Review: Night Demon

Reviewed by Jen
 

Lukas wants nothing more than to end his immortal existence. He never wanted to be a Night Walker; he was turned centuries ago, by accident.  Ever since then, he's barely been able to contain his hunger.  And he is plagued by the times he has failed at control.

Now he is working to decipher some ancient Mayan text, hoping to unlock the secrets to his kind, and eventually to find a way to die.  But somehow, despite his best intentions, he has fallen for Gretchen, the beautiful translator who he's been working with all of these months.  He wants her, but he refuses to expose her to his world, so he pushes her away.

Unfortunately, Gretchen is getting a healthy dose of the Night Walker world anyway.  Someone has unleashed a powerful demon on the world, very close to the Mayan site where Gretchen and Lukas are working.  It feeds on death, prompting a string of suicides, and nearly taking Gretchen's life as well.  Only the four original Night Walkers can return the demon to her prison.

This sets the stage for several things.  Gretchen and Lukas are thrust further together. Calisto --Lukas's maker and the hero of book 1-- is drawn into the storyline, along with his mate, Kate.  We get to meet the oldest Night Walkers and learn their origin story.  And we get a front row seat to the dangerous mission to best the demon, hellbent on destroying humanity.

I liked both Gretchen and Lukas, though perhaps my biggest complaint about the book is that their romance felt overshadowed by the other events of the story. Sometimes, it felt like too much was going on.  I was frustrated over and over by how many times we cut away from our couple to the stuff going on with the ancient ones.  There was a strong sexual tension and great build-up, but I wish we would have had more time to enjoy them together.

I loved seeing Calisto and Kate again, as well as Kane and Rita. And I was intrigued by the Guardian. The world building is cool --and more involved her than in the previous books.  It wasn't too hard to follow until the reincarnation element came in force.  At that point, I got lost. It was explained eventually, but it all ended up a little... convenient.

Overall, I did enjoy the book, though probably not as much as I liked Night Walker.

Rating: B-

*ARC Provided by Entangled 

Click to purchase: Amazon

Night Demon

by Lisa Kessler

Release Date: March 18, 2013

Publisher: Entangled