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.

Personal Demons (Personal Demons #1) by Lisa Desrochers

Title: Personal Demons

Author: Lisa Desrochers

Series: 1st in planned series

Pages: 364

Published: September 2010 by Tor Teen

ISBN:  9780765328083

Source: Star Book Tours

Description: Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She's spent years keeping everyone at a distance—even her closest friends—and it seems her senior year will be more of the same...until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can't seem to stay away from him. What she doesn't know is that Luc works in Acquisitions—for Hell—and she possesses a unique skill set that has the King of Hell tingling with anticipation. All Luc has to do is get her to sin, and he’s as tempting as they come. Frannie doesn’t stand a chance. Unfortunately for Luc, Heaven has other plans, and the angel, Gabe, is going to do whatever it takes to make sure that Luc doesn’t get what he came for. And it isn't long before they find themselves fighting for more than just her soul.  But if Luc fails, there will be Hell to pay…for all of them.

I Give This ...

I really wasn't sure about this book for the first time I saw.  Intrigue got the best of me, and I decided to give it a shot.  In the end, I still have mixed feelings for it.

I hate to say that it didn't start out strong.  I carried nothing for Frannie and half the story is told from her point of view.  100 pages into it, and really considered moving on to something else.  But, it got the best of me and really had to know why Heaven and Hell wanted her so badly.  She grew on me a little by the end.  Her powers are especially interesting.  So is her desire to not let Heaven or Hell dictate how she's going to live her life.   

I did like Luc and Gabe.  Although, I don't feel we get to know Gabe as well as we should.  I'm hoping the next book is partially from his point of view.  He character definately has some draw to it.  Which brings us back to Luc.  He sure doesn't act like a demon for most of this story.  It's like he's draw to Frannie from the start and can't complete his mission.  Which leads me to believe that some serious mistakes were made if Hell wanted her that badly.  His characters changes were very sweet.  It's the ultimate girls dreams of reforming the perpetual bad guy.

So, yeah it was a little bit strange to read a book I really didn't like in the beginning.  But, I feel for it in the end.   It wasn't enough to give it 4 butterflies though.  I have to see what the rest of the series has in store for us!