Review: Original Sin (Personal Demons #2) by Lisa Desrochers

Title: Original Sin

Author: Lisa Desrochers

Series: 2nd in Personal Demons

Pages: 400

Published: July 5, 2012 by Tor Teen

ISBN: 9780765328090

Source: ARC from Around The World Tours

Description: When secrets and old histories come to light, Frannie realizes that nobody is who she thought they were. Hell won’t give up and Heaven won’t give in. Some are willing to hurt anyone close to Frannie in order to get what they want. It will take everything she has and then some to stay out of Hell's grasp. And not everyone will get out of it alive.

I Give This ...

 

There's a lot that happens in this book.  It's a lot to process, but in the end I really enjoyed this book.  

The fact that Luc is now human doesn't please everyone.  Hell is bound and determined to figure out how he did it.  In fact most of the book is concerning Hell trying to reverse Luc's tag so they can drag him back to hell for punishment.  And they really will stop and nothing to get that done.  And the demons are much worse in this book than in the first.  I actually really enjoyed the havoc Luc causes for hell.  It's an interesting twist that I'm sure he wasn't intending.  I'll be curious to see how the plays out in future books. 

And even Frannie's new guardian angel doesn't think Luc can overcome his demon past.  His behavior is so far from what I think a guardian angel should be like.  It was sad to watch him become what he does by the end of the book. I think Gabe should have seen some of that coming.  But I don't think he sees straight when it comes to Frannie.  Gabe doesn't get near enough book time, but there are parts of that are told from his point of view.  We get a much better idea of his feelings for Frannie and what the consequence would be if he were to act on them.  It's not small price to pay and I understand why he tries to distance himself from her..."Lead us not into temptation" fits it perfectly.

I liked Frannie quite a bit more in this one.  She seems more adult and is coming to terms with what has happened so far.  When Hell pinpoints that she's the one that turned Luc mortal, they really start to reverse her tag as well.  The demons, etc do a really good job of isolating Frannie from everyone.  They use all those human emotions that don't bring out the best of us and use them against her.  There's a lot of anger, distrust, and vengeance in this book.  There's also quite a bit of sex.  I don't mind that in young adult books, but I found in this one it was different.  There's one scene that I would dang near classify as rape.  It's one way the demons are using to tag humans for hell, so you can imagine it's not pleasant.  

I devoured this book.  It was an excellent read despite some of the sexual aspects, which is why I would recommend it for older teens.  It's possible that it could be edited before release as I've read an ARC version.  I'm still very interested in reading the next one.