Review + Giveaway: Demons at Deadnight

DEMONS AT DEADNIGHT
(Divinicus Nex Chronicles #1)
A&E Kirk
Paranormal Young Adult
404 pages
Self-published
Available Now
Received from authors for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
For seventeen-year-old Aurora Lahey, survival is a lifestyle.

DEMONIC DESTINY
Aurora has the crappiest superpower on the planet. And it’s just unleashed a hit squad from hell. Demons are on the hunt, salivating to carve her carcass into confetti.

CHARISMATIC KILLERS
The Hex Boys—mysterious, hunky, and notorious for their trails of destruction—have the answers Aurora needs to survive. But their overload of deadly secrets and suspicious motives makes trusting them a potentially fatal move.

LETHAL ALLIES
The battle to save her family, herself, and stop demonic domination may cost Aurora everything worth living for, and force her to reveal her own dark secrets. But no worries. She needs the Hex Boys to pull this off, and, chances are, teaming up with these guys will get her killed anyway.

MY THOUGHTS
Demons at Deadnight is a tale brimming with humor and wit, but underneath the smart mouths lies a bit of a sinister edge, the very real threat of death-by-demon preventing us from getting too caught up in the banter and the romance by keeping us cautiously turning each page to see what might pop out at us and make itself known next. The ladies Kirk exhibit a strong talent for characterization, Aurora and the six Hex Boys beautifully developed and more than a little intriguing, charming us with their various distinct personalities while proving to us as we progress that there's more to all of them than just pretty faces and penchants for sarcasm. The demon-populated world, while not entirely clear to us in this first installment, piques our curiosity, driving us to at times want to knock Aurora aside so that we might interrogate those who clearly are privy to information we aren’t so we can satisfy our overwhelming desire to know more.

Aurora is cute and often very funny, her snappy comebacks keeping one particular Hex Boy on his toes, however, as we move forward with her in the story some of her other behaviors begin to eclipse her rapier wit, leaving us a bit frustrated with her in general. Her continued refusal to be upfront with the Hex Boys is certainly understandable in the beginning as she’s used to dealing with her demon-related abilities all on her own, but when her unwillingness to disclose even the smallest detail of what she knows about herself and her link to the demons persists through nearly three hundred pages, we find ourselves with an exhausted reservoir of patience. She claims her refusal to trust the Hex Boys is a result of their refusal to trust her in kind, but at some point, someone needs to take those first hesitant steps and lay the foundation on which said trust can be built, and in this first book it takes just a touch too long for those initial bricks to be laid.

The Hex Boys themselves are an extremely entertaining bunch however, their brotherly interactions making us snort with laughter as they bait and taunt one another with such enthusiasm that we wish one (or possibly all six) of them could move in next door and proceed to darken our doorsteps at every possible opportunity. While being introduced to all of them very quickly in the beginning is slightly intimidating, once we settle into the story each takes on his own unique personality and sets himself apart from the others, causing our hearts to beat abnormally fast as we fall in love six times over. The romance between Aurora and Ayden is very well executed, their physical attraction instant but thankfully no all-consuming love immediately follows, instead theirs is a relationship of heated antagonism and passionate dislike that flares hot initially and then cools down before building again at a slow, deliciously tense pace.

There are a few flaws with Demons at Deadnight, namely Aurora’s innate stubbornness and her habit of running into danger when she’s told to stay put, but overall it’s a story that feels far shorter than its four hundred pages due to the fact that we can't devour the chapters fast enough to discover what happens. The ending is a touch abrupt, leaving us wondering just who this person is that’s introduced on the final page, however, it’s easy to overlook that small issue and take comfort in how much we enjoyed ourselves reading the 399 pages that came before it.

Rating: 3.5/5

GIVEAWAYS

As part of the promotional tour for Demons at Deadnight, A&E Kirk are generously offering up either a paperback copy or an ebook to one lucky winner! Woo hoo! To enter, just leave a comment on this post with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL and will run through midnight EST on March 2nd after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog.

But wait! I have another giveaway opportunity for you:

A KINDLE FIRE WITH CUSTOM SKIN!

To enter to win the Kindle Fire you need to know the secret phrase given out one word at a time by each blog tour host. Put the words together in sequential order and you'll eventually have the secret phrase! Right now you can Tweet and Follow on the AEKIRK Blog Tour Page to get points but starting March 9 (at the end of the tour) you can enter the complete phrase on the AEKIRK Blog Tour Page and earn BIG entry points! Your Kindle Fire will also include your choice of a DEMONS AT DEADNIGHT Skin. Either from the cover, or a Hex Boy group shot or individual "Team" skin of your favorite Hex Hunk!

WORD FOR THIS TOUR STOP:
"By"

Before you go, one last quick announcement! The oh-so sexy Hex Boys are planning a Twitter party on Wednesday, February 29th between 9pm and 10pm EST. I like to think they're all getting together in honor of my birthday which just happens to be the following day, but that's most likely not the case. A girl can dream though right? Right. Anyway, I will be online throwing questions their way and most likely hitting on them (it's also possible I will threaten bodily harm to all those who attempt to claim them for their own or lure them away from me. Just want to be upfront about that ;-), so it should be fun. I hope some of you will be able to join us!