Mild Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t read the previous 2 books (or my reviews) of The Hollows series by Kim Harrison, this review might give you some unwanted information. However I will try to keep it to a minimum!
Rachel Morgan has a demon mark and made a deal to become a demon’s familiar. In exchange, she received the demon’s testimony in court to put away an evil vampire kingpin in jail. Way to start a book with a lot of impossible hurdles for your character, Kim Harrison! Before long, the demon pops up and calls in her debt. He forces her to do the familiar aura exchange ritual. However, instead of dragging Rachel into the ever after she jumps out of his grasp onto holy ground with his former slave/familiar, Ceri. The demon curses her name and swears he’ll be back to drag her into the demon realm soon enough. So Rachel staved off becoming a demon slave for another day. But now she has a woman driven near insane by centuries of service to a demon who may not be human in her charge. All in a day’s work for this girl.
The book follows Ceri’s fish out of water story as Rachel desperately tries to find a way out of her deal. In the meantime, a famous musician friend and Trent Kalamack’s assistant hire Rachel as bodyguard. A new player is in town yearning for drug territory as the vamp kingpin is behind bars. Cut off the head and another grows back evil situation in the supernatural world of Cincinatti. Rachel reluctantly agrees to help Trent, which of course puts her right smack in the middle of a war she really has no time for!
Also forgot to mention, her boyfriend split town to get away from her. So she has a broken heart to deal with while her mortal soul is in peril. Good thing an incredibly hot living vampire named Kisten is keen on her. He’s been in the peripheral of the last books, but in this novel we learn a great deal more about him as Rachel attempts to resist his charms. Ivy is struggling with new found responsibility while Jenks runs away over a big lie from Rachel. The dynamic in the church is in flux and the stakes continue to be raised each chapter. Will Rachel outsmart the demon? Before Trent K gets her killed? Will Jenks come back to the firm? And will Rachel let her demon mark with vamp saliva push her into the arms of Kisten? I found this book to be my favorite thus far. Lots of action, lust and danger amok.
Read my previous reviews of the Hollows series on my blog.