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Riverton #1
A Demon's Duty
After a century of exile, the demon Michael Gilbert had developed a fondness for his adopted home in the Human Realm, and established a delicate peace with the local Temple whose primary duty it is to protect the Human Realm from demons of any sort. He respected them and their duties, and they in turn grudgingly trusted him not to become a threat. So when he turns a corner and steps into the end of a brutal battle fought by the local Priestess and her Guardians against some grossly oversized demon-hounds, he impulsively defends the humans, then reluctantly agrees to a dying Guardian’s last wish: that Michael himself take on a Guardian’s duty.
The breeder of the hounds, however has another pack, and a grand scheme that involves Michael himself as a linchpin. She wishes to seduce him into joining her and offers him an opportunity to return to his clan and his homeland, not just to stay, but possibly to rule with her at his side. Now, branded by a Guardian’s Mark, sworn to protect a human Priestess, and subjected to intense scrutiny from the Temple Elders, he is offered a chance to resume the life he had been forced to flee a century ago. Now Michael and everyone around him are forced to ask: what exactly is it that he wants?
The breeder of the hounds, however has another pack, and a grand scheme that involves Michael himself as a linchpin. She wishes to seduce him into joining her and offers him an opportunity to return to his clan and his homeland, not just to stay, but possibly to rule with her at his side. Now, branded by a Guardian’s Mark, sworn to protect a human Priestess, and subjected to intense scrutiny from the Temple Elders, he is offered a chance to resume the life he had been forced to flee a century ago. Now Michael and everyone around him are forced to ask: what exactly is it that he wants?
256 pages, Paperback
Published October 30, 2016
12 people are currently reading
634 people want to read
About the author
Katherine Kim
28 books14 followersKatherine Kim is a lifelong lover of fantasy. She started early, being read Tolkien as bedtime stories, which honestly explains a lot. More recently she’s been drawn to more urban fantasy stories through both books and television, and reading continues to be a passion. She lives and writes in Tokyo, with her family, a number of miniature giant robots, and not nearly enough coffee...
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 27, 2017
Review by : www.wordscantfathom.wordpress.com
Before I start discussing the book officially, can we please take a moment to award Mr. Gilbert aka our demon guy for being the most gentledemon who ever existed? I can't call him a gentleman you see, as he's not human. Hence, gentledemon. Hope it's legit! :P
The story starts in the middle of a fight where our human priestess loses her two wings, as in her two beloved human guardians who were like her family. Don't worry, that's not really a spoiler. So our demon friend Mr. Michael Gilbert takes up the responsibility of being her new guardian.
Honestly, most part of the book was entirely based on thoughts and conversations of and between the characters. But the most astonishing thing is I loved indulging in them. Our priestess, her name being May is just another ordinary human being you would come across in your day to day lives. She has been coping with her loss, crying mostly, and wondering if she should or rather can trust Michael in place of her former guardians. But yeah, she like, cries a lot. And on second thoughts, it is quite normal.
Coming back to our demon again, he breaks all stereotypes. He is not the kind of demon as described in the horror movies. He does have horns and all that, but he is just so irresistibly sensuous. I guess that’s what makes him so special. Kudos to the author for being able to create such a character in her debut novel itself!
And things turn real tortuous when Belit enters from Michael's ghost of a past. Ahh..such drama!
Now talking about the author’s writing style, I think it’s pretty swift. Narration has been done in third person, yet we were let through the characters' minds quite smoothly.
I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. I loved everything about it, mostly the characters but yes, I would have loved to read more action sequences or incidents involving the lead characters. Would I recommend this book? Oh yes, definitely! If you want to discover a very fresh and new perspective on other wordly beings, demons to be exact, then you will surely love this treat!
A Demon's Duty is a book that I absolutely adore on my shelf now and I can proudly say it has become one of my prized possessions. I'm quite impatiently waiting to read the next book in the series.
Before I start discussing the book officially, can we please take a moment to award Mr. Gilbert aka our demon guy for being the most gentledemon who ever existed? I can't call him a gentleman you see, as he's not human. Hence, gentledemon. Hope it's legit! :P
The story starts in the middle of a fight where our human priestess loses her two wings, as in her two beloved human guardians who were like her family. Don't worry, that's not really a spoiler. So our demon friend Mr. Michael Gilbert takes up the responsibility of being her new guardian.
Honestly, most part of the book was entirely based on thoughts and conversations of and between the characters. But the most astonishing thing is I loved indulging in them. Our priestess, her name being May is just another ordinary human being you would come across in your day to day lives. She has been coping with her loss, crying mostly, and wondering if she should or rather can trust Michael in place of her former guardians. But yeah, she like, cries a lot. And on second thoughts, it is quite normal.
