THE DEMON LOVER (Fairwick Chronicles #1) by Juliet Dark aka Carol Goodman
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
December 27th 2011
by Random House Publishing Group
Genre: paranormal romance novel, fantasy
Rating: 4.5 stars
I’ll begin this review by saying
that I really loved this book and I would whole-heartedly recommend it,
especially to those who enjoy reading books in a series. Since I don’t normally
read paranormal novels, I had the advantage of having a non-biased frame of
mind: whether a paranormal romance or an urban fantasy, I didn’t have any
particular expectations about it and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The first thing that hit me about
The Demon Lover was the cover: there’s something utterly alluring, gloomy and
romantic at the same time (Gothic I would say) about the silhouette of a young
woman with long russet hair, clad in a beautiful blue gown against a desolate
landscape of bare trees and black birds… I know it would be a mistake to judge
a book merely by the cover, but isn’t that the first thing that meets the eye?
What shows on the first page grabs the attention and somehow sets the tone of
the entire book. In this case I was certainly
not misled by the cover.
Beautifully written in a pleasant
and smooth first-person narrative style, TDL doesn’t fall in the clear-cut
category of a paranormal novel , or an urban
fantasy for that matter. It features a
strong romantic spin that will appeal to a “romance-novel-reader’s
sensitivity”, such as mine. And I was sold on it from the start…a marvelous
blend of fiction, romance, paranormal…what
else can you ask for?
The Gothic and paranormal
elements, the folkloristic aspects, the fairytale quality of a small and
charming college town, the literary references, the romantic spin and the
sensuality related to the myth of a supernatural being known as incubus, demon
lover or love talker, everything falls into place and helps creating a fantasy
world populated by otherworldly and vividly portrayed creatures, disguised as
humans and perfectly blended in the academic environment of a colorful college
town.
My favorite character is obviously
the demon lover with his handsome human incarnation Liam: this creature made of
shadow and moonlight, scented like ocean breeze and honeysuckle, is an
interesting mix of love (for the heroine Callie), longing and hope (to belong
to the human world once again) and doom (he has been chased away and is trapped
in the shadows between two worlds). He is a dual character and, for this reason,
he is even more intriguing. Like Callie, you can’t help falling for the supernatural
seducer haunting our heroine in her dreams and for his incarnation, the loving,
caring, passionate, romantic poet Liam.
Callie holds herself from diving
completely into the emotional depths of her feelings for the demon which haunts
her dreams (and eventually her real life) since her teenage years. There is a
deep rooted connection between them: some important revelations about her
origins will be unveiled in this novel, but we will probably need to wait for
the sequel to fully understand their entity in relation to the incubus. The
Demon Lover/Liam Doyle used to haunt Callie’s dreams after the loss of her
parents: his presence was of great comfort and soothed her sorrow by telling bedtime stories. Over the years, Callie’s dreams
involving this mysterious man become more erotic and vivid, only to stop when
she starts some serious studies on the subject.
Callie Mac Fay, recently
graduated and author of a best-selling book about the sex lives of the demon
lovers, takes a job as a folklore teacher
at the Fair wick College. Against her better judgment, she even buys an old (and
haunted) Victorian house. Her instincts tell her to stay away from that remote
place and to pursue a career at a more prestigious college in New York City,
where she would also be able to continue her relationship with her college
sweetheart. Quite inexplicably, something draws her to stay in the picturesque Fair
wick, where she will actually settle
down and experience a surprising sense of belonging. Daughter of two archeologists, orphan since
the age of twelve, she had spent her teenage years with her glacial grandmother
in a sterile New York apartment.
As soon as she moves in her new Victorian
house, Callie is visited again by the demon lover and willingly seduced. Fed by
her fascination and love, the demon incarnates in a flesh and blood poet/scholar
who will join the Fair wick academic community, the handsome Liam Doyle. She is
drawn to him, but she is reluctant to admit her feelings.
It is obvious that the author
intended for this open-ending book to be the first installment of a series, and
this is why we’re left on a huge cliff-hanger right at the end. The fact that
TDL doesn’t really work as a stand-alone novel is one of the few flaws. In an
effort to prepare the ground for a sequel (a trilogy apparently), the author starts
different threads in the storyline: besides the romantic involvement between
the demon and Callie, multiple characters and their mysteries unfold (the
Bullard curse, Mara’s papers disappearance, The Grove, Frank’s under-cover
investigations, the doors to the Fairy world, the Borderline creatures etc.)
and none of them really has a closure within the final pages of this book.
The other flaw is that the
multiple plot lines tend to distract the reader from what should be, by all
means, the core of the novel. Unfortunately, the captivating relationship
between the heroine and the demon doesn’t unfold as sweetly as we might expect.
By the end of the book it will remain unfulfilled and at some point throughout
the novel I found myself wondering what happened to the demon, left behind an
array of other issues and mysteries. The final pages seem to be rushed and
abruptly ended. The author wraps it up with the clear intention to leave some
loose ends for a future installment, hopefully soon to come and worth the wait.
I am hoping in a comeback of our demon lover: how delicious would the sequel be
if he could redeem himself, regain his humanity and win Callie’s love not only
as an incubus but also as a human being?
Anyway, I have rated TDL 4.5
stars in the light of what it could have been and will possibly and hopefully
be in the sequel (The Water Witch).
