Personal Demon (Women of the Otherworld, #8) in Vampires, Weres and Fae!

Oct 14, 2009 Melindeeloo rated it really liked it

Starts out entertaining and ends up a real page-turner. Wow!

Personal Demon at first appears to be Hope Adam's story. Hope is the tabloid journalist and half chaos demon who first appeared in Armstrong's short "Chaotic" in the Dates From Hell anthology where Hope hooked up with werewolf jewel thief Karl Marsten and Hope also appeared in Armstrong's No Humans Involved (Women of the Otherworld, Book 7) where I was disappointed to discover that she and Karl had parted ways. While Hope does get a c Starts out entertaining and ends up a real page-turner. Wow!

Personal Demon at first appears to be Hope Adam's story. Hope is the tabloid journalist and half chaos demon who first appeared in Armstrong's short "Chaotic" in the Dates From Hell anthology where Hope hooked up with werewolf jewel thief Karl Marsten and Hope also appeared in Armstrong's No Humans Involved (Women of the Otherworld, Book 7) where I was disappointed to discover that she and Karl had parted ways. While Hope does get a chance to shine on her own for part of Personal Demon and to learn more about her demon powers, she loses the spotlight to Lucas Cortez, Paige's sorcerer husband, and the unwilling heir to the Cortez Cabal who is on board to act as safety net for Hope as she goes undercover to infiltrate a gang making trouble for the Cortez Cabal in Miami.

In her gang member role Hope participates in some daring robberies, which up her adrenaline and begin increasing her demon-side's taste for chaos and challenging her control. Soon Hope begins to question herself and wonders if she were in the position of choosing the chaos `kick' over doing the right thing, whether she would end up being more demon than human after all. As part of her role as 'socialite Faith joining the gang for kicks', Hope decides to put her rejection by Karl behind her by pursuing a fling with fellow gang member Jaz who is handsome and appealingly happy go lucky -- Jaz trails chaos in his wake which adds to his appeal for Hope. But just as she's getting to the point where things are starting to steam up with Jaz and where her undercover role is starting to produce results, the gang is attacked apparently by rogue members of the cabal. Jaz and fellow gang member Sonny are kidnapped and another gang member is murdered. As the situation begins to get dicey for Hope, Karl shows up to cover Hope's back and Hope and Karl finally deal with the issues that tore their relationship apart while persuing the gang's attackers.

As the gang appears to be under attack by the Cabal, the Cabal also suffers a major attack and the story transitions to Lucas as he is forced to deal with the aftermath of a several connected incidents that threaten the very foundation of the Cabal. Hope's story was entertaining but Lucas' was gripping, a real page turner -- I just had to finish and find out what happened. I am sure that the events here will shake things up for Lucas and Paige permanently and it looks like Lucas will have some serious decisions to make in the future that may challenge his ethics in order to save the very institution he has spent years fighting. Personal Demons left me eagerly awaiting Living with the Dead (Women of the Otherworld, Book 9) to see what happens next to Lucas and Paige, who along with Jeremy, are my favorites in Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series.

Personal Demon is the 8th full length novel fro the Women of the Otherworld series and takes advantage of much that has come before. Lucas and Paige are introduced and developed in Dime Store Magic (Women of the Otherworld, Book 3) and Industrial Magic which provides alot of Lucas' character and background on his relationship with his father and the Cabal and you will enjoy Hope and Karl much more if you read the short "Chaotic" I mentioned above. So if you've been following Armstrong's series all along you will appreciate everything she's pulled together in this book and its events seem pivotal to the series -- you won't want to miss it. If you are new to the series, Armstrong does explain enough that it shouldn't be too confusing, but part of the satisfaction in reading a long running series is being intimately acquainted with the world and the characters, so I would recommend at least reading Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic to bring you up to speed on Armstrong's world.

If you looking for more Armstrong to hold you over until the next book and haven't already discovered Armstrong's website you should check it out. Armstrong has presents for her fans in the form of a bunch of great fill-in short stories for her series. Even though Amstrong has pulled a few stories from the site (these are set be released as an anthology, Men of the Otherworld, with its proceeds will going to charity) there are still some great gems left, including ones on Lucas, Paige, and Karl.
...more

Like · see review

Feb 18, 2010 Tash rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, demons, read-in-2023

This was definitely the book I've enjoyed reading the least, at least so far, during my re-read of the series.
My main issue was I struggled to really connect with Hope. The other characters I've at least been able to sympathise with, if not rooting for them. Hope, I feltt, has a similar character journey to Jaimr in No Humans Involved - trying to come to terms with the negative aspects of her abilities whilst trying to do some good with them. The difference with Jaime is that her powers gave her ...more

Like · see review

May 29, 2011 Vannessa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: witches-magic-users-mostly, kindle-books, urban-fantasy, angels-demons, 2015-100-books-reading-challenge

It's been a while since I read a book in this series,, but I totally loved this one. I love that this series focuses on the different characters, but the others make appearances or are mentioned occasionally too. This one focussed on Hope Adams, who is working undercover for the Cortez Cabal, by infiltrating a gang Benicio Cortez believes may be causing some problems for the Cabal.

Hope seems to really enjoy her new role, getting quite into the swing of being a spy and a thief, but events soon ta ...more

Like · see review

Sep 12, 2012 Yodamom rated it liked it

Shelves: yummy-men, werewolves, urban-fantasy, audio

Audio- Good story, pivotal in the development of the series, so it is not to be missed. I just did not like the heroine Hope, the half demon. She doesn't believe in herself she can't control her tastes and she's quick to be seduced. Her love interest Karl saved the story for me, he is likable +. There is a lot of death in this edition to the series and the future is changing for the Kabal. ...more

Like · see review