House of Ash & Brimstone by Megan Starks

As we all know, I definitely do judge books by their covers and while I hate to start a review off negative (especially when I actually loved the book), I did not like this cover. It’s not that the design itself is bad, it’s definitely good quality artwork, I just…don’t like it. Too much is going on and honestly, it makes both the characters look immature. After reading the book, I don’t think it does the story or characters justice either.

Then we have the blurb, oh you sweet, beautiful blurb. I don’t often get to read urban fantasy books about demons, especially not with them living among humankind peacefully (for the most part). So while the cover had me shying away, the blurb most definitely hooked me. Take a half-demon bounty hunter, add one handsome co-worker, a heaping cup full of danger, a dash of mystery and of course, sprinkle in all the hot romance.

I am so happy to be wrong in my judgement of the cover, because this book was great. From the very first page you are thrown in to Gigi’s world and it is full of action, demons and mysterious artifacts. AND it only gets better. Gigi has a lot to learn, even though she thinks she’s got life handled, and she HATES her co-worker Shade, which of course means they’re going to fall in loooooooooooooooooovvvveeee.

Okay, okay. Slow down. Focus.

Our story follows Gisele, aka Gigi, as she tries to obtain a curio that will help her gain her independence from her current employer. Now, I’m not sure why she wants to leave her boss, he seems like a pretty good guy to me. He looks out for her, takes care of her etc. It’s never really explained. Anyway, while saving said curio, not only does she fight a minotaur, she accidentally opens a hellmouth? Say WHAT? We found out that maybe Gigi shouldn’t have signed the contract to get this dangerous AF curio. It’s bad news and as it turns out whoever wants is actually worse.

She gets saved by Shade, the co-worker she loves to hate. Too bad, boo, he’s yo man. I mean…..he’s a jerk, but he always manages to come in the nick of time to save Gigi. She kind of needs saving…a lot. For someone who is supposed to be a badass bounty hunter, she isn’t the greatest at her job. She messes up a lot, gets in trouble a lot, gets hurt…a lot. Shade is always there and he knows things about her that she doesn’t.

She agrees to work with him and figure out what’s going on. Turns out, tons of stuff is happening and Gigi is the center of it all. Her demon side is very much wanted by those still within the circles of Hell. As she ventures deeper and deeper into the tangled web of lies, murder and mayhem, she learns just who she is, what she means to Shade and why it is so vital that she SURVIVE!

I don’t want to give anymore away at this point, so let’s skip to the part where I talk about what was done well and not so well.

Good stuff first right? Right.

The character development was fantastic. Gigi grows so much! It doesn’t feel rushed or forced, it’s natural based on the events she goes through. Even better, there was little to no info dumping. THE BEST. We got all the background information we needed in little tidbits strewn throughout when it came up. The descriptions and world building were also very well done. I love how the world is set-up and how it works, it actually makes sense!

Then there’s the romance. Oh-la-la. It is pretty obvious that Shade cares for her right off the bat, we just don’t know why. Gigi hasn’t known him too terribly long and it’s obvious she hates him. This gives a nice sloooooooow burn. My fave. They save each other a ton, trust develops, friendship forms, then lust (there is one or two sex scenes towards the end, not too terribly explicit) and there’s definitely some growth for more relationship building in the next book too.

Okay, the not so good.

We talked about the cover already, so I won’t rehash that. One small thing bothered me initially, and I don’t know if it was my copy of the book or what, but there were some minor formatting errors where the sentence cut off in one paragraph and then finished in the next one down. It happened maybe two or three times, so it isn’t a huge deal. There was also this thing at the end where it thanked the reader, asked for reviews and then recommend other novels (that were also from the same press I believe). I just didn’t like that that was there, I’ve never seen a page like that before, it just felt weird to see it. Then there was the dialogue, nothing was really bad, it was just lackluster. I couldn’t really get a feel for either character when they spoke, especially in the beginning. By the end of the book, I had it figured out, but it just didn’t do it for me.

The only other thing, and this might turn others off, is that this book is full of all the tropes. Amnesia, orphan/no family, “chosen one”/something special about her, stoic -insert typical physical traits here- male lead, othersthatIwon’tsaybecauseIdon’twanttogivetoomanyspoilers, all things that get to be done too much. NOW, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy these, it was just really evident that we were playing into these tropes really early on. They were very well done, just obvious.

That’s it. I cannot stress enough that just because those things stuck out to me, doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book. I LOVED this book. I’m ready for the sequel, I need to know what happens next. I also need to see more of Gigi and Shade, swoon. Gigi is a strong lead, even if she does make a lot of mistakes and the plot is perfect. If you want action, romance, mystery and all the paranormal, then this is what you NEED. I’ll take the next installment now please.