Taming Demons for Beginners by Annette Marie

Taming Demons for Beginners by Annette Marie

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Blurb

Rule one: Don’t look at the demon.

When I arrived at my uncle’s house, I expected my relatives to be like me—outcast sorcerers who don’t practice magic. I was right about the sorcery, but wrong about everything else.

Rule two: Don’t listen to the demon.

My uncle chose a far deadlier power. He calls creatures of darkness into our world, binds them into service contracts, and sells them to the highest bidder. And I’m supposed to act like I don’t know how illegal and dangerous it is.

Rule three: Don’t talk to the demon.

All I had to do was keep my nose out of it. Pretend I didn’t find the summoning circle in the basement. Pretend I didn’t notice the shadowy being trapped inside it. Pretend I didn’t break the rules.

But I did, and now it’s too late.

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Review

This was an amazingly fun ride, with great tension and some unexpected twists. The main character starts out presented as amazingly weak, almost as a fainting Victorian heroine type. Think Fanny Price, and you’d just about have it. Marie gives us just enough of a glimpse of what’s underneath to show she’s not a complete wet blanket to let us know there’s a reason to stick around.

In Marie’s world, the summoning and contracting of demons is performed with cruelty. Now – these are demons. They’re not cuddly little playmates who just want to be loved. That said, the people summoning them and forcing them into contracts don’t seem to be much better.

Amalia is not the one who summons the demon character in this book. She finds him trapped in her uncle’s basement, and she’s been kept ignorant of the realities of demon summoning by her now-deceased parents and by her uncle. She’s afraid of him, but she does go out of her way to extend kindness and compassion. This is true strength – being afraid, acknowledging your fear, and doing the right thing anyway.

Why yes, the air up here on my soapbox is delightful, thank you for asking.

Anyway, this seems to confuse Zylas (the demon) for a while. When some of the delightful souls associated with Amalia’s uncle decide they’re going to try to steal “his” demon from under his nose – using Amalia – she has to take a chance. She can let the humans kill her, or she can crawl into the summoning circle and take her chances with Zylas.

It’s a desperate choice, and they make a choice together that is completely unheard of for the rest of demonkind or the world of magic users. It’s also illegal, and wholly awesome.

The arc for both characters is clearly defined. Amalia goes from being frightened of – well, everything – and only concerned with retrieving her inheritance, to standing up for what’s right. Zylas doesn’t have the language or understanding to describe his feelings for Amalia, but he goes from untrusting and borderline-hostile to staying by her side by choice.

As a romance, this is slow burn at best. Their attraction to each other is palpable, but the nature of their relationship (and species) would make a relationship far too complicated to dive into with the short timespan involved in this book. As such, the romance is purely emotional and no sexual contact takes place. This was not an issue for me, but readers looking for something hot and steamy should probably read something else. Or take a cold shower and come back to this book, because it’s a really fun read.

Something else I loved was the glimpse into demonic culture provided by Zylas. Many stories dealing with demons make demons very human in nature, which is fine. They also root demons in the culture in which the story is being told – think Supernatural and Meg or Ruby, with all of their pop culture references and their distinct grounding in human references. Zylas has never been human, and it shows. Marie’s demons are completely alien, with a culture entirely their own, and it truly helps to bring this story to life.

I enjoyed this book. It’s easy to read, it’s fun, and it’s smart.

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