Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Demons and Lullabies (The Demons Age #2)

by Kallysten (Goodreads Author)

4.44 of 5 stars 4.44 · rating details · 32 ratings · 9 reviews

Some little boys want to be firemen or astronauts when they grow up. From the moment Jacob understood what his fathers did, he never wanted to do anything but fight demons.

Andrew, Jacob’s father and a vampire, fights demons because it’s a necessity: few others have the strength or skill to kill the strange creatures that started appearing the very night his son was born. H...more

ebook, 298 pages

Published August 29th 2012

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best M/M Romance Published in 2012

421st out of 583 books — 1,180 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 92)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Feb 22, 2013 Holly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: vampires, paranormal-romance, male-male, read-and-reviewed-from-author-or-pu

May have slight spoilers.

In Demons and Lullabies by Kallysten we meet Andrew, a father (and vampire) who has just lost his love (human) during the birth of their son. As a vampire it is illegal for him to keep the child and raise him, the baby would be taken away, which is why Andrew decides to move away from the city where he and Cara had met, fallen in love and lived at—away from where everyone knows he is a vampire.

Not long after he moves and begins to set his life up again, including his Sp...more

3 likes · like · see review

Nov 28, 2012 Adriana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, male-male, paranormal-fantasy, drama-need-tissues, favorites-and-rereads

First book: Fangs and Lullabies

I'm in love with this family and I don't think I'll ever get enough of them.
I really like this book because we get to know more about Cara, the demons and teen Jacob.

I would love to know if there's gonna be a third book...

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 15, 2012 Megan Riverina Romantics/Meggerfly~TS rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: e-book, m-m, vampires, arc, paranormal-romance, urban-fantasy

Rating: 5
Heat Rating: 4 out of 5

Andrew, Nicholas and Jacob are quite the unique family. Not only did Jacob have two fathers but they were also vampires. The latter was something that had to be kept a secret though because vampires weren't allowed to raise children - even if there was a biological link between them. And even though Andrew was a vampire, there was that biological link between him and Jacob. As impossible as it sounds, somehow the human woman that Andrew had loved and cherished for...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 05, 2012 DavinciKittie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kallysten, paranormal-romance-urban-fantasy, m-m

Read the full review, including other similar recommended reads, here: http://gravetells.com/2012/09/04/revi...

*** This review is SPOILER-FREE! Read on with confidence! ***

Andrew and Nicholas have a sweet, loving relationship, with a slight D/s twist: Andrew is Nick's vampire sire and, while Nick doesn't always do as he's told, he has an innate need to make Andrew happy. Together they raise Jacob, Andrew's biological son, conceived and born through magic and mystery. On the night of Jacob's birt...more Read the full review, including other similar recommended reads, here: http://gravetells.com/2012/09/04/revi...

*** This review is SPOILER-FREE! Read on with confidence! ***

Andrew and Nicholas have a sweet, loving relationship, with a slight D/s twist: Andrew is Nick's vampire sire and, while Nick doesn't always do as he's told, he has an innate need to make Andrew happy. Together they raise Jacob, Andrew's biological son, conceived and born through magic and mystery. On the night of Jacob's birth, his mother's heart stopped beating just as he was born, then the demon sightings began... always in proximity to Jacob or the city he was born in.

The story skips through time and highlights moments from Jacob's childhood and the relationship between his two dads as they defend unsuspecting humans against near-constant demon attacks. Initially, the story switches between Andrew's and Nicholas's point of view, exploring their bond and narrating Jacob's early years from an outside perspective. Once Jacob is old enough to talk and toddle, we're treated to some endearingly adorable and surprisingly mature thoughts and get to see his fathers from a new perspective, highlighting some of the more subtle aspects of their partnership.

As precocious and precious as Jacob is as a child, it is exciting and unexpectedly compelling to watch him grow into a sweet, strong young man with excellent judgement, a level head, and a heart of gold. Seeing him with his first love, his first demon kill, learning the hard way how to deal with judgmental peers, developing his defensive skills and protective personality... it's all so smooth and flowing and endearing that I don't care that the battle scenes aren't blow-by-blow and the sex scenes tend toward sensual rather than erotic. This is a story about a boy who shouldn't exist, his unusual family unit, and the brilliant ribbons of his life as he becomes a man. Demons and Lullabies is a life story, rich and fulfilling. Its paranormal aspects take somewhat of a backseat to the characters' relationships and the flowing passage of time, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

While there is certainly a good amount of demon fighting and fangy love bites happening in the periphery of this story, the focus is on love and family bonds and the challenges of growing up with two dads who happen to be traditional vampires. Some of the scenes with Jacob as a child really squeezed my heart, made me feel what he was feeling. I usually don't care for stories with kids in them, but in Demons & Lullabies it didn't bother me at all. I was so caught up in the heart of this touching story that the lack of action and smut rarely crossed my mind. Oh there's sex and it's fairly steamy, but it's not overly explicit or gratuitous; it enhances the mens' relationship rather than defining it.

