The Devil Inside (Morgan Kingsley #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Apr 27, 2010 Desperado rated it liked it

Shelves: pnr-monthly-reads, makes-me-want-to-cut-a-bitch, paranormal-fiction, reviews, rrrc-monthly-reads

My Thoughts: FYI, this book contains a few m/m sex scenes. I'm not particularly bothered by them but I realize some readers might be.

I was excited when I got this book because it seemed right up my alley & also had an interesting twist on demon lore. That wasn't what I got..kinda. First, this book seems not to know if it wants to be Urban Fantasy or Erotica. I don't mind sex scenes, even like sex scenes in my UF but only when done right & tastefully. That was not the case. Our heroine Morgan con My Thoughts: FYI, this book contains a few m/m sex scenes. I'm not particularly bothered by them but I realize some readers might be.

I was excited when I got this book because it seemed right up my alley & also had an interesting twist on demon lore. That wasn't what I got..kinda. First, this book seems not to know if it wants to be Urban Fantasy or Erotica. I don't mind sex scenes, even like sex scenes in my UF but only when done right & tastefully. That was not the case. Our heroine Morgan constantly talks about how hot she is & how much she wants to bone her boyfriend. And does. Within the first 20 pages.

Putting that aside, Morgan is one of the most suckass UF heroines I've come across. She goes half-cocked into EVERY situation & not in a "Hey, I'm about to go on this suicide mission without backup & hopefully save a bunch of lives" way. More of a "Hey, I'm about to do some really stupid crap & potentially kill a lot of good people because I'm pissed & confused". WTF? After doing said stupid things, she feels "guilty". Wow. After one particular scene towards the end where she fucked up big time, I gave up on ever liking our heroine. I like my UF heroines badass & scared of maybe a few things, not one who are scared of their shadow. Morgan, simply put, is a coward. She runs towards situations without a plan & runs away from situations when she knows she's in the wrong or has done something especially dumbass.She lets her emotions control her to the point where she ends up hurting herself & everyone around her. I feel zero sympathy for her. If anything, I feel more sympathy for the people counting on her to save them.

There's one other thing that really bothered me about this novel. There is a gay couple in this book who are heavily into BDSM. Morgan constantly bitched & moaned about how gross she thought their sexuality & sexual proclivities were. She even went so far as to tell one of the characters he was "wrong for liking pain" & that he "should seriously get help". Maybe Black chose to make her heroine intolerant to other peoples lifestyles for a unknown valid reason or maybe it was based on her own beliefs. Either way, it rubbed me wrong.

I will say that I enjoyed this novel more when I ignored Morgan. The premise of a world filled with demons who possess willing hosts & exorcists who banish the rogue demons was very fascinating. I finished the novel solely to hear more about them. I'm not sure If I will pick up the second book,The Devil You Know, but I might give it a try if only to read more about the other supporting characters. ...more

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May 28, 2010 Chrissie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, books-read-2010

Morgan Kingsley is an exorcist who eliminates illegal demons who have either taken over unwilling hosts or have acted violently towards others. At the beginning of this book she attends an exorcism which goes wrong and the demon starts to enter her own body. However, it quickly backs off and Morgan is confused about why the demon decided not to possess her after all. Things start to get stranger for her when she starts to sleep walk and leaving herself written messages during the night. The note Morgan Kingsley is an exorcist who eliminates illegal demons who have either taken over unwilling hosts or have acted violently towards others. At the beginning of this book she attends an exorcism which goes wrong and the demon starts to enter her own body. However, it quickly backs off and Morgan is confused about why the demon decided not to possess her after all. Things start to get stranger for her when she starts to sleep walk and leaving herself written messages during the night. The notes tell her that she is already hosting a demon and that is why the other demon left her alone. The demon then starts to communicate with Morgan through her dreams and she finds out that there are others who want to see the demon inside her dead, even if that means that Morgan dies too.

What I liked most about this book is the world that the author creates. I found it a very interesting concept that demons commonly possess bodies and that people are more than willing to allow this to happen. The people who do host demons are often hailed as heroes as they are able to carry out brave acts without the risk of harming themselves. For example, Dominic is a demon-possessed fireman who is able to rescue a young girl from a burning building by jumping from the top of it. Normally demons would be painted as the bad guys but that is not the case in this book, although there are many people who are also against the demons, including Morgan, who can only see the trouble that is caused by the illegal demons.

I think that Morgan is an amazing female lead character. She is incredibly strong and determined and you can’t help but root for her in the battle against the demons.

Now onto the bad points. There are many erotic scenes in this book, which doesn’t normally bother me. However, many of these scenes were violent in nature and I felt quite uncomfortable reading them. I also felt that there were too many S&M scenes and not all of them were essential to the storyline. This really put me off of the book and although I did enjoy the overall storyline I don’t think I will be rushing out to get any of the other books in the series. ...more

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