Demon Lover – Juliet Dark

Demon Lover
Juliet Dark
Random House
2011, 416p
Copy courtesy of the publisher

Callie McFay has recently finished graduate school and is interviewing for positions at several colleges in New York state. Her thesis was well received and published to acclaim and she’s done several guest speaking gigs and toured with her book. Whilst waiting for an offer from New York State, she is interviewed at Fairwick College in a remote part of upstate New York. Although smaller and less prestigious, it is still very well regarded and has an excellent folklore department, which would be Callie’s faculty. She’s offered a job the very next morning and although she intends to put them off until she hears back from NYU, a house across from the bed and breakfast where she is staying draws her eye and Callie finds herself not only accepting the job, but buying the old Victorian house. The former house of a well known early-1900’s Gothic novelist Dahlia LaMotte whose work Callie has read, she hopes that the house will help her creativity, especially as it comes with all the papers and diaries that belonged to the novelist. The catch is they stay with the house – Callie can read them, write about them, publish them etc, but only whilst she resides in the house. Despite her long-term boyfriend Paul, still in graduate school on the opposite side of the country re-writing his thesis disapproving of her choice as it didn’t fit in with their plans, Callie moves all her things quickly and settles in to life in Farwick.

Callie is surprised when she begins having vivid erotic dreams  where a stranger seemingly made of moonlight enters her bedroom and ravishes her. It’s startlingly real and she experiences sore muscles etc the next day just like she had been with a man. Eventually it occurs to Callie that it might not be just a dream – after all her expertise is in folklore and it’s possible her nighttime lover is an incubus, a being that will suck the very life from her by way of sexual draining. And after she comes to this realisation she discovers that her incubus lover isn’t the only unusual creature living in Fairwick. The college is a hotbed of not-so-mythical-anymore creatures – witches, fairies, vampires etc. And the powerful ones are preparing to cast out her incubus before he can drain the life out of more residents. Callie is torn – unsatisfied in her relationship, the incubus filled a void she hadn’t known even existed. In order for the incubus to truly be banished, no one present can want him to stay – even just a little bit. Callie has to draw on her strength and make sure that she isn’t the weak link, or she could pay with her life.

When I requested this one on NetGalley, I originally thought it was a YA novel, given the prevalence of covers for YA novels that consist of faceless girls in pretty dresses. Obviously I didn’t read the synopsis too well! Callie, our main character is in her mid-20’s, having just finished graduate school. She was orphaned at a young age and raised by her well off but rather distant grandmother, who left New York for the west coast the second Callie graduated high school. Callie’s parents often told her elaborate fairytales as a child and that become the focus of her study and ultimately part of the reason she chooses to accept a job at Fairwick College. Other factors come into play the further you get into the novel, but Callie is ultimately unaware of her unusual heritage when she begins her new job.

Such as the Gothic romances Callie references, this novel is rich in atmospheric prose and mystery. As a book lover and avid reader and hoarder of books, I can’t say how much I loved Callie’s constant references to literature and her talk of how many books she owned. In her studio apartment in New York, she had to choose which books to keep and which were to go into storage but when she buys the Victorian in Fairwick she is delighted by its huge library with floor to ceiling bookcases standing empty waiting for her to fill. That sort of room is my dream to have one day!

I did find the novel dragged a bit in places – it seemed to take me forever to get through the middle segment and I got bogged down a few times wondering what the heck was going to happen to shake things up. It probably could’ve been trimmed down a bit, but it was still a good read – and I really didn’t expect the ending! I know it’s the first in a trilogy or a series or something but I was unprepared for the fact that it doesn’t end on a high note or happily. Despite her academic background and although she accepts her unusual heritage discoveries quite easily, Callie is often a bit clueless as to things that are happening and there is kind of a huge plothole in that Fairwick is such a haven for these otherworldly beings but the powers that be fail to recognise when several dangerous ones make their way there and into people’s lives. I also didn’t really think the way that Callie and Paul’s relationship went showed any thought or originality and that was disappointing.

There’s enough here in the writing to keep me interested for the next book but at the same time I hope the plot is tighter next time around.

6/10

Book #23 of 2012

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