Rooting for the dark side in PERSONAL DEMONS by Lisa Desrochers

For some reason, the cover of Lisa Desrochers's Personal Demons didn't strike me as YA.  And being the idiot I am, this prevented me from reading it at first.  Even the hubby saw the book on my nightstand and said, "What? You're reading porn now?"  (Ok, hubby is definitely NOT an expert on all things literary).  All I'm saying is, listen to your mom and don't judge a book by its cover.

Personal Demons is the best angel/demon book I've read.  I loved that we got two perspectives: Fanny, the heroine's, and Luc's, the demon who's trying to tag her soul for hell.

I also loved that--unlike most paranormal romances--we don't spend half the book trying to figure out what kind of paranormal creature the hot new guy at school is, and what he wants.  We know on page 2 that Luc is a demon and he wants Fanny's soul in hell.  Fair enough.

It's hard for one's personal theology not to influence the reading of a book about hell, demons, angels, and heaven.  Luc is such a steamy character and the chemistry between him and Fanny is so hot, that it didn't take long for me to root for the demon.  Even when Luc himself hesitates in marking Fanny for eternal damnation, I was thinking, "Come on!  Just drag her to hell!  You can burn eternally together!"  Maybe more devout readers didn't go that far.

This book definitely gets better and better, the farther you get into it.  At first I was annoyed because Fanny's brain seemed to turn to mush when she was around Gabe and Luc (the two hot "new" guys in town).  I kept thinking, "OK, no one's THAT hot that you can't form coherent sentences."  But then I realized that it was Gabe's angelic and Luc's demonic powers that set Fanny's hormones
and thoughts all a flutter.

Then Luc started acting funny too and I thought, "OK, in his thousands of years of existence, this dude has to have seen a pretty girl, what's his deal?"  And this is the best part.  Luc acts strange around Fanny because she has a power that blows both his and Gabe's abilities out of the water.  You know I love me a powerful female.

The potential of Fanny's power and the spicy hot scenes with Luc kept me up at night reading.  Again, it was kind of strange rooting for Fanny to turn to the dark side.  "Come on Fanny, sleep with the demon already!  Commit the mortal sin of lust!  An eternity in hell is SO worth it!  He's so hot!"  This is definitely one of the sexiest YA novels I've read in a while.

Personal Demons does not read as young as other YA books, but since I'm a grown-up reading YA, I really didn't mind.  But if you're a 15-year-old looking for a story with prom, cheerleaders, and tons of teen angst, then this might not be the book for you.  Other than that, I'd recommend Personal Demons to any fan of the paranormal romance genre.

I can't wait to see what Fanny does with her power in the sequel, Original Sin.

I'm as conflicted as the characters of FALLEN by Lauren Kate

Just as Luce is inexplicably attracted to Daniel, I was unable to put down Fallen, despite so many things that normally bug me about a book.  I read this book while visiting my parents, so I'll show you a conversation between my mom and me so you see what I mean.

(SPOILER ALERT: I won't divulge anything that can't be figured out from the prologue, but if you're one of those people who need things spelled out for you, avert your eyes now.)

Mom: What's that book about?
Me: Um, I don't know.  It's a YA paranormal romance.  I'm pretty sure the characters knew each other in past lives or something.  I think the guy might be a fallen angel.
Mom: So, you're more than half-way through it and you don't know what it's about?
Me: Yeah, kinda sucks.
Mom: So are you going to write a negative review?
Me: No, I try not to do that.  I just won't blog about it.

You see Junkies, I WASN'T going to blog about Fallen, but I kept thinking about it.  Two days after I've finished the book, I can't get the characters out of my head.  I think that must mean I really liked it. Maybe I'm like Daniel, I act hot and cold towards Luce, but I'm secretly in love with her...

It's a toughy because really, Luce doesn't quite meet my minimum threshold for kick ass heroine, but at the same time, I'm jonesin' for the sequel.  I'll just break it down and let you decide.

Luce is a straight A student who finds herself at reform school after a mysterious incident with a fire in which Luce survived, but her male companion did not.  Luce is immediately attracted to Daniel, who gives her the bird when he first sees her.  Cam is a popular hotty at the school who tries to seduce Luce every chance he gets.

All her life, Luce has been plagued by shadows that creep up from dark places and terrify her.  Luce keeps struggling with this feeling she knows Daniel from somewhere and is confused by Daniel's hot and cold response to her.  And the book goes on like this for a while...

I got a little frustrated with all the mystery.  I don't like it when books seem to build forever and then so much happens at the end that it's hard to keep it straight.  It reminded me a little bit of the movie Dogma, where at the end, in the middle of an action scene, characters are shouting the rules of religious doctrine: "Kill Matt Damon, the angel"  "No!!!  You shot Ben Affleck's wings, now the world will end!"  "Shoot Ben Affleck!"  "Don't shoot Ben Affleck, then he'll be immortal!" All very confusing.

I didn't like how Luce was ALWAYS being saved by Daniel.  Couldn't she have saved herself a least once?  I also didn't like the punch-out-I'm-fighting-for-my-woman-while-she-stands-there-shocked-and-scared-scene.

But, the star-crossed lovers thing totally got me, as much as I hate to admit it.  For some reason, this is a couple I'm rooting for.  I also fell in love with all the minor characters.  Lauren Kate did a brilliant job creating vivid minor characters with only a few words.  And these girls are bad ass.

I can't get Arianne or Gabbe out of my head.  I even want more of Cam, Roland, and Molly.  So even though I can point out things that bothered me about Fallen, it left me with that feeling of wanting more.  The world and the characters are believable and seem so real that I can't wait for this story to continue.

Luce grew a lot in Fallen, so I'm really hoping she'll become a kick-ass heroine in Torment.