Kelly's Review: SUCCUBUS BLUES

SUCCUBUS BLUES

By Richelle Mead

Published by: Zebra/Kensington Publishing Group / 119 West 40^th Street / New York, NY 10018

First Printing: 2007

ISBN 13: 978-0-8217-8077-0

ISBN:10: 0-8217-8077-8

Amazon; Barnes and Noble; Goodreads

Concept: “When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants, the wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical?

But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid’s life is far less exotic. At least there’s her day job at a local bookstore – free books; all the white chocolate mochas she can drink; and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can’t.

But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle’s demon underground. And for once, all her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won’t help because Georgina’s about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny…”

Review: This is my third Richelle Mead series that I’ve started to read. My first, The Vampire Academy books drew me in. The Dark Swan books held me captive and this series, the Succubus books, have put a lid on my affections and have sealed it. I just flat out love this author. My review may be somewhat prejudiced but I always try to be as honest as I can be.

We meet succubus Georgina Kincaid as she goes in for a life sustaining feed. She’s not going through a drive-through at McDonalds. She’s having sex with some nerdy guy who sold his soul for just such a moment. That’s how Georgina lives. She’s not necessarily happy about it and this book explains the reasons why in a very entertaining and believable way.

For the honesty part of this review, it took me a while to really start to like this book. It moved a little slow at first and at one point I remember thinking that this was a series I could do without. But somewhere along the line, it grabbed me and kept me grabbed.

Georgina lives in Seattle and works as an assistant manager of a small book store. Her “life” consists of reading and hanging out with a few of her immortal friends, vampires and imps mostly and some of her co-workers. Her “demon” boss, Jerome (a John Cusack look alike) and an angel, Carter, also round out the cast of characters.

Georgina’s life starts to heat up when an author comes into the book store for a signing. As it turns out, the author is one of her favorites and Georgina is beside herself at the opportunity to meet him. Meet him she does and she discovers that what goes down on paper isn’t always what’s behind the pen. Fortunately for Georgina, what’s behind the pen isn’t so bad either though.

She also meets another man, Roman, who is charming and dark and handsome and my eyes were blazing through some hot cat and mouse type exchanges between Roman and Georgina. Georgina’s wit and humor puts her in the classes with my favorite heroines. I always enjoy humor and a sarcastic sense of humor just wins all.

Georgina’s life is also heating up because a vampire has been killed, and her friend Hugh, an imp, has been beaten fiercely. Someone is leaving her mysterious notes and more victims start to turn up. It’s a mystery that Georgina takes on and walks us through a supernatural world that’s sometimes the same as other worlds I’ve read about, but never lacking. We also learn through various moments in the story about Georgina’s life and what lead her into life as a succubus and the rules that govern her. It’s sad really: Georgina can’t have children, she can’t have a normal relationship with a man and she has the usual mortal vs. immortal problems. It sounds a little canned here as *I* write it, but it the book, I found it believable and I felt for Georgina living her lifetime of loneliness.

The mystery unfolds as the pages start to fly by and before I knew it, I was finished with this book and I already want more. Fortunately for me, there are several more books in the series for me to read.

What I liked: I like first person narratives and this book is that. Some people get very turned off by that. It works just fine for me. I love, Love, LOVED how this story unfolded and I love how the author told us Georgina’s story. It was a perfect blend of many emotions that the author had me feeling.

What I disliked: While there were a lot of characters in this book, and plenty of future would be hotties for Georgina to hook up with, there were no girl friends that Georgina cherished in her life. With the other female relationships in the author’s books, I missed it from this one. I hope something turns up in other books.

My rating: 4 stars