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Sunday 4 November 2012

Review: Personal Demon by Susan Sizemore

Personal Demon
by Susan Sizemore
(Laws of the Blood # 6)

Ivy Bailey, vampire hunter, works to keep the streets of Chicago safe from unruly vampires.  Unbeknownst to her, though, she is being hunted as well. Christopher Bell, a vampire himself, shows up at the right place at the right time, and saves Ivy from an awful fate. This then begins a  relationship that is great fun to watch unfold.

Gruesome murders are taking place in the city, and due to various reasons that are discovered much later in the book, Ivy is hand picked to hunt the person, or demon, responsible.  Christopher, a vampire made in England a century prior, is in the city to do some investigating himself.  After saving Ivy, the two are naturally drawn to each other and begin to dream of the other, something that should not be possible.  Ivy tries to fight the attraction, but finds it hard to do.  Christopher is not even what most would consider to be an attractive man, as most vampires are known to be.  His strength and wit, though, draw in both Ivy and the reader.  Christopher and Ivy soon also discover that their dream walking ability also extends to telepathy; again, something that should not be possible.  Some of my favorite dialogue actually takes place during their mind reading.  Ivy
usually thinks of something that she shouldn't be, and then Christopher is right there to remind her that he can "hear" her.  Its often quite comedic.

As Christopher and Ivy start dreaming of and following each other, they finally give into their attraction to each other and get hot and steamy.  I felt like their first time together came kind of out of
nowhere, but hey, what can you do when the hormones take over?  The sex scenes are not overly detailed, drawn out, or too frequent, but Sizemore has a style that works and writes them in such a way that can still get the reader hot under the collar.

In addition to seeing Ivy and Christopher's point of views, we also get the same of the villain and his accomplices.  Without giving too much away about who is the primary bad guy, I will say this:  the main baddie does not work alone.  He has minions to do his bidding, and what I really liked about this is that Sizemore creatively incorporated the use of well known real life sociopaths from the past
century - Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, and  Ted Bundy - to portray these minions.  While Ivy is hunting the big baddie and his minions, she in turn, is being hunted by them.  It makes for a great
game of cat and mouse, and vice versa.

I think my primary drawback of this book relates to the lack of information we are provided about some issues.  I felt like I finished the book and still had a lot of questions:  Why didn't we learn more
about Christopher's role as an Enforcer?  Can we get more information about Enforcers in general and vampiric law?  How will Christopher and Ivy work as a couple when certain "rules" say they shouldn't? Admittedly, I have not read any other books in this series - yet - so it's possible that this information is provided in previous books, and maybe we'll learn more about Ivy and Christopher as a couple in future books.  I'm definitely interested in finding out.

Overall, Sizemore writes a great tale about vampire and vampire hunter, and draws the reader quickly into the story.  Little is told about either Ivy or Christopher or their lives, and the reader watches
their secrets unfold, even until the very end of the book.  Well done, Sizemore!!

*Review copy provided by publisher
Purchase Links: Amazon

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