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    Personal Demon
    Personal Demon
    Personal Demon
    Audiobook12 hours

    Personal Demon

    Written by Kelley Armstrong

    Narrated by Laural Merlington and Todd McLaren

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In her acclaimed Women of the Otherworld series, Kelley Armstrong has created a scintillating realm where the supernatural and the human coexist on the edge of darkness, romance, and eternity. Personal Demon, the eighth Otherworld book, is another wickedly entertaining tale of a young woman with an insatiable lust for danger. She can't help it; it's in her blood.

    Tabloid reporter Hope Adams appears to live the life of an ordinary working girl. But, in addition to possessing the beauty of a Bollywood princess, Hope has other unique traits. For she is a half-demon-a human fathered by a demon. And she has inherited not only a gift for seeing the past but a hunger for chaos-along with a talent for finding it wherever she can. Naturally, when she's chosen by a very dangerous group for a very dangerous mission, she jumps at the chance.

    The head of the powerful Cortez Cabal-a family that makes the mob look like amateurs-has a little problem in Miami: a gang of wealthy, bored offspring of supernaturals is getting out of hand, and Hope is needed to infiltrate. As spells, astral projections, and pheromones soar across South Beach, Hope weaves her way through its elite hot spots, posing as upscale eye candy and reading the auras of the clientele-and potential marks.

    As it turns out, Hope is a little too good at this job, and soon she's in a little too deep, needing to be bailed out by her jewel-thief werewolf ex-boyfriend and by the Cortez heir himself. And when a killer goes to work, Hope is among many targets at the pinnacle of Cabal rule. For a woman who didn't know what she was getting into, there's only one way out: it's time for Hope to unleash her most potent primal instincts-and open herself, mind and body, to everything she most fears...and desires.

    Sexy and suspenseful, Personal Demon is a thrill ride through a world on the wild side of our own.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 8, 2008
    ISBN9781400175512
    Personal Demon
    Author

    Kelley Armstrong

    When librarians finally granted Kelley Armstrong an adult card, she made straight for the epic fantasy and horror shelves. She spent the rest of her childhood and teen years happily roaming fantastical and terrible worlds, and vowed that someday she'd write a story combining swords, sorcery, and the ravenous undead. That story began with the New York Times bestselling Sea of Shadows and continues with Empire of Night. Armstrong's first works for teens were the New York Times bestselling Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising trilogies. She lives in rural Ontario with her husband, three children, and far too many pets.

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    Reviews for Personal Demon

    4/5

    581 ratings37 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This book centers around Hope Adams, a chaos demon. She feeds off the chaos that surrounds people and situations. She's got it all under control until she's offered a job with a cartel to infiltrate a rouge gang of supernaturals who are putting everyone at risk. It's a very good book with an ending you'll never see coming.
    • 4/5
      An exciting addition to the Women of the Otherworld series with plot twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. The dual first person narrators, a new technique for Armstrong, work well in order to keep the suspense going. I also can't complain about the fact that my favorite character got to share the narration.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book as much as I loved the others. Twists and turns and excitement. Keep up the good work Kelley looking forward to the next one in the series.
    • 2/5
      For whatever reason I could not get into this entry in the Women of the Otherworld series. I could not connect with Hope as a narrator. So I am putting it aside and moving forward with the series. I actually started the series with Waking the Witch and Spellbound so I am playing catch up sort of. Hopefully skipping this one won't leave too many holes in the overall storyline for me.
    • 5/5
      This is the 8th book in the ‘Women of the Otherworld” series, and is a blast. I greatly enjoyed reading it. Unlike some series, where the author tries to throw a little bit of each of the previous characters into every book, this one doesn’t have unneeded mention of characters that aren’t involved. Yes, there are nods to previous books and prior characters make an appearance when it makes sense. But it does make sense.This particular book is the first in the series that has two narrators. Every previous book has been told from the first-person point-of-view from the female protagonist. This one also has a male first-person POV (and not the gal’s love interest) that was included because there were some elements to the story that can’t be told from her eyes. She would have no way of seeing some of the things that happen; instead of telling them second-hand, or fabricating a reason for her to be present, Kelley used dual-narration. I really like it. I think the narrating style works well. The story told by Hope (the gal) is truly only half the story; adding Lucas’ half really makes the book.I don’t know that I would call this book my favorite in the series. Hope is not my favorite of the characters (though not my least favorite either) and so the book’s not quite the same as the books where I really connect with the narrators. Lucas, however, is a favorite, and so I love his sections. Even without this being my favorite, however, Personal Demon does make the short list of my favorite books from the past couple of years.
    • 5/5
      Kelley Armstrong is a progeny when it comes to supernatural writing. Her books leave you breathless with their racy romances, the constant struggles, and the exciting stories. She does all of this effortlessly and you have no choice but to plummet without stumbling straight into her world. She has created such a strong presence in all of her characters that everything about them makes them seem real! You get so caught up in their stories that you feel you are a part of them. I cannot say enough good things about Kelley!
    • 3/5
      Hope Adams's demon heritage has given her the ability to sense the supernatural--and a disturbing taste for chaos and darkness. Being a kind and compassionate person is particularly hard for her, when the greater the cruelty, the greater the high she gets from it. To pay off a debt to the Cortez Cabal, she agrees to infiltrate a supernatural gang in Miami. But she begins to find being on the wrong side of the law a little too exhilarating...Will she be able to pull back from the lure of chaos-highs, or will she give in to her demonic heritage?

