Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
Spells gone wrong, hunters becoming the prey, anything can happen when demons leave Hell and come to play on earth. Humans and demons team up together and bring the heat in this anthology about unlikely lovers.

The Care and Feeding of Demons gives you nine urban fantasy stories that look at the explosive relationships between humans and demons. From demon hunters who hook up with the very creatures they stalk to hunters and demons pairing up to take on a bigger threat, or from a long time couple who has to deal with interspecies love to a pair of human lovers who make a deal with a very shady character, this anthology is sure to delight the little devil in all of us.

BOOK REVIEW:
I knew I was going to love this anthology when the first line of the first story, "Absolutely Magic" by Julia Talbot, made me laugh so hard I had to quickly make something up to explain the hilarity to my seatmate on the plane:

"'Demon hunter, not demon fucker. Hunter. Not fucker. Got it?' Damon's boss slammed a huge case file down on his desk, glaring at him, looking like nothing so much as Wilford Brimley on crack. 'This makes what, six ~'

'Eight.'

'Eight! Eight that you've had to have sex with in the line of duty? In the line of duty! Who in hell has sex with a demon to bring them down?'

'Hey, this job has very few perks.' Damon started counting the detriments of the job down on his fingers. 'No hazard pay. Singed clothing. Lots of slime. I figure if there's an attractive demon I might as well enjoy him before I send him back to Hell.'"

Clearly M. Rode knows how to pick her stories! The book starts with a bang. So to speak.

Reviewing an anthology is risky business ~ you can love one story and hate the next ~ the very good news is that this is a five-star effort. Torquere Press gets a gold star for The Care and Feeding of Demons ~ well-edited, nice cover, stories even in quality, variety of authorial styles ... what's not to like? And the stories are uniformly great. You don't need to know any more than that: go buy the book.

But I'm chatty. So let me tell you about the stories.

The talented Julia Talbot's "Absolutely Magic" is one of her best efforts to date. Besides the classy first line, I very much enjoyed the tale of demon-hunter Damon, who finally meets Alisdair, the one sexy demon he doesn't want to send back to hell. Meredith Shayne, a new author for me, writes "Reasonable Force," a stylish story about Daniel, a closeted demon-hunter in a religious order who is on a reckless demon-slaying rampage trying to avenge his dead partner, when he meets Korim, who opens up new feelings for him.

"Hungry" by Glyn Soitino is the story of Rafeel and Dominic, committed, exclusive lovers. But Rafael is an incubus and Dominic is a demon hunter. Rafael has to feed on human semen, and when Dominic is on a long trip, he has to snack on what he can find ~ feeding isn't cheating ~ but his ass belongs to Dominic. In "Cool Heat" by Taylor Lochland, Jason discovers that a human really can have a relationship with a demon even if it is against his code as a demon hunter, but "humans worry about too much shit." Fortunately, Kirhal is a patient demon.

J.L. Merrow writes "A Calling for Pleasure," which starts with a horny teenager calling for a succubus ... but he gets a delighted incubus Rael instead, since you can't be discriminating on the basis of gender. Unfortunately, another succubus has been killing humans, and Rael runs afoul of the very hunky cop on the case.

Kiernan Kelly's "Screamin' Demon" is Azarian, who isn't really legitimate prey for Mick because his mother was human. Really. And in "A Perfect Target" by Winnie Jerome, Trent is not going to let Adrian go, even though they aren't really in love, are they? When Adrian disappears, who knew it was something as serious as being tracked by the Vatican?

"The One Who Comes in the Night" by Kate Roman is a different sort of story that cleverly switches points of view as depressed and lonely Drew says just the right things to demon Blaise. Last but not least, in "Payday" by Sean Michael, Alan and Mark are mastered by demon Riskin whether they want it or not, one day at a time.

All in all, this is a very sexy, very engaging set of stories about demon/human relationships. You won't be disappointed.

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