This is the predecessor (one of 'em) to Demon Moon. As I mentioned in the previous review, I thought it would make more sense if I'd read the firs (whole) book. Sure enough... However, I wouldn't change my review of it knowing what's going on. I wasn't massively impressed by Demon Moon. I wasn't massively impressed by "Falling For Anthony" (which isn't reviewed here, I did a quick skim of it at some point but haven't read the entire book). But this one? HOLY CRAP IT'S GOOD. Like, lightyears away from the other stuff. I suspect the one thing about this one is that Demon Moon suffered in comparison to Demon Angel in the same way that Lord Perfect does when compared to Mr. Impossible. Which is to say, compared to the drama and passion and inner battles between Hugh and Lilith, Colin and Savitri (even if Colin is quite a guy in his own right) just plain can't compare. So, I think if I'd read it the other way around, my review would have come out about the same.
Anyway. Done with old business, on to the review.
This book deals with humans who get turned into angels (sorta) and demons. When Hugh and Lilith meet, she's a former human turned into a demon (called a halfling), and he's a 17-year-old knight she's trying to manipulate. They have the hots for each other, even if he's aware that she's evil (and her current "character" isn't a particularly good-looking one). When Hugh sacrifices himself for the life of another, that's a big enough sacrifice to make him eligible for Guardianhood. Apparently humans didn't do too well with dealing with angels, so Guardians are a good "half-and-half" option. Human past, angelic powers. This leads to 800 years of faceoffs off and on between Guardian and demon, and attraction that never gets acted on. Hugh figures out that Lilith is trapped in service to her "father" Lucifer, and eventually figures out that the only way to get her out of that is to kill her. After crossing a line in his behavior that he didn't want to cross, Hugh decides to quit being a Guardian and to "fall" (i.e. continue living out a fairly normal human life from the age of 17 on). As his last act before falling...he kills Lilith.
Having a human past is much less beneficial to a demon- eventually Lilith becomes the last of the halflings to be alive and not in frozen Punishment forever for acting too human. And Lucifer's not terribly thrilled with her and her tender feelings for Hugh already even before he offed her as a kindness. As another punishment, Lucifer revives her (Hugh should have cut off her head, not cut out her heart), takes away some of her powers like her ability to shapeshift, and throws her back onto planet Earth as an FBI agent named Lily Milton. Oh, and she has to kill Hugh or end up like every other halfling.
Sixteen years after their last meeting, a now-human-33-year-old Hugh and Lilith meet again in San Francisco, where nosferatu are running around wild and participating in rituals involving some of Hugh's college students. Hugh becomes a suspect because once upon a time he wrote a (badly written) novel about Lilith and the other supernatural stuff, that his good pal Savitri dug up on his computer, got translated out of Latin, and got published....then she made a video game to go with it. Turns out it's all part of some fiendish evil plan to get the nosferatu on the side of Hell. Lilith is pretty confused as to how to act- destroy him, or make whoopee with him? The dilemma gets even worse when she ends up the target of an ugly bet between Lucifer and the head Guardian as to which one of them will kill the other within a week.
I'm not really getting across the scope of this book, but it's awesome. Nothing like an 800-year-duel between good and evil and the evil within the good and the good within the evil and who has to kill the one they love. VERY well done. Five stars.
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