

The descriptions of Hell were really vivid and creative. I liked that sins smelled like certain things for Luc (and all demons) so they knew when people were ready to sin. I also found it really interesting that Luc was always hot and that each demon had their own "human shell" they could morph into. The most creative thing for me was that demons were born of hell not created, but angels were created from human souls. I'm hoping book 2 dives into this a little more.

Ms. Desrochers' writing was easy to read and humorous. She was meticulous in her heaven/hell references from Frannie, Luc and Gabe's perspectives and the dialog out of their mouth and often made me chuckle. Lus was always "hotter than hell" to Frannie and Luc always thanked Satan. These touches really worked to drive the point home. I also really liked the conflict in this. I really felt the stakes even though they were simplified down to "tagging". If anything, the nonchalant way Luc came to tag Frannie's soul helped to intensify the stakes.

My only issue with this was how many guys were into Frannie. She didn't seem overly popular but she had four guys falling at her feet. I understand that she's beautiful but I'm not sure how realistic it was for me. That could have had something to do with her confidence and in all fairness, two of the guys were new and trying to get her soul. It just felt a little too perfect sometimes. However, Frannie did have real issues to work through and they were big which also helped ease a little bit of the perfect bubble surrounding her.

All in all, Personal Demons featured realistic characters that struggled with different issues and told a steamy and touching story of two people finding each other and striving to stay together even though they likely had a snowballs chance in Hell in doing so. The dual perspectives worked, adding that special spark to the story, and the writing was clever. I'd definitely reccommend letting Personal Demons perch on your shoulder for a few days. Luc might even let you thank him!

Personal Demons is a quick and exciting read. There are mouth watering guys, a fiesty main character, and a well paced plot. This is the age old good verses evil tale told in a relatable, suspensful, touching and funny story.
I really enjoyed Frannie, she was a strong character and I liked hearing things from her point of view. I like that she questioned her feeling and didn't just blindly accept Luc and Gabriel's presence in her life or how they made her feel. I also like that she wants to have control over her life and has valid reasons for the decisions she makes.
There is a love triangle, but Gabriel never felt right, like he was a valid option in my opinion. I am glad that he was there for protection and guidance, and I understand that the quickest way to have him connect with Frannie and gain her trust is that attraction.
Luc was always the choice for me. He is the ultimate bad boy who is changed and transformed by love. It really made me smile to watch him change, question the view points he once though ingrained. All of the heaven and hell jibes and jokes were amazing too!
Also, I just wanted to put in that I am a cover fanatic, and for a while was put off by the cover(s) of this book. DO NOT let that deter you if you, like me, are not crazy about it. There is an awesome story behind it! Now that I have read the book, I have actually found things about the cover that I like and appreciate, but it did originally turn me off.
Frannie's journey to finding love, forgiving herself, healing from her brother's death of which she blames herself, and ultimately taking control of her life is a wonderful story. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I recommend that you give it a try.