I found this to be a new take on paranormal. Jan is a very strong woman who is flawed and makes mistakes. She is all the more empathetic for having to wade through her own mistakes. She and her demon have a symbiotic relationship and really care about each other. She is in love with Stafford, the Beast Lord of the Warewolves. She knew him when he was still human, over 80 years ago, they had a love affair while crossing the Atlantic. Like all of her other lovers, Jan left him, but she never forgot him. It turns out that he never forgot her either. When they reconnect, it is electric. Stafford hurts Jan tremendously, yet she finds a way to forgive him. Same with her jugulo, Leonidas. He had captured and turreted her until she found a way to collar him with her magic. Jan forms close ties with everyone she meets and the many criss-crossing stories bring an extra element of interest to the story. The sex was pretty hot, but it did not overwhelm the storyline itself. It was woven in.
The only drawbacks were the repetition. EVERY time Jan is exposed to death magic or violence, she explains ALL OVER again, in depth, how much her demon loves it and how she has to teach him good. I found myself muttering, “We get it!!! Move on!!!” Several times. The book set could have been about 10 hours shorter if that crap was edited out.
The narrator was good, but she only had two voices, thus all females sounded like Jan and all males sounded like Stafford. Additionally, I found it grating how she constantly mispronounced certain words. I wanted to yell, “It’s HEADY not HEEDY” and “It’s pronounced APROPO, not ApropoS!” Among other ones. It knocked me out of the story several times, but I got over it.
Overall, it was a very good story with a few issues. I look forward to reading Demon Wolf next.
I received an ARC copy of this set in exchange for my honest review.