Hunting the Demon [Mass Market Paperback]

Set in Australia. Dominic "Nic" Diavolo had been kidnapped by his father, Ben, while he was just a child. Now his father is dead (though he does not know it), yet Nic is having nightmares about demons worshipping him and his father's voice is in the background encouraging Nic to accept all the demons offer. Nic has no idea that Ben was a Lord of the Sons of Darkness. And now that Ben is dead, Uncle Bart needs to find the Black Diamond and conduct a ceremony quickly.

Shay Pearson is a hunter with the Realm of Light. No one in the Realm knows that Shay is also a little bit psychic. Shay acts as bait to capture Nic. The Realm needs to know how much demon blood is within Nic, if he is in league with the Sons of Darkness, and if they can convince Nic to join the Realm. Derek, Nic's brother and also half demon, has not seen Nic in twenty-five years. Should Nic be too deep into the Sons of Darkness, then Nic will die by Derek's hand.

Nic is caught between two warring realms and needs to stay alive long enough to figure out who his friends are and who his enemies are. At the same time, Nic and Shay deal with the sparks (Zing!) that fly whenever they are around each other.

**** Derek and Gina had their story told in the previous book, Surviving Demon Island; however, you do not have to read it in order to thoroughly enjoy this romp in the outback. Author Jaci Burton has done an excellent job on making the plot line believable. Even knowing it was not real, I still found myself half-way convinced it all was! That is talent, readers! Absolutely perfect for reading on the beach or in the mountains. This adventure is definitely worth your time and money. ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Shay is part of a group of demon hunters called Realm of the light and she's on a mission to save Nic who doesn't know it yet but he's been chosen to lead the demons. Nic's been brought up by his wealthy father. He owns a diamond mining company. Shay and Nic have a connection so he doesn't take much convincing. This story was set in Australia so the weather was permanently hot and the caves were permanently dark and dirty. A lot of fighting so the romance wasn't that gripping.

"Hunting The Demon" is the sequel to "Surviving Demon Island", a series about a group of people, part of the Realm of Light, who fight against demons (led by the Sons of Darkness) in a traditional fight between good and evil. The first thing about this book to note was that it wasn't necessary to have read "Surviving Demon Island" and in fact the backstory was delivered very well in this book, not feeling over-clunky as can happen and not patchy so that the reader gets confused. I hadn't read the first book but I always knew what was going on whilst reading this book, which is unusual.

Secondly, in this crowded genre of paranormal romance it seems that sex is usually more important than plot in the recent releases. Fortunately this book focuses far more on plot (although there is of course some sex) and, to some extent, on characterisation. Our heroine, Shay Pearson, is part of the demon hunting team and is sent to get close to the improbably-named Nic Diavolo to find out whether he, a half-demon, is evil or good. His brother Derek is a member of the demon hunting group but he and Nic were separated when Nic was eight and Nic was subsequently raised by his demon father, Ben. Shay and Nic get on well but within a day she has to lure him to be kidnapped, which of course means Nic feels betrayed by her. He does his own bit of betrayal subsequently which hurts Shay and from these two significant experiences they begin to form some kind of a relationship of trust.

There's a little more to Shay than meets the eye as she's been having visions her whole life which tend to come true. Shay has visions of Nic becoming head of the demons with the help of the Black Diamond, something that the demon hunters and the demons are both searching. Nic's colossally rich family own a diamond mine in Australia and it's to this mine that the group goes, once Nic has accepted the existence of demons, to search for the diamond and try to stop the demons' plans.

There's an introduction to another romance in this story (one which I expect will appear in a future instalment in this series) which is between Tyler, the demon hunter, and Angelique, an archaeologist tasked to find the black diamond, and there are plenty of fight scenes overall and crawling around caves and in dark tunnels. It's a reasonably written story and the setting in Northern Australia makes a welcome change. Overall the characterisation is a little lightweight but it's a pleasant enough read and rather better than a lot of the books being released in this genre at the moment.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book, www.curledup.com. © Helen Hancox 2007