For a Few Demons More

For a Few Demons More
Author: Kim Harrison

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Review:
This is the fifth installment in the Hollows series, and once again we are in the midst of life and death situations that surround Rachel Morgan and her circle of friends and enemies. Yes, Rachel's enemies stick around, like any good comic series; they provide too much personality, plot development, and entertainment to simply die.

Just a short introduction for those who haven't read any of this series yet - the setting behind this urban fantasy is that a genetically-engineered catastrophe wiped out a large population of humans. The humans are still around and kicking but the vampires, witches, pixies, elves, werewolves, fairies, etc... felt free to show themselves to the modern world. Rachel, the main character, is a witch that lives in an old church with her vampire and pixy partners (Ivy and Jenks) doing consulting (private investigation) work for a living.

What I liked:

• Action - vampire scrapping, magic spelling, pixie pixing fun
• Female protagonist - with her bad fashion sense and too many references to coffee and desserts
• World building - this fantasy is firmly-rooted in any readers mind - the Hollows do exist (in our imagination at least)
• A little romance - to me, every good story needs a little romance

A few things about this particular book bothered me enough for me to try to figure out why. Overall it's a great series but this and the last two novels were definitely darker. I find that Rachel's reasoning for doing certain things differ greatly from what I would do in the same situation. She also seems to be attracted to almost every living creature she meets - no problem that she has a boyfriend who she supposedly loves but that we don't really see until the climatic end. These factors don't make it un-enjoyable, but it does distract me from time to time. I'm still whole-heartedly rooting for Rachel though, and the details about her successes and failures is entertaining reading. Kim Harrison is good at creating support characters that become very important to the reader. All in all, good fantasy, I recommend it!

P.S. This is my first book completed for my Once II challenge, my choice for the fantasy category.