As soon as this book ended, I thought "this better be a series!" I didn't want it to end and am looking forward to seeing Jacob grow into his adulthood fighting beside his fathers. When I said this to author Kallysten, she reassured me that there is indeed a story about Jacob's adult journey, called One Last Lullaby. Demons & Lullabies is a captivating, enriching story and is a GraveTells recommended read!

@~~~ Did you enjoy this review? Rate it up on Amazon! ~~~@(less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 30, 2012 MandyM rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m-romance

I loved the first book in this series Fangs and Lullabies and I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great m/m romance with two Dads (Andrew and Nicholas) bringing up a beautiful kid (Jacob). Although it was great to visit with them again, I don't feel that much happened in book 2. In fact I was surprised that it went right back to the beginning and pretty much told the story over again using different snapshots of their lives. We still don't know much about the demons and how they are...more

4 likes · like · see review

Sep 15, 2012 Gaele rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fmb-tour, review-reads

I received an eBook copy of this book from the author for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review, and all conclusions are entirely my own responsibility.

Let me start off by saying that this is very much a story of a family and how they navigate the difficulties that are encountered as a family. That being said – this is a ‘non-traditional’ family, with a homosexual relationship at the forefront of the sexual activities, and if that concept is not something you are comfor...more I received an eBook copy of this book from the author for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review, and all conclusions are entirely my own responsibility.

Let me start off by saying that this is very much a story of a family and how they navigate the difficulties that are encountered as a family. That being said – this is a ‘non-traditional’ family, with a homosexual relationship at the forefront of the sexual activities, and if that concept is not something you are comfortable with, you may have difficulties reading this book. During the sex scenes, and the occasional homophobic comments addressed to the child, Jacob, are the only times you note a difference in this family from any other you could pick up off the street. Well, perhaps there is another difference, both Andrew (the biological father) and Nicholas (his progeny, lover and co-parent) are vampires, and manage an agency that eradicates demons that are suddenly appearing in their area.

The author has created a series of vignettes that essentially take one year of Jacob’s life, and distill it into the ‘highlights’ of the moment and put those into a chapter. We start with Jacob as an infant, and watch Andrew deal with the grief at the loss of his wife, and the joy and fear he feels with having a son to raise. By the time we have reached Jacob’s heading to school, you are so engrossed in the story, and so attuned to his fears as well as those worries his Dads hold that it literally becomes impossible to put the book down. What’s amazing to me after reading the book is that the author managed to develop 3 characters in a way that makes them tangible and complete – without major holes in their personalities, even though we are really just sort of ‘checking in’ on them every year or so for 18 years. I just realized that this was the second in a series, yet this book stands alone proudly, and is one of the better books that mixed plot with erotic content that I have read this year. I should talk more about the paranormal content, but even it was buried within the more dominant storyline of the love and growth in a family.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Sep 17, 2012 Kallysten Kallysten added it · (Review from the author)

Shelves: ebooks-i-wrote, my-paperbacks, how-this-story-came-to-be

How this story came to be...

When I was writing Fangs & Lullabies, I was confronted to a new but major problem: I couldn’t stop! Before I knew it, the story was well over 100,000 words, and I felt I still had a lot to say. After all, I was telling eighteen years worth of stories! I finally managed to stop and send the manuscript to my editor. Getting it back, however, I was confronted to another problem: she thought the story lacked unity. In particular, she wanted me to either ditch a snapsh...more How this story came to be...

When I was writing Fangs & Lullabies, I was confronted to a new but major problem: I couldn’t stop! Before I knew it, the story was well over 100,000 words, and I felt I still had a lot to say. After all, I was telling eighteen years worth of stories! I finally managed to stop and send the manuscript to my editor. Getting it back, however, I was confronted to another problem: she thought the story lacked unity. In particular, she wanted me to either ditch a snapshot or develop it and reference it again in the book, namely the revelation that the demon invasion might have been triggered by the magic that brought Jacob to life.

I couldn’t get rid of this anecdote; it was the beginning of an explanation to the demons! Writing more on the other hand wasn’t a problem, seeing how I had to force myself to stop in the first place. I was reluctant to create a longer book, though, especially in the light of looming deadlines. The solution was simple: rather than adding a stronger demon plotline to the book, I’d center a second book around it, and I already had a title for it: Demons & Lullabies.

I ended up setting that revelation snapshot as a teaser for Demons & Lullabies at the end of Fangs & Lullabies, cut a few scenes to keep for Demons & Lullabies, and started writing it almost right away. The demon storyline shows us the evolution of Andrew’s feelings in regard to fighting, how Nicholas joins the fight, and how Jacob, as he grows up, understands what his dads do and discovers how his birth might be linked to the demons, decides he, too, will be a fighter. We don’t see much actual fighting except for Jacob’s first fights; I was always more interested in the reasons why they fight than in depicting battles, which I have done in other books in the Demons Age series.

I had decided early on that the second book would be structured like the first, with snapshots from every year of Jacob’s life, and that gave me the opportunity to revisit some snapshots and expand on them. For example, the very first scene shows us Andrew the morning after Cara’s death as he has to push through his grief to plan his next steps. A later one shows Jacob teaching Kirsten to skate, as he had promised in Fangs & Lullabies.

Other snapshots cast a new light on things only alluded to in the first book: where did Nicholas get the lighter he carries everywhere? How did Sam Jones end up in the mud? Why was Andrew so mad at Nicholas in the ‘dirvoce’ incident? A few of these questions were asked by readers, and I was happy to answer them.

And then, more snapshots explore things I didn’t get a chance to touch on in the first book, like Jacob asking about his mother, or Andrew’s other Childe, Roxanne, and how she finally follows the same path as Nicholas.

Now that Demons & Lullabies is released, I do need to answer another question… Will I stop here, or do I have enough snapshots to share for a third full-length story?
(less)

1 like · like · see review

May 15, 2013 Ilona rated it 5 of 5 stars

The mark of a good author is to move a person to tears when reading their work. With this wonderful collection of vignettes, following Jacob and his Fathers during his growing up years, Kallysten hit that mark. I read the first in this series a while ago now, and was delighted to revisit the family, and Kallysten did not disappoint me as she dragged me into their world. I really love Andrew, Nicholas and Jacob and was delighted to find out that Kallysten is busy writing a follow up story about J...more

like · see review

Oct 11, 2012 Tj rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not as good as the first book. This felt like a retelling of the first. I did enjoying seeing a little more of the MCs' lives but I'm still left with the same questions as I had from the first. I still enjoyed the story but didn't gain much new from it.

like · see review

May 13, 2013 Pet marked it as to-read

May 12, 2013 Pam Metz marked it as to-read

May 12, 2013 Birte marked it as to-read

Shelves: got-it-yet-still-to-read

May 11, 2013 Cassie Polla marked it as to-read

May 08, 2013 Velora Bishop marked it as to-read

May 04, 2013 Bookbee marked it as wish-list

Shelves: p

Apr 24, 2013 Sasha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Apr 20, 2013 Lyrabela marked it as to-read

Apr 13, 2013 Gagnyteaaa marked it as to-read

Apr 12, 2013 Emmie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: m-m, series, supernatural-creatures

Apr 07, 2013 Lilliana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Apr 02, 2013 Zoe marked it as to-read

Mar 30, 2013 Betsy marked it as to-read

Mar 27, 2013 Stephanie E marked it as to-read

Mar 26, 2013 Laula rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mar 14, 2013 Vee marked it as to-read

Mar 04, 2013 Alex Hahn added it

Shelves: bought-own, m-m-paranormal

Feb 28, 2013 Kelly McGrath rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: gay-with-children, law-enforcement-bodyguard-pi-etc, m-m, demon, vampire, work

Feb 16, 2013 Lesa Miller-cox marked it as to-read

Feb 12, 2013 Kristina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: glbt

Feb 12, 2013 Saunne rated it 5 of 5 stars

« previous 1 2 3 4 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

Genres

Romance > M M Romance

10 users

Fantasy > Paranormal

5 users

Paranormal > Vampires

3 users

M M Romance > M M Paranormal

2 users

Glbt

2 users

Romance > Paranormal Romance

2 users

See top shelves...

About Kallysten

Kallysten is a writer of romance novels and short stories, most of them with paranormal elements.

Her first eBooks were published by Linden Bay Romance in 2005. The defunct Venus Press subsequently published a few of her short stories. Because so many of her stories are linked as series and part of the same universe, she decided it would make sense to have them all in the same place, which is why s...more

More about Kallysten...

Books by Kallysten

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Demons and Lullabies

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Demons and Lullabies
avg rating	preview: Demons and Lullabies Goodreads rating: 4.44 (32 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15813148-demons-and-lullabies?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1344535168l/15813148.jpg[/img][/url] [url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15813148-demons-and-lullabies?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Demons and Lullabies by Kallysten[/url]

Demons and Lullabies (The Demons Age #2)

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Genres

About Kallysten

Books by Kallysten

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Demons and Lullabies

new topic
Discuss This Book