I still read the occasional paranormal romance but it’s definitely not my main genre right now so I’m not sure what all is out there. Which means I’m not the best to say how original this world is :), but I think that Hill does a great job of creating one that is interesting. It’s got just the right touch of real world to make you think that it could be happening around you but yet be full of witches, demons, monsters and supernatural soldiers.

Haley went through something horrible and I’m impressed by how well she’s recovered. She’s still not completely healed and hesitates to get intimate with any man, especially the nephew of the man who held her captive (and someone who saw her in that situation). But being able to see into Damian’s mind helps I think. She starts to understand him a little better and see past who he used to be.

Damian may be the son of Satan but he is now working for the other side, fighting demons and monsters. Working with her brothers introduces him to Haley and spending time with the sexy witch draws him in. But can he breach the walls that her time in Hell built … and what happens when he’s ordered to kill her uncle?

I love the relationship and trust that builds between these two. They each have reasons to be wary of the other but time (and the glimpses they get of each other’s thoughts) start to forge something sweet. Damian is amazingly patient and understanding of all of Haley’s hangups. And she’s definitely strong, she just has to remember that. There’s danger mixed in with the love story, as expected with most paranormal romances, and it adds that extra oomph to the book.

Because it is the first in the series, there is a lot of extra explanation that has to happen, but I don’t feel like it bogged things down. I do, though, think there were times where it might have been missing some of the history related to this story. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not, because they weren’t big things but just enough that I wanted a little more info. I’m curious to see where Hill goes from here and whether we get some of those answers when the rest of the Hawthornes gets their stories.

(Complimentary copy provided in exchange for an honest review)