"Tabloid reporter Hope Adams appears to live the life of an
ordinary working girl. But in addition to possessing the beauty of
a Bollywood princess, Hope has other unique traits. For she is a
half demon - a human fathered by a demon. And she's inherited a
hunger for chaos. Naturally, when she's chosen by a very dangerous
group for a very dangerous mission that will take her through
Miami's hot spots, she jumps at the chance. But Hope is a little
too good at this job. And soon she's in a little too deep. To save
herself, she'll have to unleash her most primal instincts - and
open herself, mind and body, to everything she most fears...and
desires." Back cover Personal Demon
My Summary
Personal Demon is the eighth novel in Kelley Armstrong's Women of
the Otherworld series. It follows Hope Adams, a half demon who can
sense chaos and feeds off of it. As a reporter, she gets asked to
go undercover to help solve a fight between two fighting
companies/gangs. She agrees, knowing that she can help the Cabals
(the company who hired her to go undercover), while getting a good
fix of chaos in the meantime.
With the Cabals involved, sure enough you will see Paige and Lucas,
witch and sorcerer respectively. We also get to see an inside look
at Cabal operations as Lucas gets closer and closer to becoming
CEO, a title he does not want. As the novel proceeds, the
narrations switch back and forth between Hope and Lucas. Their
stories go off into different directions, but always end up
overlapping, so it stays as one complete story.
Will Hope be able to control her demon side, or will it take over
and cause a world of chaos? Will Lucas become CEO of the Cabals in
their greatest time of need? Who will win over Hope, Jaz or Karl
Marsten?
My Opinion on Personal Demon
After reading No Humans Involved, Kelley Armstrong's previous Women
of the Otherworld novel, I was excited to have Hope Adams as the
narrator. Her powers seemed to be truly intense, which would be
really interesting to get to feel them from her perspective. It
took a little while to get into the chaotic parts, but when they
came, they were well worth it.
I'm not one who really likes mob stories, and that's kind of what
the Cabals are. Luckily, they kept the mob likeness to a minumum.
I've never been much a fan of Lucas or his storyline. I'm not
saying he's a bad character, he was very well written with his
characteristics. I just am very unintersted in reading about a
character like him. That made it a little hard for me when the
narration switched over from Hope to Lucas. But it was essential to
the story, so I sucked it up.
The main reasons Personal Demon only got 3/5 from me was because
the "Women" of the Otherworld was narrated by a man, even if it was
only in part. Also, it got a little confusing with all the
switching. It got to a point where every chapter was the opposite
person narrating (one chapter was Hope, the next Lucas, the next
Hope etc). At one point I got confused while I was reading, and was
imagining Paige speaking, despite her never actually narrorating in
this novel.
I do believe that before reading this novel, you read the others in
order. It is possible to read this before the others, but there are
a few name drops and situations that aren't really explained that
would make more sense if you knew the full story behind them.
Characters From Previous Women of the Otherworld Novels
Hope Adams (Expiso Half Demon, Narrator)
Lucas Cortez (Sorcerer, Narrator)
Paige Winterbourne (Witch)
Karl Marsten (Werewolf, Thief)
The Cabals (Cortez, Nast, St. Cloud)
Elena Micheals (Werewolf, small part)
Clay Danvers (Werewolf, small part)
Quotes that Stuck
"What you're afraid of, Hope, is that someday, just for a few
minutes,the thing that you are will overtake the person that you
are, and someone will die because of it."