[E2I]⇒ Read Working for the Devil Dante Valentine Book 1 Lilith Saintcrow 9780446616706 Books

Working for the Devil Dante Valentine Book 1 Lilith Saintcrow 9780446616706 Books

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Working for the Devil Dante Valentine Book 1 Lilith Saintcrow 9780446616706 Books

I'm a huge fan of urban fantasy series because they generally give me a fun world to sink into, good character development with a main character that is believable, sometimes another character that I love to hate, a mystery to solve or mission to complete, a bit of romance, maybe some sex, and non-stop action that keeps me turning the pages. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of that from this book. If you're love the series by Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, Faith Hunter, or Laurell K Hamilton, you'll be disappointed with this one, too.

Working for the Devil is set in some vaguely future time. You know that because of the plasglass, plasteel, plasguns, hovercars, datbands, the synth-hash that too many people smoke, and the drug Chill that others get hooked on. The world is not fleshed out; instead the author just substituted some lame futuristic names for common things in the real world.

The main character, Dante "Danny" Valentine, is not someone I would ever want to know. She dyes her hair black, has pale skin, a facial tat that moves, and scars from past bad times. She indulges in gratuitous foul language in every other sentence, which leads me to believe she has anger management problems and/or a limited vocabulary. In the first third of the book, she goes to talk to various characters to get ready for her impossible quest and, in the process, attacks a couple of them for no apparent reason that I could see. I guess this was just to set the stage for how tough she is. I'm not sure.

Danny does a lot of yelling, using the F word way too much, always seems to be angry with even her friends. It makes me wonder how she ever got any friends in the first place. There is a LOT of dialog and a lot of quiet verbalizing in her thoughts, but somehow emotions just don't come through. She screams or cries, but the author doesn't really let me know if Danny is angry or terrified or just hysterical.

***SPOILER ALERT***

The other characters: a demon familiar, an ex-lover, a best girl friend and her lover all seem like two-dimensional props. They help out whether Dante wants the help or not. They argue with her and give her a reason for more vulgar language and/or acting out. I am not offended by foul language, but it really, really gets old after awhile.

In summary, the premise of the story sounded intriguing, but it didn't deliver. With some series, you have to get half or two-thirds through the first book before you really get hooked. I kept turning the pages. I didn't skip anything. I tried to suspend disbelief and immerse myself in Dante's world. I never got hooked. There was no character development. The world-building was lame. Romance and sex were just hinted at. The demon-familiar who becomes her lover gets killed off at the end. The ex-lover who lied to her and abandoned her without explanation moves back in, saying he doesn't care what she wants. Really?!? I found that very disappointing for a number of reasons. You get the idea.


Tags : Working for the Devil (Dante Valentine, Book 1) [Lilith Saintcrow] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. When the devil needs a rogue demon killed, he calls Dante Valentine--a cross between Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake and Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan--in this sassy debut novel by Saintcrow. Original.,Lilith Saintcrow,Working for the Devil (Dante Valentine, Book 1),Warner Books,0446616702,Fantasy - General,Thrillers - General,Demonology;Fiction.,Devil;Fiction.,Magic;Fiction.,AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,Demonology,Devil,FICTION Thrillers General,Fantasy,Fantasy - Contemporary,Fantasy - DarkHorror,Fiction,Fiction - Fantasy,Fiction Fantasy Contemporary,Fiction Fantasy General,Fiction General,Fiction-Fantasy,General Adult,MASS MARKET,Magic,United States

Working for the Devil Dante Valentine Book 1 Lilith Saintcrow 9780446616706 Books Reviews

The author does a great job with imagery, but the characters have very little range of emotion. Danny is mad/hurt all the time and the quick jaunts that we get to understand why do little to evoke sympathy or understanding. Some of them even left me confused. There is also the issue of being thrown into another world with little or no way to relate the differences between this reality and our own.
Plot Summary In an exotic, futuristic version of Earth, Dante Valentine is a necromancer-for-hire, a person who can bring a dead person's soul back for a chat. A demon at her door shoves a gun in Danny's face and takes her to meet his "Prince." The devil has an offer that Dante cannot refuse; she must find a serial killer who stole something from Hell and return it to Satan. In return she gets to live. To help her succeed, Satan gives Danny her own demon familiar, Japhrimel, as back up, and she starts hunting for clues amongst her friends and foes with an abrasive personality that only truly good-hearted people can pull off.

