I received this book for free from the library in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the library
Green-Eyed Demon
by
Jaye Wells
urban fantasy in a paperback edition that was published by Orbit on March 1, 2011 and has 376 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Red-Headed Stepchild, The Mage in Black, Silver-Tongued Devil, Blue-Blooded Vamp
Third in the Sabina Kane urban fantasy series revolving around a half-mage, half-vampire twin who needs to learn to stop being so dang selfish. Most of the action occurs in New Orleans.
My Take
Drama queen, oh, yeah, she’s a drama queen. Wells has Sabina making the stupidest decisions just to create drama and tension and all it did was piss me off. Can you tell Sabina is really irritating me? At times, I think I was rooting for the bad guys to take her out and put her out of my misery. I mean, she wants to kidnap one of the Dominae ruling council, and she’s got one. WHAT is the problem??? Sabina is definitely one of those characters who is better off just pointing and shooting, ’cause, for sure Sabina cannot think on her feet. She hasn’t a clue about diplomacy or discovering the facts before pullin’ a trigger.
Mostly we suffer through Sabina’s stupidity. She acts as though she’s the only one who wants Maisie back when she only met her a short time ago, completely ignoring the fact that Adam, Rhea, and Orpheus love Maisie and have known her their entire lives. Sabina is the most selfish, self-centered, unthinking bitch! I kinda wonder why Adam doesn’t carry around handcuffs and a gag. And what’s with the big fight at the end? Sabina goes on and on about how well trained she is, then she hesitates in the fighting when quick decisions are needed. Even her big revelation at the end is too little, too late for me. I mean, duhhhh, she’s just now figuring out how her grandmother manipulated her?
I suspect that Sabina’s mission statement in life is:
[Do] let your pride cause more problems than we need right now.
For all the whining Sabina does about no one doing anything to save Maisie, she sure doesn’t want to put herself out there. Zen’s willing to help in spite of Sabina’s attitude and when they get to the graveyard to work the spell and Zen needs a body dug up, Sabina whines on and on about “how come she has to do the hard stuff”. Hullo. She doesn’t pass on everything she learns. She insists on doing everything herself but then whines because no one is helping.
You go, Erron! I just love that he put Sabina down! Oh, yeah! He tells her the story of who the real power is behind the Caste of Nod, and all Sabina does is laugh at him. She doesn’t want to hear it, therefore, it isn’t true. Humph. Oh, please, let me smack her around a few times! At least let me use the “delete” key!!
What’s with the stupid timing decision on Maeve’s part? Which part of summoning Cain before midnight did she miss?
Okay, I’m giving her points for a creative story, but Sabina is just dragging it down.
The Story
Maisie’s been kidnapped by Lavinia, and Sabina reckons she can get her back by kidnapping Persephone — the ol’ hostage exchange. Naturally, it can’t go that easily. Ending up with a hostage who can’t wait to ally with them is not what Sabina had in mind – The fact that it’s a practical move for the mage side seems to be escaping the twit!
Ol’ Queen Maeve has other ideas on how to use her new hostage as well as other ideas on what’s important in New Orleans where Lavinia has imprisoned Maisie. Ideas that don’t please our persnickety Sabina. Then Sabina, Adam, and Gigi do their best to search New Orleans between battles with various members of the Caste of Nod, Zen’s raising of the dead, and Sabina’s pissing off all their allies.
It’s the timing on the Caste of Nod summoning Master Mahan that triggers everything. The big battle and Sabina discovering just what Chthonic powers can do.
The Characters
Sabina Kane, a.k.a., Red, is a half-vampire, half mage who spent her entire life trying desperately to please her grandmother, Lavinia Kane, the Alpha of the Dominae. Persephone and Tanith Severinus are her co-rulers. Giguhl/Gigi is a fifth-level Mischief demon. Sent to test Sabina; now he’s staying to help. David‘s ghost shows up (see Red-Headed Stepchild) and, naturally, Sabina whines at him.
Adam Lazarus is a mage originally sent by the mage side of Sabina’s family to bring Sabina back to New York to meet the twin sister she didn’t know she had. Rhea is Adam’s aunt and has been trying to teach Sabina about her mage half.
Orpheus is the leader of the mages. After the attack in Mage in Black, he’s scrambling for an alliance with Queen Maeve [of the fairies] and, oh man, she is just lovin’ handin’ out all that crow and throwing her weight around. Maisie is considered one of the mages; she’s also their Oracle and the mages are rather desperate to get her back — not that Sabina notices or anything.
The Caste of Nod is…
…an organization that includes “members of all the dark races”. Anti-Sabina because she is prophesied as uniting all the dark races, they would prefer that the races fight hard enough among themselves that it encourages the second coming of Lilith. Yep, granny is one of them. Stryx is a white owl we recently learned was a spy. Master Mahan seems to the be leader of the Caste of Nod with some very daunting skills. Alodius Thibodeaux is a vamp-friendly butcher who keeps Sabina supplied with milk jugs of fresh blood. Count Rupert and Red Sonja don’t get a chance to gloat for too long. Eurynome is an Avenger demon.
Madam Zenobia “Zen” is a voodoo practitioner in New Orleans and a friend of Rhea. Her sidekick is a cross-dressing fairy, Brooks/Pussy Willow, who sings at Mackenzie “Mac” Romulus‘s bar Lagniappe. She’s the niece of the shapeshifting leader of the New York Pack. She’s also in a relationship with Georgia, a vampire.
Erron Zorn is a recreant. A mage banished from the company of “proper” mages. He’s also the lead singer for a shock rock band called Necrospank. Our fearless trio encounter him after some bad info sends them peeking in his windows at his little Le Cirque du Freak’n’Fuck. The only other mage band member is the drummer Ziggy.
The Cover and Title
The cover is green, black, and white: a shades of green background with a flare of smoky white highlighting half of a red-and-black hair-streaked Sabina all dressed up in a black knit tank top as her body faces us but her eyes look toward the floor, a gun held in her right hand and pointed up to the ceiling.
I’m guessing the title, Green-Eyed Demon, is a reference to Eurynome.