Coming back to our demon again, he breaks all stereotypes. He is not the kind of demon as described in the horror movies. He does have horns and all that, but he is just so irresistibly sensuous. I guess that’s what makes him so special. Kudos to the author for being able to create such a character in her debut novel itself!
And things turn real tortuous when Belit enters from Michael's ghost of a past. Ahh..such drama!
Now talking about the author’s writing style, I think it’s pretty swift. Narration has been done in third person, yet we were let through the characters' minds quite smoothly.
I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. I loved everything about it, mostly the characters but yes, I would have loved to read more action sequences or incidents involving the lead characters. Would I recommend this book? Oh yes, definitely! If you want to discover a very fresh and new perspective on other wordly beings, demons to be exact, then you will surely love this treat!
A Demon's Duty is a book that I absolutely adore on my shelf now and I can proudly say it has become one of my prized possessions. I'm quite impatiently waiting to read the next book in the series.
November 16, 2017
These books show definite talent, and I believe that everything I disliked about them is something that can be fixed with time, practice, and a good critique group. This is why even though I don’t love the books, I read and will review all three.
There are some spelling and grammar problems, missing words, misused words, its/it’s confusion, etc. Mostly it looks like errors that would be caught by a good editor but not by an automatic spell-checker.
There’s a cut to a flashback that was awkward and confusing. It’s also weird that the book starts after one of the main points of action has ended. The great thing about a beginning is that you can deliberately start it in the middle of the action if you’re publishing in a genre that makes sense for. That would have made much more sense here. Instead the opening is extremely talky and sluggish and acts as an extended info-dump. I made it about a third of the way through the book before it felt like anything much happened.
Kim does a good job of using some fairly simple worldbuilding to create an interesting backdrop. She also neatly portrays Michael’s separation from humanity and the confusion he feels around people.
May does come across as too stupid a couple of times. In particular she spends much too long jumping to half-founded conclusions about Michael. Kim goes to too great a length twisting things up to make her concerns seem legitimate, keeping them apart as teammates artificially.
It probably sounds like I should have rated this lower, but I meant it when I said I can see skill and talent here. I’d like to see more despite the flaws.
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2017/11/r...
There are some spelling and grammar problems, missing words, misused words, its/it’s confusion, etc. Mostly it looks like errors that would be caught by a good editor but not by an automatic spell-checker.
There’s a cut to a flashback that was awkward and confusing. It’s also weird that the book starts after one of the main points of action has ended. The great thing about a beginning is that you can deliberately start it in the middle of the action if you’re publishing in a genre that makes sense for. That would have made much more sense here. Instead the opening is extremely talky and sluggish and acts as an extended info-dump. I made it about a third of the way through the book before it felt like anything much happened.
Kim does a good job of using some fairly simple worldbuilding to create an interesting backdrop. She also neatly portrays Michael’s separation from humanity and the confusion he feels around people.
May does come across as too stupid a couple of times. In particular she spends much too long jumping to half-founded conclusions about Michael. Kim goes to too great a length twisting things up to make her concerns seem legitimate, keeping them apart as teammates artificially.
It probably sounds like I should have rated this lower, but I meant it when I said I can see skill and talent here. I’d like to see more despite the flaws.
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2017/11/r...
January 30, 2018
I really liked this. The story is fast paced, the plot clever and the characters became friends that I cared about. Always a good thing to be sorry to finish a book! There are earlier books in this series that I haven’t read, but that was not a problem at all - the story stands alone perfectly. I’m looking forward to reading the earlier books.
October 23, 2017
Great read.
I'm glad I found this book(series). I had been searching and searching, for another series. I like reading books that are in a series. You wait and wait for the author to crank out the next book, but the reader gets to wait in suspense until their favorite character comes alive again. Yeah us!!!!!!!
I'm glad I found this book(series). I had been searching and searching, for another series. I like reading books that are in a series. You wait and wait for the author to crank out the next book, but the reader gets to wait in suspense until their favorite character comes alive again. Yeah us!!!!!!!
November 4, 2016
Good start to a new series
I enjoyed reading this a lot. I like the world she's building. It's familiar yet just enough different to intrigue me (but not confuse me!). I look forward to there being another book in Riverton.
I enjoyed reading this a lot. I like the world she's building. It's familiar yet just enough different to intrigue me (but not confuse me!). I look forward to there being another book in Riverton.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews