Publisher: Entangled
Publish Date: Out Now!
How I got this book: NetGalley
Keegan lives to exact revenge on the evil demon who sired and abused him. When his father devises a plan to bring on the apocalypse, he and his three half-brothers, interdimensional bounty hunters for the Elden Council, are charged with capturing and delivering their father for punishment.
Art gallery owner Brynn Meyers has no idea that her ability to read memories embedded in objects and drain people of their life force means she has demon ancestry. Unfortunately for Brynn, she’s also the key to raising an ancient zombie army, which puts her on every demon’s Most Wanted List.
And no one wants her more than Keegan’s father.
Keegan must protect Brynn from his father by any means necessary, but he’ll have to learn to harness the other half of his genetics-the far deadlier, uncontrollable half-when he starts to fall for the one woman standing between him and the vengeance he so desperately seeks. The one woman he’ll never be able to resist.
*Blurb from Goodreads*
The first book in the Demons of Internum series by new publisher Entangled Publishing immediately drew my attention with just the blurb. I’m always game for a good demon love story, and this sounded like it would have some great world building and romance wrapped in one.
Keegan is working to try and stop his father, Mammon, from finding a book with the potential to raise an army of zombies and assist him with taking over all of Earth. While his father races to find the book, Keegan goes after the only person with the potential to use the book: Brynn, an unsuspecting woman living her daily life.
When Brynn is taken by Keegan, she doesn’t want to admit that she might be their prisoner. While Mammon is constantly looking from Brynn, things between her and Keegan heat up. But when Keegan sacrifices himself to keep Brynn safe, will she be able to let him go, or risk everything for a chance at love?
I wanted to love this book, it had all the right elements to get me there too, but for some reason it just fell short for me. There were a lot of things I really liked about it, namely the world building and how detailed Lario was with the different demon cultures and worlds. The different abilities each demon possessed and the many politics at play. It was so in-depth and that aspect of it engaged me just like I had hoped it would. Unfortunately the romance between Keegan and Brynn just didn’t feel believable to me at times.
I would have liked it more if the romance would have developed quicker for Brynn and Keegan. There was so much of the book spent dealing with each of their inner turmoil about having a relationship, having feelings for one another that it dragged in a lot of places. The plot would move quickly and rapidly during the action scenes, and then slow down to a snail’s pace whenever the romance was highlighted. Add in the reluctance to have a relationship and things between Keegan and Brynn felt unreal and forced.
One of the things I did really like was the relationship between the brothers and their hatred for their father. It reminded me a lot of Eve Silver’s Otherkin Series, with how the brothers related to one another and cared for each other so deeply. The trouble they had to endure at the hand of their father also helped to solidify that bond between them and added another dimension to their relationship that I enjoyed reading.
I honestly don’t know if the world-building and relationship between the brothers will be enough for me to keep reading the series though. As much as I enjoyed the brothers, all the characters didn’t really stand out to me as much as I had wanted them to, in most cases they just feel somewhat flat.
All in all, Blood of the Demon was an interesting and unique debut novel, one that was filled with beautiful world-building but lack-luster romance. There were quite a few places where the plot dragged on and I found myself loosing interest.
I give Blood of the Demon a C-
