Demon's Delight

Demon's Delight is an anthology I picked up at RWA. It's a solid read, though I found myself wishing a couple of the stories were longer.

From MaryJanice Davidson . . . Can a witch and a witch-hunter find common ground . . . without killing each other first?

From Emma Holly . . . A beautiful scientist in the realm of the Demon World falls in love with a human male she has experimented on--and is changed forever . . .

From Vickie Taylor . . . Zane is hell-bent on danger--the more he eludes death, the bigger the rush. Then he awakens from a near-drowning not only alive, but in the caring arms of a beautiful angel. But the ethereal Rosemary is driven by her own desires--and full of surprises.

From Catherine Spangler . . . Meet Rachel, hooker and vampire, plying both trades after hours until she meets Gabriel on the night shift. He's an angelic emissary on a mission to prove Rachel still has a sould, and to save it. But she offers him a mortal temptation he never expects . . .

I loved the concept of MaryJanice Davidson's story, "Witch Way." The hero and heroine are destined to battle each other until both die. Unfortunately, neither one wants to do it. The premise is intriguing, and I enjoyed the interaction between Chris and Rhea. However, the story could have used another 20 pages or so to make the romance more convincing. I was a bit disappointed in the love scene as well.

The next story is Catherine Spangler's "Street Corners and Halos." It was lovely to watch the wounded Rachel heal. Her backstory was intriguing, which made her a character I wanted to read about. The resolution did seem a bit too easy; however, I liked spending time with the characters, and I plan to see what else Spangler has written.

Emma Holly's "The Demon's Angel" comes next, and it's set in the same world as the story I loved in Hot Spell. "The Demon's Angel" is plenty hot, and I loved the hero. Once again, though, I would have liked to see what Holly would have done with another 20 pages. Harry and Khira have such a complex relationship simply because of the way they meet. I would have liked to see this dealt with a bit more.

My favorite story was Vickie Taylor's "Angel and the Hellraiser." Rosemary is an angel who is set to save Zane . . . if she can. At first, he appears to be a classic troublemaker; it's soon clear that there's more to him than that. Rosemary has a lot to offer him. In a nice reciprocity, she needs to learn something from Zane as well. This story brought tears to my eyes at one point. It was very nicely done.

Demon's Delight was a quick read with a nice variety of stories. They averaged out the book to be 3.5 out of 5.