I am a huge fan of Gwenda Bond, and this was one I was dying to get an ARC of. I didn’t, even tried looking thought books for trade on Twitter, and nothing. So I gave in and requested the e-galley on Netgalley. And I’m so glad that I did! I really enjoyed this one. And I’m excited to see there is a sequel.

Now I started reading on Thursday at my lunch break, only a teacher decided to come sit and talk to me just as I started my break. Even when I told them I’d just started my lunch. They sat down and said, “Oh, I’m just here for a chat.” Uh, yeah, great, but I want to read my book on the e-reader sitting right in front of me while I’m eating.

But anyway, on with my review. I really liked the different characters. I loved Callie, many things about her reminded me of myself. In a not demony type of way. lol And then Luke. How do you not adore the son of Lucifer when he’s really kind of a good guy? Although if you think about it, in a way, the bad guys seem pretty much to stick to their own rules, or at least he does when he has to hold up his ends of deals even if he wants to protect Callie.

I loved the different take the author did for Hell and demons, and all the mythology that goes with that. Even though when I tried to read Dante’s Inferno I could not get very far, so bored, and not easy to read, it was interesting to see parts with him interspersed with the underworld in this story. Also, I adored the fainting goat.

There were parts I had to go back and reread to see if I missed parts, because surely she heard when Luke was talking about how “his father” wouldn’t be happy, and that should have clued her in? But at first it seemed as if Callie missed that. However I was wrong, as she did think about it as she was trying to figure out what to do once she tried to split from Luke and take care of things on her own.

So while in the end an apocalypse was what they were trying to avert, and things may have been a mostly HEA, we got the hints and clues of more to come. And that’s so cool!

A final bit that I really liked the way the author did was how she showed that it might be okay to still love the Harry Potter world, but just stay away from the author if possible. So often I think that is the case with a lot of art. My ex-co-librarian and I used to have those kind of discussions all the time. Artists are human, and so unfortunately, sometimes you have to separate the two, or you’ll never have any art left to enjoy. Especially when up to a certain point of your life, said artistic product may have been a huge part of your life.

Loved this one. Will be buying a physical copy to put on my bookshelf for sure. Hoping for a physical copy of book 2’s ARC, but it won’t matter because I’ll have to buy a finished copy to match the original too!

Review first posted on Lisa Loves Literature.