My morning was shot, and my trigger finger is getting itchy. I sooo want to buy book two right now and satisfy my gnawing curiosity. This is a fantastic urban fantasy, and it kept me on the couch all morning when I had toilets to scrub. You might think that any book would be a better distraction than cleaning bathrooms, but that's not so. I'm actually chagrined I that didn't get my housework done, and if I could have torn myself away sooner, I would have. I was compelled to keep reading until I knew it all, and now I'm left with more questions than answers. I've half a mind to order "Dead Man Rising" right now and say to hell with my preordained TBR pile.

Saintcrow throws the reader in with a kind of sink or swim approach. She doesn't stop and explain every nuance within her fantasy world, so I felt like a stranger in an alien land, slowly feeling my way and acquiring knowledge. It's a brilliant way to handle the introduction to a series, and it keeps me wanting more, instead of skimming through boring passages that explain `the rules' with all the finesse of a board game instruction booklet.

I felt an immediate kinship with Danny (how could I not like a woman who sasses Satan himself?), and once that key ingredient clicked into place, I was fully vested in Danny's life. If I'm tied to a story on an emotional level, it's like riding a roller coaster with my hands in the air, and each twist and turn absorbs my complete attention. Watching Danny and Japhrimel grind on each other's nerves was entertaining, and I was not disappointed by the relationship that blooms between this unlikely pair. For an urban fantasy, the romance was more than gratifying, and I expect more in coming books. There is no `happily-ever-after' here, but it's also not the end of the story, just the beginning of the series.
I'm a huge fan of urban fantasy series because they generally give me a fun world to sink into, good character development with a main character that is believable, sometimes another character that I love to hate, a mystery to solve or mission to complete, a bit of romance, maybe some sex, and non-stop action that keeps me turning the pages. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of that from this book. If you're love the series by Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, Faith Hunter, or Laurell K Hamilton, you'll be disappointed with this one, too.

Working for the Devil is set in some vaguely future time. You know that because of the plasglass, plasteel, plasguns, hovercars, datbands, the synth-hash that too many people smoke, and the drug Chill that others get hooked on. The world is not fleshed out; instead the author just substituted some lame futuristic names for common things in the real world.

The main character, Dante "Danny" Valentine, is not someone I would ever want to know. She dyes her hair black, has pale skin, a facial tat that moves, and scars from past bad times. She indulges in gratuitous foul language in every other sentence, which leads me to believe she has anger management problems and/or a limited vocabulary. In the first third of the book, she goes to talk to various characters to get ready for her impossible quest and, in the process, attacks a couple of them for no apparent reason that I could see. I guess this was just to set the stage for how tough she is. I'm not sure.

Danny does a lot of yelling, using the F word way too much, always seems to be angry with even her friends. It makes me wonder how she ever got any friends in the first place. There is a LOT of dialog and a lot of quiet verbalizing in her thoughts, but somehow emotions just don't come through. She screams or cries, but the author doesn't really let me know if Danny is angry or terrified or just hysterical.

***SPOILER ALERT***

The other characters a demon familiar, an ex-lover, a best girl friend and her lover all seem like two-dimensional props. They help out whether Dante wants the help or not. They argue with her and give her a reason for more vulgar language and/or acting out. I am not offended by foul language, but it really, really gets old after awhile.

In summary, the premise of the story sounded intriguing, but it didn't deliver. With some series, you have to get half or two-thirds through the first book before you really get hooked. I kept turning the pages. I didn't skip anything. I tried to suspend disbelief and immerse myself in Dante's world. I never got hooked. There was no character development. The world-building was lame. Romance and sex were just hinted at. The demon-familiar who becomes her lover gets killed off at the end. The ex-lover who lied to her and abandoned her without explanation moves back in, saying he doesn't care what she wants. Really?!? I found that very disappointing for a number of reasons. You get the idea.