Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized, #1) in Vampires, Weres and Fae!

Jan 18, 2022 Chrissy rated it really liked it

Shelves: vwf-6500-books-in-2020, favorites

Reread 2022: changing my rating to 4 stars (original rating 3 stars)

Robin is another awesome Guild Codex main character. She’s very different from Tori – which is a big plus; not that I don’t love Tori, but I get bored with authors who write exactly the same type of main character over and over, making it sometimes hard to even tell them apart. Robin is a mythic history nerd and bookworm. And she’s very shy and non-confrontational. She’s also stayed away from practicing her magic all her life, e Reread 2022: changing my rating to 4 stars (original rating 3 stars)

Robin is another awesome Guild Codex main character. She’s very different from Tori – which is a big plus; not that I don’t love Tori, but I get bored with authors who write exactly the same type of main character over and over, making it sometimes hard to even tell them apart. Robin is a mythic history nerd and bookworm. And she’s very shy and non-confrontational. She’s also stayed away from practicing her magic all her life, even though she is a sorcerer. So, in many ways she’s the complete opposite of Tori, though she can be just as sassy and funny – mostly in her internal monologue. She’d be the last person you’d expect to end up in an illegal contract with a demon. But when she does, it makes for such a great story! I love the whole unlikely allies set-up for a character relationship that slowly grows into so much more… building trust, overcoming prejudice and differences.
This was actually the first book in the Guild Codex world that I finished. I picked this up after my first attempt at Spellbound #1 because Tori put me off (sorry, girl! I love you more than I can say now, but it took me a while to get there LOL) and I thought I’d try the companion series instead and attempt Tori again after this one hopefully would make me fall in love with the Guild Codex world… It didn’t quite happen that way. I enjoyed this, but despite the fact that these series can be read separately, I think this isn’t the best starting point. I understood everything that was going on with Robin and Zylas, but I was very confused about the larger magical world here – all things you would know from reading Spellbound. So, I think you can read Spellbound without reading Demonized - (Though, why would you? Demonized is so much fun too and adds so many details you didn’t even realize you were missing about what’s going on in the Guild Codex world.) - but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend reading Demonized without reading Spellbound. (You can, but I don’t think it’s the best way to experience this story universe.) I went back to the recommended reading order a few months after finishing this, starting with Spellbound until the two series started interlocking and covering the same events. Funnily, while wanting to get back to Demonized with all the background info from Spellbound may have been a big reason for me to stick with Spellbound initially, by the time I got to the part where I was supposed to start alternating series, I loved Spellbound so much that I kind of just wanted to stick with that one! But after rereading it all, I can confirm that the recommended reading order is recommended for a reason!

May 2023: reread in audio format, really enjoyed the narration by Cris Dukehart. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review