The Demon Lover

Thank you Netgalley for giving me an eArc of this book :)

Blurb from Goodreads.com:

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 her having written the bestselling book The Sex Lives of Demon Lovers. Callie’s lifelong passion is the intersection of lurid fairy tales and Gothic literature—which is why she’s found 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: Her incubus is 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 demon, Callie must accomplish something infinitely more difficult—banishing this supernatural lover from her heart.

My Review:

I liked this book, but I wasn't blown away by it.

The protagonist, Callie, had an interesting background story, but didn't really feel fleshed out to me. She described her past and her family/bf with a kind of surgical indifference, like she was retelling a story of someone else's life, not her own. SPOILER, HIGHLIGHT TO VIEW When she discovers that she's a witch/faerie, she takes the news in stride, no big reaction, no doubts, nothing.  I honestly cannot understand what is going on in that girl's mind, first she wants a fancy NYC career, then, unexpectedly decides to buy a house in the middle of nowhere. My main issue is basically that Callie's actions were not well explained, unless everything she did was based purely on instinct and had no logical thought process behind it.

The setting was beautifully described and I could see it clearly in my mind's eye. Fairwick was described in detail, the architecture and the landscape, everything was clear and I loved it. We get a bit of an intro into the fantasy side of their world when Callie does, but the dean is a bit absentminded/busy/tired and doesn't give Callie/the reader the entire story, which was disappointing plot-wise and kept nagging at me throughout the book (you don't know what you're doing Callie!!!) 

I liked the phantom-prince character at the beginning of the book a lot, a shadowy knight in shining armor who comforts Callie in her time of need. When his motives became clearer though, I started to have second thoughts...SPOILER HIGHLIGHT TO VIEW especially later on in the book when it's revealed that he betrays a previous incarnation of Callie to be with the faerie queen, and comes back anyways to try and suck the life of present Callie..knowingly! %$&*!$%^.

The most interesting part of the book is the Faerie world, I'm intrigued by what we hear about it (very very little) and want to know more. So many questions! SPOILER HIGHLIGHT TO VIEW Are the borderlands on the faerie side or the earth side of the door? Why are stuff stuck there? Can't they just go back to Faerie once they see that they can't get through to earth? Where is Liam and can/will Callie set him free? (I don't think he deserves it, but if he makes her happy, SHE deserves it)

I will definitely be reading the sequel to hear more about Faerie and the borderlands.

Ever Yours~

The Know-it-all