Quote

"A room without books is like a body without a soul." - Cicero

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Fashionably Dead Down Under by Robyn Peterman

Welcome to Hell.
Literally.
The Hell where the Prince of Darkness is hotter than Hades, Hell Hounds smell like brownies and the Seven Deadly Sins are addicted to Facebook…Not to mention the soundtrack in the Underworld is Journey. For real.

I should have known no good could come from offing my parents in the space of twenty minutes no matter how psychotic and evil they were…

Now I find out my family tree includes almost every deity and mythological being alive while Ethan, the one and only love of my undead life has a limited time down under before he turns to dust. In the land of Sin, you’d think I’d get some nookie time with my man, but no. Baby Demons, cousins and grandparents put the kibosh on that. Blue balls are the new normal. What the hell does a half-Vampyre Half-Demon have to do to catch a break?

Apparently find a freakin’ sword, calm Mother Nature’s unmedicated mood swings and make sure Mister Rogers keeps his sticky fingers to himself during weekly poker with the Devil.

And I have three days to do it.

By all that’s unholy, I thought Ethan’s Vampyre family was crazy…Trust me, they have nothing on the Demons.


***

If I wasn't all aboard the Astrid train after the first book, trust me, I'm all over it now! Wow, what a fun story. I was a little skeptical about Hell at first. I've read a few books where the characters go to Hell and it always falls short for me. Same thing with meeting the Devil, with the exception of Jude Deveraux's Wild Orchids, Lucifer's portrayal has always fallen short - but not this time! Robyn Peterman constructs this elaborate Hell, both beautiful and heinous depending on what part of Hell you're in. I was pleasantly surprised and very glad the entire book takes place in Hell. In addition to the pretty and ugly aspects of Hell, the author throws in these wacky little things that make the book unique, and for me, these are the things that have become the signature for a Hot Damned series book; the Devil's obsession with Journey, vegetarian Hell hounds that eat with their mouths but talk with their eyebrows, poker night with Mr. Rogers - if that doesn't make you laugh, you seriously lack a sense of humor.

Aside from the setting, of course, the new characters were fabulous as well. The Devil, God, the Sins and Dixie - DIXIE! I love her, I love that she gets in trouble for getting good grades in school and feeding the homeless. But now that I think about it...if being the daughter of Satan means you have to be in trouble and do bad...then by her getting good grades and getting yelled at and being in trouble for it means she's doing bad better than the rest of em. She's so bad she's good! Ha...ha, see what I did there?

And now, some random comments from my Kindle:
  • Was Steven Perry a succubus? - actually he'd be an incubus. 
  • Uncle Satan - BRILLIANT!
  • Not sure if I stressed this enough during the first book, but I LOVE Astrid's little demons. (Note to author: You should really consider doing a little short story about those guys. Like what they do when Astrid is not around. How did they get kicked out of the strip club in Hell!? I think the readers would eat that shit up!)
  • I wanted the Devil to be my daddy? Heaven and Hell help me...I needed some therapy. Probably my favorite line.
4.5 stars!


No comments: