Pleasure Unbound (Demonica, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Jul 16, 2010 Katyana rated it liked it

Shelves: demons, fantasy, pnr, abuse, ass-kicking-women, uf, dark

***3.5***

It's a tough one to rate. Because, let's face it, the primary draw of this book is the smexy scenes, and they are indeed yummy. But let's talk about the story for a minute.

I didn't like Tayla. Crusader-types are my least favorite brand of character. You know what I am talking about. These are the ones who work for Team Good Guy, as an utterly uninformed foot soldier. Knowing nothing, they are content to slaughter Team Bad Guy, simply because their bosses say that it is The Right Thing T ***3.5***

It's a tough one to rate. Because, let's face it, the primary draw of this book is the smexy scenes, and they are indeed yummy. But let's talk about the story for a minute.

I didn't like Tayla. Crusader-types are my least favorite brand of character. You know what I am talking about. These are the ones who work for Team Good Guy, as an utterly uninformed foot soldier. Knowing nothing, they are content to slaughter Team Bad Guy, simply because their bosses say that it is The Right Thing To Do. Our heroine is fervent in her belief that the world is a black and white place, and that everyone on Team Bad Guy must be smited, for the good of the world.

Blind true-believers aggravate me, in real life and in books. And it is even worse, because this book opens with the demons - Team Bad Guy - saving Tayla's life. They treat her at their hospital, knowing what she is, and she sees first hand that they are not all evil. Does evil run a hospital? Does evil take care of their enemies, treat them honorably when they are wounded? Despite evidence right in front of her stupid face that maybe things aren't as black and white as she has been told, she persists in her crusade. She actually says, as she is being driven home, that all demons are evil and must die. Clearly, the world would have been a better place had the demons let her die. She only comes around to thinking that "hey, demons can't be ALL bad, right?" when she finds out she IS one. Fuck her.

Then the story moves on into the too-often tread path (or at least it seems so, lately), of - Uh Oh! - turns out that Team Good Guy is not just misinformed, but they are actually doing Bad Things. The heroine has been unwittingly (because she is witless) participating in Bad Things.

The end of the story felt pretty anticlimactic for me, but that was because nothing was resolved except the relationship drama. I am guessing that the author decided to span several books with this demon-part-resale story arc? But it undermines this book, I think, because there is literally not a single bit of story resolution in this book.

As for secondary characters... I didn't like any of the Aegis (no, not even Kynan) because they are all True Believers. Like I said, Crusader-types don't do it for me. Okay, maybe all the Guardians aren't explicitly evil (like I said, completely unresolved story), but they ARE all implicitly evil - they have happily been slaughtering, indiscriminately, without knowing anything about these demons. They are all a bunch of sheep.

And the demons... most of them are assholes. I mean, seriously. Wraith? Total asshole, and also, apparently a murderer. Shade? Moderately decent, but can still be shockingly douchebaggy. Gem? Douchebag. I didn't like her just jumping up out of nowhere, springing this whole other life on Tayla, and then being a bitch when Tayla didn't take it well. If Gem is really jealous of Tayla, she's an idiot. I seriously don't have anything else to say about her. If she spent ANY time looking into their life AT ALL, she knows there was nothing good there. Hell, in the glimpses we got, I know there is nothing to be jealous about there. It was the only area where I had an ounce of sympathy for Tayla. But Gem, with her jealousy, and her condescension ("you should have done something so much better with your life, I mean, look how awesome I turned out!"), and frankly her utter lack of spine really pissed me off. She's happy enough to spring the "You're my sister, you're part horrible evil demon, but get the fuck over it already because I need your help" on Tayla when SHE needs something, but Tayla has needed GEM for her whole fucking life, and Gem couldn't grow a pair to help her supposed sister. I wish Tayla had told her to fuck right off. Tayla was so desperate to have a place where she belonged that she wound up in a cult (because that's all that Team Good Guy ever really is), and her sister, despite watching her life like a twisted stalker, just sat back and let it all happen. Fuck her.

Also, my sympathy for the demons is complicated by the fact that, as a whole, they really do seem to be a pile of murdering, raping bastards. I mean, they all talk about rape as if it is a casual, possibly-unfortunate-but-not-unaccepted commonplace thing. And murder - of humans - seems pretty commonplace too. At several points, it is mentioned that the High Council Muckety-Muck of Team Bad Guy allows them each one human kill per month. Are you serious?! It is almost enough to make you think Team Good Guy had the right idea.

Soooo... yeah. *shrug* I have the first 3 in this series, and I suppose I will read them eventually, but... not in any hurry. ...more

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Jan 14, 2010 Literary Ames rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2010, 1st-in-series, paranormal-romance, angels-demons, hunters-warriors-assassins, bye-bye, dtb

Throughout the book there was an interesting theme of "what/who is good/evil?" going on, and just because you trust someone doesn't mean they are deserving of that trust. Just because someone is a demon doesn’t automatically make them evil and not all humans are “good”. There was a grey area and plenty of stereotypical role reversals to keep me on my toes. The humans actually seemed more evil as they had a choice over their actions whereas not all of the demon species could choose, it was simply ...more

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Mar 15, 2011 Nairabell rated it really liked it

Shelves: paranormal-romance, 4-star, read-in-2011

Eidolon is a demon doctor who helps run Underworld General Hospital, but he horrifies his colleagues when a human woman is brought in and he decides to treat her. The woman is Tayla Mancuso and she is a member of the Aegis, a group of human slayers determined to kill all demons. When Tayla wakes up in the hospital and realises her life has been saved by the very creatures she hunts, she becomes torn - does she betray the demons who helped her, or the Aegis family she has created for herself?

Thi Eidolon is a demon doctor who helps run Underworld General Hospital, but he horrifies his colleagues when a human woman is brought in and he decides to treat her. The woman is Tayla Mancuso and she is a member of the Aegis, a group of human slayers determined to kill all demons. When Tayla wakes up in the hospital and realises her life has been saved by the very creatures she hunts, she becomes torn - does she betray the demons who helped her, or the Aegis family she has created for herself?

This is the first book in the now complete Demonica series (followed by Desire Unchained, Passion Unleashed, Ecstasy Unveiled and Sin Undone), which is one of those series people kept recommending and I kept putting off.

The blurb is pretty cheesy, and makes it sound more like erotica than a paranormal romance. There is a lot of sex in the book, however given that Eidolon is a seminus (basically a sex demon) it is understandable and relevant to the plot line. However, the plot isn't just about sex - there is also a focus on Eidolon's work at the hospital, Tayla's demon hunting friends and a group of psychos hunting demons and selling their organs on the black market. There are different layers to the storyline which gives it a lot of depth. That said, the author puts across a lot of information in the book and while it isn't dumped en masse on the reader it does cause the storyline to drag at times.

I liked the medical focus as it's not something I commonly read in books, and it's brilliant how self-aware and contemporary the book is - especially in terms of referring to the Aegis slayers as 'Buffy's'.

I liked Tayla as a character, especially her habit of calling Eidolon 'Hellboy', and I thought Eidolon was a good match for her in terms of temperament. I'm hoping the other books in the series also manage to cover Shade and Wraith, as well as what happens between Gem and Kynan.

All in all, I enjoyed this and will be picking up a copy of Desire Unchained in the future.

Plot: 8/10
Characters: 9/10
Ending: 10/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Cover: 9/10

Overall: 44/50 ...more

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Mar 25, 2010 Alisha rated it it was amazing

Well now, this book was a blast to read, from beginning to end. There was a nice balance between the the romance and action...and both are present in considerable quantity (and quality). ^_^
I really dig how just about all of the characters in this book lived in that "gray area" between Good Guy and Bad Guy status. The major theme running throughout the book was perception and appearances. For instance, Tayla is a (ruthless) demon-slayer who was raised by a seemingly negligent mother and assumes ...more

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Apr 21, 2010 Charlotte (Buried in Books) rated it liked it

Shelves: paranormal-romance

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 05, 2011 Caroline rated it liked it

Shelves: favourite-series

I enjoyed this book. Some Good strong characters and I really liked the relationship between the brothers and also between our main couple. The slant on the demon world was well done and intriguing enough.
I think what let it down in the end was the bad guys were not that bad and not that interesting. The Author didn't really get me emotionally invested in them, I didn't hate them, I was never worried about what they were going to do next and never felt my blood boil about the injustice or wrong ...more

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Apr 17, 2011 D rated it it was ok

Blerrrgh. I feel like I've read this book a thousand time over. While the world-building is slightly interesting, the rest is extremely formulaic. I also wasn't very interested in our 'hero'. Occasionally a book like this can be made decent by hot sex scenes...but, no. I've read these before also.

If you've read some paranormal romance/erotica before, looked at this book's summary and wondered if it would end up being one of 'those' books- the less than memorable books of this genre- then you'd ...more

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Feb 02, 2010 Eliza rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2010-reads

Wow I can't believe I've had this book on my iTouch for a year and it took me this long to find time to read it!

OMG loved it! Deliciously dark and I am so glad that I have a few books more to catch up because I could read these all the time. ...more

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