Book Review: Demon's Delight by Various Authors

I stumbled across Demon’s Delight (by MaryJanice Davidson, Emma Holly, Vickie Taylor, and Catherine Spangler) on a trip to Barnes and Nobles to get some serious science fiction. The cover art waved at me from the sci-fi section. I picked it up and turned it over. It was listed as a paranormal romance.

I had a little taste of a paranormal romance from Holly Black's Valiant when the protagonist hooked up with green troll, but Demon's Delight would mark my first official trek into the territory. Thankfully, it wasn't in the romance section, so I felt no embarrassment when people walked by and saw me reading the back cover.

Demon’s Delight is composed of four novelettes: The first story in its arsenal is MaryJanice Davidson’s “Witch Way.” Davidson’s story begins at the burning of a witch, Christopher De Meer, by Tucker Goodman during the Salem witch trials. Jumping ahead a few centuries finds us with Rhea Goodman as she’s told that she, the eldest, is destined to kill the eldest descendent of Christopher de Meer.

Meanwhile, Chris Meer (he dropped the “de”), the oldest descendent of Christopher De Meer, wants to be a good witch. He goes in search for the Goodman destined to kill him in hopes for a truce. He finds Rhea Goodman and this is where the fun begins.

The next story, “Street Corners and Halos” by Catherine Spangler, revolves around a prostituting vampire named Rachel Styrker. She doesn’t really have sex with her clients; she only plants the images in their head as she sucks their blood - and goodness, we get to see the images she plants. Yep, I have to say this is not like the romance novels my mom used to have on her bookshelves.

Rachel Stryker, the prostituting vampire, was turned into a vampire at a Jewish concentration camp while the guards were raping her. Did I mention her entire family was killed at this concentration camp? Yeah, pretty heavy. Rachel has decided to live her un-dead life with no connections, love, or aspirations.

Article Author: Constance Burris

Constance is an aspiring speculative fiction writer with a serious attention deficit disorder. She currently writes to Single and Blessed where she chronicles her everyday life as a single mother of two beautiful hyperactive children. …

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