This is my first Moira Rogers story. I've seen the name on other blogs but I had never tried anything from this writing duo before. And maybe that's why I had such a hard time coming up with a two line description of the book/series. And then I realized the simplest thing to do would be to borrow the description from Moira Rogers' webpage about the series:
In a post-apocalyptic future, humanity’s survivors must fight both the demons who destroyed the world they knew and their own leaders, who only envision a bright future for a privileged few...The genre is a bit of a mash-up, combining paranormal romance with dystopian and post-apocalyptic themes and enough virtual reality to skate toward cyberpunk.
How's that for a summary?
What I liked the most about this novella is the world. It's not as fleshed out as I would like and I definitely have questions about a lot of the mythology but what I do know is that it's a very cool world. I wouldn't want to live in it but reading about it is pretty awesome. It's dark, it's post-apocalyptic, it's got a nice blend of tech and magic, and it's got endless possibilities. What's not to love? It's very much a throw-you-in-and-hope-you-can-swim introduction to the world, though, since there's not a lot of exposition.
The authors state that DEMON BAIT is more of a prequel novella that Samhain has published as Book #1 in the series and so I'm curious if I would have had a better experience if I had read HAMMER DOWN first. I think a lot of my worldbuilding questions would have been answered with a longer page count but I haven't bought HAMMER DOWN just yet so I'm not entirely certain.
In terms of character, I liked both Marci and Gabe. They're both good characters but I wasn't particularly attached to either of them. I was interested in the outcome -- I wanted them both to succeed -- but I wasn't as emotionally invested as I would have liked. The authors do a good job of giving Marci and Gabe layers and history but I found myself reading to learn more about the world that these two live in, not their HEA. It's not a big enough disconnect that I was put off the novella, and I'm still looking forward to trying HAMMER DOWN, but I wasn't sucked into their romance the way that I had hoped. Maybe it's a question of expectations? I've heard great things about their books so perhaps I was looking for too much in DEMON BAIT.
If Rogers is a new-to-you author, I'd definitely suggest reading the excerpt linked below to get your feet wet. I hope you'll enjoy what you see! I'll report back when I've had a chance to read HAMMER DOWN -- hopefully my expectations will be met in a full-length novel. And if you're a fan, please let me know if this is a typical story for them, or if there are other titles I should pick up to get a better feel for their writing style.
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