I've decided to include my reviews of all three books together in this post.
Book 1: Death's Hand
THE BLURB:
Elise Kavanagh doesn’t want to hunt demons anymore. It’s been five years since she killed her last enemy, and life has been quiet since then. She went to college. Got a job, and then lost it. Made a friend or two. Lived a normal life. Now her former partner, a powerful witch named James Faulkner, wants Elise to fight one more time. The daughter of a coven member has been possessed, and Elise is the only exorcist nearby.
Becoming a hero again would mean risking discovery by old enemies. But digging into the case reveals that it might already be too late–bodies are disappearing, demons slither through the night, and the cogs of apocalypse are beginning to turn once more. Some enemies aren’t willing to let the secrets of the past stay dead…
MY THOUGHTS:
I have mixed feelings on this one.
The writing was good, but for me the near-constant fight scenes overshadowed the plot. I got tired of reading about fighting and then some more fighting, and just wanted for the storyline to advance already!
The promise of the story hidden beneath all of the fighting was interesting enough to make me want to read more in the series, and hope that the plot was allowed more screen time (page time?) than the violence and gore and battle tactics. I was hoping to learn more of the back story of how Elise and James got their start. I wanted more ELISE, rather than just more Elise fighting. And I was certainly looking forward to more of Elise getting back in touch with her sexy side!
Overall, I wasn't thrilled with the book, but the writing was decent and I heard the series only got better, and so I definitely thought there was potential here.
MY RATING:
2 booksies
Book 2: The Darkest Gate
THE BLURB:
When Elise Kavanagh retired from demon hunting, she swore it would be permanent. But an attack from a powerful necromancer forced her back into the business, and now she’s trying to balance her normal boyfriend and normal job with everything supernatural.
Mr. Black is a demon hunter gone rogue. He’s enslaving angels and stealing ethereal artifacts in pursuit of forbidden immortality, and an old grudge drives him to make his final stand in Elise’s territory. Destroying her life and killing her friends isn’t the goal, but it’s a definite perk.
A demonic overlord offers to join against Mr. Black and protect Elise’s loved ones. All she needs to do is ally with the demons she’s sworn to kill, at the cost of her morals–and maybe her immortal soul. But once she crosses that line, there’s no turning back.
Nothing is sacred when Heaven and Hell collide on Earth…
MY THOUGHTS:
The writing in book two was still pretty good, and the story still had great potential, but there were some things that bothered me.
Too much action again, to the point where I skipped over fight scenes to actually see where the story was going. And character development isn't perfect here, because I honestly couldn't have cared less if any of the characters died. Elise was basically just an asshole to everybody, including her new boyfriend and her BFF James. And I just couldn't see why she and Betty would be friends - I wasn't buying it.
However, these were all things that could be further developed in following installments, and so I was determined to at least read one more before deciding if it was worth continuing.
MY RATING:
2 booksies
Book 3: Dark Union
THE BLURB:
Every fifty years, the most powerful ethereal and infernal beings convene on Earth to resolve conflicts with mediation by kopides–humans born to police relations between Heaven and Hell. They’re meeting in Elise Kavanagh’s territory this year, and she used to be the greatest kopis in the world. But she’s not invited.
An old friend, Lucas McIntyre, asks her to attend the summit in his place. But when she arrives, she discovers that a human faction called The Union has taken charge of the summit, and they’re not playing nice. Worse yet, someone has killed a prominent Union member…and now they’re demanding blood
MY THOUGHTS:
Even though the writing was always decent, I detected a HUGE improvement in book 3! I was impressed with the evidence of how the author's style had matured.
That being said, the author has since started referring to this as 'book #2.5'. It is much shorter than the other installments, and other readers have remarked on how it seems to be more of a 'filler' than a complete book.
All in all, though, this story still just lacks a certain something - maybe it's just not for me. With the marked improvement I noted here, perhaps the series does only continue to get better as it goes along, but I think this is where I'll step away.
MY RATING:
2 booksies
Author's website: http://authorsmreine.com/
Find Descent (Books 1-3) on Amazon
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