      This book would have been a hundred times better without the interference of Karl, Hope's former partner and lover. He is snarly, domineering, thirty years older than her, and completely emotionally unavailable. So of course, he's her love interest. I disliked him and I really disliked that she put up with him. In the short story that introduced these two characters, they had banter and sexual tension. In the novel, there's no banter and no sexual tension--just intermittent hook ups and constant power plays from Karl. Ugh!

      The non-romantic plot in the novel is much better. It focuses on Lucas Cortez, who works with Paige Winterbourne to create a grass-roots, community-driven alternative to the Cabals. Most paranormal romance books have some sort of ancient organization that secretly rules the world: vampire councils, Hunters, that sort of thing. The Cabals fill that same role, of an organization both keeping supernaturals safe and secret and using their powers for their own less-than-innocent ends. But unlike most authors, Armstrong doesn't use the Cabals as short-hand for a shadowy villain. As self-serving and controlling as they are, the Cabals have shaped the supernatural world for centuries, and simply destroying them would lead to an even worse situation. Each novel in this series has explored the power structures of the supernatural world a little further, and it seems like matters are coming to a crisis point. I'm very interested to see what happens next.
    • 5/5
      It's not a secret that I'm a Kelley Armstrong fan, so it's perhaps not a surprise that I picked this up and read it as soon as I could when it came out. I was pretty happy with the results, but it's not perfect.Here, we have two narrators: Hope, a half-demon who's got a hunger for chaos, and also Lucas, the sorceror first in Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic. The latter definitely has his own voice, and it shows in his narration. The former, unfortunately, I felt seems pretty close to some of the previous narrators in the series. She's definitely different in terms of her power set, so it's not like a direct overlap, but it does feel not as far off as I'd like.Still, I like the writing style on the whole, you get some characters you like back, and some new ones. And the plot is very solid: twisty, but in ways that work well and tie into the rest of the series. Hope infiltrates a gang that might have pretentions to taking on a Cabal, and both the parts with the gang and the fallout once all the schemes are working goes quite well. It was engrossing; I tore through the book in a couple of days, basically.I'm mostly dinging it for the character similiarities, but everything else here is good, and I like it better than the previous book in the series, which is a good sign. If you like her, you'll like this one, too.
    • 2/5
      So I can't get into this book, I know we were introduced to Hope and Karl before but they aren't charterers I really care about I think this and the next book I'm going to skip
    • 4/5
      I wasn't sure I'd like Hope at the beginning. I didn't know what to make of her, I didn't want to read about another super-powerful demon, I was worried she'd be either too powerful or the thing that hindered her power would be too crippling. I ended up liking her. She's, well, normal, or as normal as you can be as a half-Chaos demon, tabloid reporter, former debutante. The drawback to her powers is that she likes the feelings of chaos, harm, death, and she doesn't like that she likes it. Instead of turning that into some moral tale, Hope has to learn how to live with it, enjoying what she can despite her ethics, while still keeping in control and not causing the chaos she desires.

      I also liked Hope working for the Cortez Cabal. I like Benicio Cortez. Okay, fine, he's a sorcerer but I like him. I don't like Karl and his wolfness being all possessive. (Least favorite werewolf trope? Close to it.) In many ways, I liked the supernatural gang. I could understand why they sought shelter with each other and fought against the cabals; they don't have much choice in their lives.

      I was so bummed about Jaz being the bad guy. I liked Hope having fun with him, with this guy who laughed and wanted to have fun. I liked her relaxing and just letting it be. She may be a supernatural, but she's young and she deserves fun. Jaz was fun.

