Urban fantasy/ erotica by Erica Hayes

"Imagine a secret world veiled in fairy glamour and brimming with unearthly delights. A city swarming with half-mad fairies, where thieving spriggans rob you blind, beautiful banshees mesmerize you with their song, and big green trolls bust heads at nightclubs. And once you’re in, there’s no escape…

Enslaved by a demon lord, Jade is forced to spend her nights seducing vampire gangsters and shapeshifting thugs.  After two hundred years as a succubus, she burns for freedom and longs to escape her brutal life as a trophy girl for hell’s minions.  Then she meets Rajah, an incubus who touches her heart and intoxicates her senses. Rajah shares the same bleak fate as she, and yearns just as desperately for freedom.  But the only way for Jade to break her bonds is to betray Rajah—and doom the only man she’s ever loved to a lifetime in hell."

I was given this book as a gift and found it very enjoyable for a variety of reasons. The entire crew, as well as the protagonist, are supernatural creatures. And yes, the world Erica Hayes has created is nothing short of mesmerizing. Filled with lovely visual imagery, the descriptions of the creatures are intoxicating for the senses. There is also lots of sex, every kind of it. There is plenty of detail and the sexual encounters never become boring. This should also serve as a warning: if you're not into erotica that rubs the nasty details on your face, don't buy it. Sure, there's a love story there too, but also hot, sweaty, dirty, sinful sex, that more often than not, when Jade is out hunting, is enforced. Not the romantic kind, where you're suspended by invisible ropes and rose petals land on your body and there's music of the spheres echoing when you cum. The other kind, when you look at yourself next day in the mirror and all you can do is *facepalm.*

I have one objection and one point to make.

One, Jade, the female protagonist is a 200 year old succubus that thinks "she is not good enough", "her hair is mousy", "she does not have enough curves", "nobody would like poor Jade". Save for the lack of plausibility, because let's face it, no-one can spend 200 years as a succubus seducing men and still think they are not good/ sexy/ desirable enough (unless they have serious brain damage and amnesia), it gets a bit tiring after a while. If I wanted to read about a so-called supernatural creature that sounds like the average reader of Cosmopolitan, I'd open the Cosmo advice section. "Please help me Debora, I'm crazy about that seriously hot co-worker of mine but I am afraid to talk to him because I am so ugly." Give it a rest already. She's a succubus, and at least 200 something years old. Don't make her sound like a 20 year old girl with zero self-confidence. It's bad.

Two, the language is unusual. There are adverbs and adjectives, sometimes a few more than needed. But not too much. I wish I could say the same about book number two.

Overall a very interesting  and "filling" read. Do buy it if you're looking for something that combines violence, the supernatural, and the dirty bits of good erotica. Don't buy it if you are looking for something along the lines of Twilight. It will freak you out.

Now, moving on to number two of the series...

"Welcome to secret world hidden behind shadowy fairy glamour, where thieving spriggans rob you blind, beautiful banshees mesmerize you with their song, big green trolls kick heads at nightclubs and vampire Mafiosi rule the streets.  Here a seductive magic mirror lies hidden deep in a demon’s lair, with a simple warning: don’t stare at the glass…

Ice is a light-fingered fairy who can’t resist a look at the powerful mirror.  She and her fairy friends run confidence games, pretending to be fortune tellers and bedazzling customers with their glamour.  But Ice longs for more—she wants a real life, a respectable job and something to strive for.  The mirror offers her a chance to achieve everything she’s ever dreamed of.  But when she pilfers it, she discovers that its power comes with a price: the mirror is a gateway to obsession and madness... and it will take every trick in her arsenal just to survive."

Do you remember Jade from Shadowfae? Well, change her name, make her even more childish and insecure and drug infused and you have Ice. Also, take the adverbs and adjectives and all the extra bits and pieces that did not fit in the language of book one, put them in the cauldron that multiplies everything by ten, and drown the entire book two in descriptions of an acid junkie. If it was a house, I'd say that it would look like someone emptied the contents of three different houses, one museum and one street fair in a single place. To make things even more interesting, add a male protagonist with a split personality so that more often than not, you don't know who is  talking, and then fill the entire book with self-pitying dribble and whole paragraphs that barely make any sense.

I could not read this book. Tried to, but kept feeling almost nauseous, like someone was stuffing down my throat a bucketful of candy and ice and dirty laundry. The two other protagonists are about as mature as my seven year old nephew and niece. And it's a pity, because the ideas are good, but the execution is just so bad. I have no idea what the third and fourth books of the series are like but after book number two, I seriously don't want to give money to buy them. I do hope they're better, cause I enjoyed the first one...