August 29, 2011

Book Review of "Personal Demons" by Lisa Desrochers

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Title: Personal Demons (Personal Demons #1)
Author: Lisa Desrochers
Classification: YA Fiction, Paranormal 
Source: Library

Overall Grade: 
D
Would I recommend it? 
Nope.

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Summary (from Goodreads): 

Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She has spent years keeping everyone at a distance---even her closest friends---and it seems as if her senior year is going to be more of the same . . . until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can’t seem to stay away from him. 

What she doesn’t know is that Luc is on a mission. He’s been sent from Hell itself to claim Frannie’s soul. It should be easy---all he has to do is get her to sin, and Luc is as tempting as they come. Frannie doesn’t stand a chance. But he has to work fast, because if the infernals are after her, the celestials can’t be far behind. And sure enough, it’s not long before the angel Gabriel shows up, willing to do anything to keep Luc from getting what he came for. It isn’t long before they find themselves fighting for more than just Frannie’s soul. 

But if Luc fails, there will be Hell to pay . . . for all of them.
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My Thoughts:

I have to admit, Personal Demons had me hooked in the beginning of the novel. The concept that was invented, with demons and angels regularly vying to "tag" different mortal souls for either heaven or hell before they die, is rather inventive. However, it was not long before Personal Demons gave way to seriously overused, redundant plot elements that made me beat myself senseless for even wasting my time finishing this book.  

Yeah, parts of it were that bad.  

The writing itself was nothing special, told from Luc and Frannie's points of view in an alternating first person narrative. However, as the plot thickened and grew more confusing, more contrived, and less entertaining, the writing itself also gave way to triteness and cliche (see my rant on cliches in YA lit) that nearly made me beg for death... or at least a satisfying ending, rather than the drawn-out conclusion that I suffered through.  

Apart from the overall unpleasantness of this highly unremarkable read, I found the idea that not only was the main character, Frannie, able to somehow attract the interest of two incredibly gorgeous guys that are literally as old as the earth, but she also had the amazing ability to both possess a black belt in Judo and transform into a helpless shell of a person whenever either Gabe or Luc were in the room.  

I wanted to like Luc, and I mostly succeeded, but I was completely baffled by his relationship with Frannie. Gabe on the other hand, I had no idea why Frannie liked him, apart from his (literally) angelic looks.  

All in all, a very disappointing and thoroughly forgettable paranormal romance.

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Overall Grade: 
D
Would I recommend it? 
Nope.

2 comments:

  1. HI QUESTION? did u read the 2nd book it gets bttr by the way im srry but i TOTALLY DNT AGREE WITH U..... it takes authors a very long time to write stupid books for ppl LIKE U but u can't even appreacaite it a tiny bit U TURN OUT TO BE THE MOST IGNORENT READER *how would u feel if someone was 2 tell u a book u took sooo much time on is a piece of Trash....and that they even regret ending the book.....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown person, I was debating whether or not to delete your comment or to respond to it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so I decided not to delete it, even though it was only written to say that you think my review is "stupid" and "ignorent"... your poor spelling, not mine.

    I would just like to say that I admitted that the story in Personal Demons is addicting and had me hooked from the beginning. However, the story could not live through the poor characterization and over-used clichés, in my opinion.

    Your question about how I would feel reading this review as an author is completely superfluous, since I am not an author. Also, this review is a negative comment on the book that was written, not on the author. It is not personal. I never mention the author during my review, only the novel that they wrote.

    The next time you feel compelled to comment on someone else's blog, I would advise you to refrain from calling the writer of the review names... I don't see how that helps add anything of value to the community or discussion.

    ReplyDelete

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