Title: Pale Demon (Rachel Morgan #9)
Author: Kim Harrison
Publisher: Eos
Publication Date: February, 2011
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 6/10
Description: Condemned to death for black magic and shunned, Rachel Morgan has three days to somehow get to the annual witches convention in San Francisco and clear her name. If she fails, the only way she can escape death is to live in the demonic ever after . . . for ever after.
Banned from the flight lists, Rachel teams up with elven tycoon Trent Kalamack, headed for the West Coast for his own mysterious business. But Rachel isn’t the only passenger along for the ride. Can a witch, an elf, a living vampire, and a pixy in one car survive for over 2,300 miles? And that’s not counting the assassin on their tail.
A fearsome demon walks the sunlight, freed after centuries of torment to slay the innocent and devour souls. But his ultimate prey is Rachel Morgan. While the powerful witch with nerves of steel will do whatever it takes to stay alive, even embracing her own demonic nature may not be enough to save her.
My Thoughts: I am going to preface this review by saying that a series with nine books isn’t always going to please everyone. Me included. I love this series but had the hardest time getting through this story. There is some crazy stuff happening in this series that had me contemplating giving up and walking away. I’m glad I stuck it out because the events I feared did not happen and I pray they don’t.
I saw Trent and Al differently in this story and I struggled with that with great difficulty because it has been relatively easy for me to despise both of these characters for the last 8 books. If they are able to be somewhat likeable or at the very least, tolerable in this story then how does that bode for Rachel? Will there be a truce between her and Trent? We already know they have history and there are definitely feelings that always seemed to run to the hate side of things. But you know what they say about there being a fine line between love and hate right? I just don’t know if I’m ready for Rachel and Trent to explore that line. I absolutely do not want her to explore any lines of any kind with Al either! I get the definite impression in this story that Al’s feelings for Rachel are definitely changing. He seems to be softening towards her. He’s still a demon, he’s still repulsive and I may be completely off base here, but my impression is that he’s developing feelings for her.
Jenks is still my favorite character in this series and even he surprised me in this story by taking a less aggressive stance with Trent and even helping him on his quest. Jenks does get into a little bit of trouble that I’m sure he would have been able to extricate himself from, but it’s always good to have friends there who have your back and Rachel and Ivy certainly do have his back.
I love the way Kim Harrison creates characters that evoke large reactions from me. Especially the villains. In addition to Trent and Al, there are some villains in this book that made my blood boil with their appalling behavior. The day walking demon, Ku’Sox is terrifying. A day walking demon is bad enough but he eats people. Literally…gobbles them up…ewwww…
Rachel has a lot on her plate. Between battling the big bad Ku’Sox and convincing the witch’s coven to reverse her shunning, she has her hands full. Keep your eyes on the ball, Rachel and your mind out of the gutter and you may just make it out of this mess in one piece. The fans of this series are eagerly awaiting the next book.
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