      One thing I wish was different was her name. Hope is Indian and there's a thing about how her name doesn't reflect it even though her looks do, but I wanted her race to be just sort of matter of factly there. This might be me wanting this to reflect my friends of Indian descent and their names, but it also seems it would be easier to not have people constantly comment on her name and ethnicity not going hand in hand.
    • 3/5
      Pretty good. I was more interested in Lucas than Hope. I liked the male reader's voice better. I figured out what Karl's problem was faster than Hope did. I found my self thinking they couldn't kill Paige off so one of the late surprises didn't really surprise me.
    • 3/5
      Audio- Good story, pivotal in the development of the series, so it is not to be missed. I just did not like the heroine Hope, the half demon. She doesn't believe in herself she can't control her tastes and she's quick to be seduced. Her love interest Karl saved the story for me, he is likable . There is a lot of death in this edition to the series and the future is changing for the Kabal.
    • 3/5
      I started reading the "women of the otherworld" and am totally hooked on the series. Interesting "supernatural" characters who mingle their normal human side with the trial and tribulations of being supernatural. Every book so far has focused on a different "supernatural" with recurring characters. Love them.
    • 4/5
      It took me forever to really get sucked into this story, but once Karl showed up the story really started moving and I finished the book in a day! This book was a game changer and I can't wait to find out what happens next!
    • 4/5
      This is definitely a must read for anyone who enjoys this series. It is quite different from Kelley Armstrong’s earlier books because instead of having just one female narrator we have one female, Hope Adams (chaos half-demon) and one male Lucas Cortez (sorceror and reluctant heir to the Cortez Cabal). I did wonder why we needed to see Lucas’s side of things right up until a major plot development which will leave both him and Paige with a lot to worry about in future books.

      Most readers probably won’t know who Hope is, though she is briefly mentioned in Broken. She has her own short story in the anthology ‘Dates From Hell’ so I would advise people to read this before reading Personal Demon.

      This book brings a few of the series’ minor characters to the front of the stage and in doing so we get to learn a little more about Pack history and a little more on what it’s like to work for a cabal.

      As for Hope, I didn’t really connect with her though I did feel sorry for her having to struggle with her ability to not only detect chaos but to feed off it as well. This made her feel guilty, getting a thrill out of something bad. I was more interested in Karl Marsten, werewolf thief; Troy, personal bodyguard to the head of the Cortez Cabal and the Cortez family itself.

