The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark

Title:         The Demon Lover Publisher:  Random House Publishing Group Imprint:     Ballantine Books Pub Date: 12/27/2011 ISBN:      9780345526274 Author:     Juliet Dark I gasped . . . or tried to. My mouth opened, but I couldn’t draw breath. . . . His lips, pearly wet, parted and he blew into my mouth. My lungs expanded beneath his weight. When I exhaled he sucked in my breath and his weight turned from cold marble into warm living flesh. Since accepting a teaching position at remote Fairwick College in upstate New York, Callie McFay has experienced the same disturbingly erotic dream every night: A mist enters her bedroom, then takes the shape of a virile, seductive stranger who proceeds to ravish her in the most toe-curling, wholly satisfying ways possible. Perhaps these dreams are the result of writing her bestselling book, The Sex Lives of Demon Lovers. After all, Callie’s lifelong passion is the intersection of lurid fairy tales and Gothic literature—which is why she finds herself at Fairwick’s renowned folklore department, living in a once-stately Victorian house that, at first sight, seemed to call her name. But Callie soon realizes that her dreams are alarmingly real. She has a demon lover—an incubus—and he will seduce her, pleasure her, and eventually suck the very life from her. Then Callie makes another startling discovery: He’s not the only mythical creature in Fairwick. As the tenured witches of the college and the resident fairies in the surrounding woods prepare to cast out the incubus, Callie must accomplish something infinitely more difficult—banishing this demon lover from her heart. Juliet Dark is the pseudonym of an award-winning and critically acclaimed literary suspense writer.

Firstly, the book cover is very beautiful. The pace of the book at the beginning was rather slow. In fact, the pace throughout the whole book was not fast. However there was enough mystery and suspense that made me keep on reading, searching for the answer. The author was very good at the detail description with the setting, which make the whole thing looks creepy and mysterious. There are quite a number of characters in this book. I was wondering who is friend and who is enermy. And you have to read until the very last page to figure it out.

Despite the pace, the story was beautifully written. Callie is strong, independent and soft hearted too. She knows what she wants. I do not like her bf, Paul. Even though Callie was hiding something from him, I guess he could be more sensitive and give more trust to her. It was rather unexpected to me knowing about her grandma's real identity. I like the part when Callie tried to banish the incubus the very first time. However when she was doing it the second time towards the end, I was like "huh that's it? So easy?" that kind of feeling. I thought it would be more challenging.

In summary, it was a good read - dark and mysterious. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Note: I receive the ARC of this book from the publisher via Net Gallery. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.