Pandora is a 5,000
year old Nephilim, a person whose daddy was an angel who did things he shouldn’t
with a mortal woman. Along with some powers and a long life span, this also
comes with a demon resting inside of her – Lust. And Lust must be placated and
fed. It’s quite annoying.
But she gets by, she and her small group of Nephilim,
trying to the best people that demons can be. Not a little encouraged by
mortals who monitor and police the supernatural
But things are getting odd, vampires (nasty, demon
created things) are swarming in surprising numbers for creatures near extinct; a
Nephilim hunter bothers Pandora but seems disinclined to hunt, and powers
unlike anything she’s seen in 5,000 years are involved.
This book was a perfect first book right until the very
end. The characters were excellently introduced along with a little information
about each of them to give an idea of them without having to derail the main
introduction, while at the same time giving a little bit of world building with
each one. So we know things like Luc and Pandora’s past that colours their
relationship without having to spend a long time on the backstory – while at the
same time telling us about Nephilim losing control and going feral. We have a
little information about Bubba while at the same time telling us about some of
the awful things Nephilim are forced to do for their demons, how they, as a
group, try to remain good. We have a little background on Vyxyn and how she
doesn’t get on with Pandora – telling us that the group is somewhat forced
together and leading nicely in to the Order of Light, the war and the policing
of supernaturals.
It’s a really elegant way of including a lot of backstory, interspaced with Pandora’s internal musings and recaps that are very lightly info-dumped, to get a maximum amount of world building, character development and backstory in place with minimal info-dumping and making the whole plot run smoothly.
The plot itself is excellently paced – enough mystery and
revelation, enough character development sprinkled with bits of action; shadows
of a love triangle but it never developed into one and Pandora firmly in
control of what she will and will not tolerate even with various forces pushing
against her. It was a fun read with a lot of unknowns – unknowns that continue
to be unknown at the end of the book as well – to leave me hooked in for the next
book coupled with a whole lot of ominous foreshadowing and some excellently
balanced description keeping everything vivid, but moving. We have a really
nicely new world – the Nephilim are children of angels (who fell for being
naughty and lusting) with their own vice demons possessing them. I like how it
links vampires, zombies and other miscellaneous supernaturals back to this
original Nephilim presence – creating a very potentially diverse world but
still keeping the backstory focused and relevant.