      Overall, its a good read with death and conspiracy popping up everywhere you look. I'm looking forward to reading about what happens next for Lucas and the Cortez family.
    • 3/5
      I'm glad the book doesn't focus on Hope alone. There is a good bit of Paige and Lucas in there.
    • 4/5
      A nice introduction to the series -- even if I am starting in the middle. Strong female characters, complex supernatural conventions, humans stupid and in the dark as usual.
    • 4/5
      An audio reread - I love this series of bks, and while Hope isn't my favorite of the women of the otherworld, her story is exciting and creepy.
    • 4/5
      Another gripping read featuring many well-liked characters. You get more of Hope Adams, who is an interesting character we'd not really known enough about before; and plenty of Lucas and Paige. Particularly glad to see plenty of the jewel thief Karl Marsden.
    • 2/5
      The first of this series I didn't care much for. I didn't really much like Hope, I found her self pity annoying and her motivations were off. I did like Lucas's role however and how he was forced to deal with his father and brothers - it will be interesting to see how that develops in future novels.
    • 5/5
      Kelley Armstrong is a progeny when it comes to supernatural writing. Her books leave you breathless with their racy romances, the constant struggles, and the exciting stories. She does all of this effortlessly and you have no choice but to plummet without stumbling straight into her world. She has created such a strong presence in all of her characters that everything about them makes them seem real! You get so caught up in their stories that you feel you are a part of them. I cannot say enough good things about Kelley!
    • 2/5
      Not my favorite of the series so far. For some reason I just don't really care for Hope that much.
    • 5/5
      I enjoy Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series and snatch them up as they appear. Part of what makes this series different is that the books are from different perspectives--almost always female and written in first person. This is the first to change that formula, bringing in a second point of view--a male one, Lucas, one of my favorite Armstrong characters who appeared in Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic. (Which means that Paige is featured here, which always is going to kick up these books a notch for me.)Earlier books featured a female werewolf, a witch, an angel, and a necromancer. Now in this book we have as protagonist and main point of view character, Hope Adams, a half-demon. I think of all of Armstrong's heroines, Adams is in the most precarious situation as she struggles with that demonic part of her, to use it without letting it use her. That lends a very palpable tension to the books featuring her, both Personal Demon and the next book in the series, Living With the Dead. This book is a fun and engrossing read for those that like urban fantasy, especially laced with mystery, suspense, and romance.
    • 5/5
      This is actually my favorite book in the series. I can certainly understand some of the other reviewers distaste for the Hope and Karl relationship, but that's part of the reason why I love it. They certainly aren't the kind of pairing that generally permeates paranormal romance and that adds a layer of complexity that I really appreciate. As the title suggests, Hope brings in a level of internal conflict that had been missing since Bitten. I didn't even realize it was missing until reading Personal Demon, but when I found it, I knew exactly what it was. That internal conflict along with the action, intelligence and sexually charged scenes (wow!) made putting the book down nearly unbearable.
    • 2/5
      This one was just o.k. I usually read books again if they are really good but this one is not on that list.
    • 4/5
      Hope Adams is a rare kind of half demon called an Expisco. She has none of the demonic superpowers, but has a love of chaos and can sense it. This includes hearing peoples chaotic thoughts and being able to sense where violent acts have taken place. She is working on fine tuning her talents, but first she must pay back a debt to Cabal leader Benicio Cortz. Her and her sometime werewolf lover Karl Marsden had their lives saved by Benicio and they long for the debt to be paid so they can continue their lives.Benicio turns out unexpectedly to talk to Hope whie Karl is in Europe. He has a plan for her to infiltrate a local supernatural gang who are taking more risks than they should. He wants her to go undercover and keep tabs on their plans and actions with a fake identity. She agrees as long as Lucas and Paige from the Council are in on the plan and can monitor her from a distance. After passing an initiation test she is welcomed into the group and soon starts getting sucked in to the chaos surrounding the group, particularly the handsome Jaz. Things become complicated when Karl hears about what is going on and returns to find Hope on the lap of Jaz. A string of important murders also starts and it is up to Hope, Karl, Paige and Lucas to find out who the killers are and capture them before more supernaturals die.This was fast paced and intense with some sexy bits thrown in for good measure. An excellent addition to one of the best urban fantasy series around at the moment. I love Armstrongs characters, her protagonists change from book to book keeping the stories fresh and exciting. Hope is a fairly new character appaering in No Humans Involved and her back story is introduced in short story Chaotic which is included in the Dates from Hell Anthology. I am really looking forward to reading the next in the series, Living with the Dead.
    • 4/5
      Eighth in Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. The main character in this book is Hope Adams. Adams is a debutante with the exotic looks of her Indian mother. She learns as a young woman that she is a half-demon, and her power is detecting and feeding off of chaos (strong emotions). Not knowing how she was reading strong thoughts and being drawn to them earned her some time in a mental institution. Now she feeds the chaos as a tabloid reporter chasing down alien abduction stories and working for the interracial council of the supernatural races. She accepts an assignment that takes her to Miami to go undercover into a gang that wants to challenge the cabals. She is greatly attracted to one of the young gang members, Jaz, while still trying to deal with her strong feelings for the werewolf Karl.After reading so many books in this terrific series, I've decided Armstrong should take as her motto, "Writing rationally about the irrational". Her plots are well thought out, and so are her characters, who mostly behave like, well, rational adults. They plan things out, yet act when they must, using all their intelligence, talents, and more. The supernatural characters all have powers, and there are consequences to those powers that are often difficult to deal with, and that shape the characters and their destinies. The purpose of all creative writing, in my mind, is to define what it means to be human and explore its limits and strengths. Armstrong does this well in her series by showing the limits of power, and the choices that power forces on us. And along the way she is darned entertaining. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      I found this book almost un-put-downable.It's not incredibly fast-paced, but it's gripping and fun. Hope is recruited by Benicio Cortes to investigate a gang in Miami, his home turf. All seems to be going well, and she meets someone she falls for at first sight, helping her try and forget Karl.Of course things go funny when Karl finds out about the deal and flies back to try and sort it all out and talk Hope out of it. She doesn't go, and things are strained between them.They resolve their differences in an odd way - investigating the disappearance of the man Hope fancies in fact.The plot thickens when members of the gang are kidnapped and then shot, and still more when there is an attack on Benicio and all three of his Miami-based sons. With some luck, some forethought, some simply being hard they manage to unravel the plot just in time, although they are far from all living happily ever after - and things for Lucas and Paige as well as Karl and Hope are looking like they might be trickier (as well as happier in the latter pair's case) in the books to come.
    • 4/5
      An exciting addition to the Women of the Otherworld series with plot twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. The dual first person narrators, a new technique for Armstrong, work well in order to keep the suspense going. I also can't complain about the fact that my favorite character got to share the narration.
    • 4/5
      Hope Adams, has to return her favors recieved. Benetio Cortez, does not let favors go unreturned. Although, the to return this favor may be her undoing. Little does Hope know she will not be returning this favor alone, but will she be able to accept her partner.