By Ann Aguirre.
Holy cow, this book. Holy cow. I'll warn you now: it's a heartbreaker.
After the events of the last book, Corine is putting her life back together--taking magical training, working on getting a new pawnshop up and running, and getting back together with her ex Chance. (This last one in particular made me happy.) She's also missing her best friend Shannon--and to some degree her could-have-been boyfriend Jesse. But then Corine finds out that Shannon's been kidnapped....all the way down to the demon city of Sheol. Having pissed off demons before, Corine figures it's a revenge thing, but she ends up extremely surprised. It has something to do with the cryptic "claim your crown" remark in the ransom note.
Corine hires/befriends the demon, Greydusk, sent to bring her, Chance, and dog Butch down to Sheol. Finding out that the price of entry or exit is a human soul freaks her out, but she's determined to get Shannon out anyway. However, she finds out that the demons in general consider her to be some kind of queen. This turns out to be because those of King Solomon's line, should they go into demon lands....well, Corine finds herself partially possessed by the long-gone demon queen Ninlil. This is somewhat disturbing--her thought processes are a lot harder than Corine's--but the two end up having to work together/switch off and on in order to get Shannon back and fight off bad guys. Corine finds out a horrible family secret (as if the hidden demon queen thing wasn't bad enough, right?), and ends up putting her life in Ninlil's hands in order to survive. Suffice it to say that the two-in-one find themselves making life choices they never thought they would have otherwise.
I think the mixed narration in this book is done pretty well, I found it to be fairly reminiscent of reading Nightlife. But you can definitely tell from word choice and phrasing who is thinking what. I also really enjoyed Greydusk, who's a loyal sweetie. I liked how this book, much like watching Angel back in the day, points out that not all demons are bad. You almost don't mind the idea of spending this much time in a demon realm. Heck, even Ninlil's not that bad of an egg. She's ascendant when battles need to be fought, but I liked how when Ninlil ran into emotional situations or difficulties that she had no idea how to handle, Corine became ascendant because she's learned how to deal with adversity more.
And Chance and Corine/Ninlil were adorable in this book. You find out more about Chance than you have before, and his relationship with Corine and her alter really deepens in an adorable way. He copes with Ninlil's invasion pretty well, and even grows fond of her in his own way. Which is probably a good thing under the circumstances. I really adore them as a couple.
However...this book ends sadly. I'll discuss the details of such below the spoiler cut.* It's well done and makes sense in the context of the ending**, but I am disappointed in seeing ah, a certain plot development cut short.
I'll give it four stars. But it's definitely the darkest/saddest book so far. I'm not sure where it goes from here.
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* RIP Greydusk, Ninlil, and...Chance.. Okay, so I figured since it was unlikely that Corine/Ninlil would spend the rest of the series in the demon realms, Ninlil wouldn't be accompanying her back up to the surface. That's okay. I am sorry to see Greydusk die, but likewise, he probably couldn't be brought up to the surface to live a regular life like the humans, so there you go. But Chance? DAMMIT HE'S MY FAVORITE WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I LOVE HIM YOU KILLED OFF THE HOT KOREAN DEMIGOD WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
I do appreciate that enough of his soul survived for Shannon to pick him up on psychic radio, but...wah, I want him back. I'm just not as into Kel (who can't exactly settle down anyway) or Jesse (who's already happily occupied by now) and...wah!
** Slight cliffhanger: how the hell are Corine and Shannon going to get out of England with no valid/legal passports?
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