TITLE: The Unlikeable Demon Hunter
SERIES: Nava Katz #1
AUTHOR: Deborah Wilde
PUBLICATION DATE: April 18, 2017
PUBLISHER: Te Da Media
LENGTH: 420 pages
FORMAT: eARC
SOURCE: Review copy via the author
RATING: 3 bows
Summary from GoodReads:
Bridesmaids meets Buffy with a dash of the seven deadly sins.
The age-old story of what happens when a foul-mouthed, romance impaired heroine with no edit button and a predilection for hot sex is faced with her worst nightmare–a purpose.
Ari Katz is intelligent, driven, and will make an excellent demon hunter once initiated into the Brotherhood of David. However, this book is about his twin Nava: a smart-ass, self-cultivated hot mess, who is thrilled her brother is stuck with all the chosen one crap.
When Nava half-drunkenly interrupts Ari’s induction ceremony, she expects to be chastised. What she doesn’t expect is to take her brother’s place among the–until now–all-male demon hunters. Even worse? Her infuriating leader is former rock star Rohan Mitra.
Too bad Rohan’s exactly what Nava’s always wanted: the perfect bad boy fling with no strings attached, because he may also be the one to bring down her carefully erected emotional shields. That’s as dangerous as all the evil fiends vying for the bragging rights of killing the only female ever chosen for Demon Club.
Odds of survival: eh.
Odds of having a very good time with Rohan before she bites it: much better.
Please excuse the choppy flow of this review. You might have noticed it’s been quite a while since I posted one and I’m extremely rusty. I have been avoiding review books for a while because even though some inspire me to write a review, I feel like I don’t have anything fresh or new to say. All my reviews started sounding stale to my own ears so I stopped. I’ll be honest, some days I don’t miss it at all. Other days, I find myself composing reviews in my head only to remember that I probably won’t actually get it down in a post. However, when I was contacted for reviewing this book, I couldn’t refuse. In case you didn’t know, Deborah Wilde is Tellulah Darling (or vice versa) and if you have learned nothing else from browsing my reviews, you must have picked up on the fact that I adore Tellulah’s work. I’ve read all the novels she’s published under the name Tellulah Darling and I love them all, especially the Blooming Goddess Trilogy which is absolutely fantastic. There is not a chance that I would dislike a novel written by her, even under a different name, right? I accepted because of that and also because I do love promoting books and authors I love and I was sure I would love this. Bridesmaids meets Buffy? That sounds pretty interesting. I liked Bridesmaids and I love Buffy (though some seasons more than others). If you want my full thoughts, just keep reading and I’ll try to lay them out in the most original way possible.
As soon as Nava Katz was introduced on the page, I appreciated her as a character. I didn’t connect with her as much as I’d have liked, but I like her. She knows exactly who she is and she isn’t afraid of it. She likes sex and is unapologetic about it, something I think we definitely need more of in all genres of fiction. She’s very human. She fucks up, she makes mistakes, but every time, she gets back up and tries to fix it. No giving up for Nava, she pushes on and does her damnest to repair whatever rift she has made.
I really enjoyed her relationship with her brother, Ari. Their every interaction was my favorite thing about this novel. I loved how true to real life a sibling relationship is. They don’t get along in ever scene, but it’s clear that the bond they share and how they’d have each other backs regardless of the situation.
From the first moment I started this, I could see exactly what it was trying to do. It’s taking urban fantasy and adding that level of humor that I’m accustomed to from Deborah’s work as Tellulah Darling. I feel like, if I had read this a few years ago, before romance novels really started irking me, it would have been an instant 5-star review. It’s fast, it’s funny, and it has steamy romance scenes. Unfortunately, present day me is just irritated with romance in general. I’m sick of all the gorgeous girls and guys so hot that every head turns when they walk by. I’m sick of the concentration on sex as if it’s the only thing important in an adult life and definitely the most important factor in setting up a relationship. And if I read another sentence about how the leading male has the biggest penis known to mankind, I truly may vomit.
Beyond my general feelings on romance novels, the only problem I had was trying to keep all the characters straight in my head. They all have unusual names and they were all introduced in a short period of time, so the only characters I’m totally sure of are Nava and Ari. Every time any one else was mentioned, it took me a few minutes of interaction to mentally place them in the right box.
I don’t think my main problems with this were due to anything specific about this novel. I truly wanted to adore it and I will be reading the sequel, but I never found myself so enraptured that I couldn’t put it down. I read a chapter or two a day and was completely content with that. But for anyone else out there wanting a urban fantasy with a kick-ass lead character, girl-power vibes, and a lot of laughs, you’ll probably love this.
****Thank you to Deborah Wilde a digital copy in exchange for an honest review****
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