Holidays Are Hell, #1
Sam Cheevers
Electric Prose Publications, Dec 2015
Ebook, 72 Pages
Only available in Digital Format
Genre(s) Paranormal Romance, Holiday, Christmas
Source purchased at current price
Other books in this series
Devil May Care, Esther Egg Hunt, Trick or Devil
My Disclaimer:
I purchased a copy of this book at the current price. I am voluntarily providing an honest review in which all opinions are fully my own. I am not being compensated in any way.
~ Judi E. Easley for Blue Cat Review
What it’s about…
The last thing Amanda Wright remembers is having a drink with a co-worker during the office Christmas party. So how did she end up here in Hell accused of killing an old man while driving her car? And why is this handsome, but irritating demon trying to help her escape her death-long sentence in Hell?
Damian Noire is supposed to be on vacation at the boiling sea. But the assembly came up with a task for him two minutes before his shift was over. So here he is trying to figure out how this virgin ended up in Hell when she has never done anything wrong. This is so not his job and he will pay for this when the assembly finds out.
Will Damian be able to gather enough evidence before he has to have Amanda in front of the assembly? Will the assembly accept all the evidence and send Amanda to Heaven where she belongs? Will Damian survive losing Amanda when she goes to Heaven?
Amanda has a card up her sleeve and a connection with a guy in white that may change things before the end.
Technical Tidbits…
The cover is colorful and Christmas-y alright. The hunk is really scruffy as you would expect a demon to be, and he is hunk-y. What is it with these books with mistletoe in the title but not on the cover? There should be some mistletoe there somewhere. Oh well…
The story line is great! It’s fun and the subject is unusual.
The characters are not too deep, but I wouldn’t expect to get too deep in a book such as this. We got what we needed to understand the characters and stay with them through the story.
The pace was fast. Really fast, but it suited the story really well. Everything was happening on a fast-forward type schedule trying to get all the evidence before they had to be in front of the assembly.
The tension was incredible. Once you picked up on Amanda’s confusion at the accident scene and then got into the argument between the angel and demon, it was tense from there on out. No let up until the end when Damion finally got his vacation at the boiling sea.
And this is where you STOP if you don’t want to see any SPOILERS…
The good, the bad, and the ugly…and how much it lit up my life… ✰✰✰✰⭒
This was super fun! Damion is disgruntled about missing out on his vacation, so he’s not in the best mood when he takes on this assignment. And when he gets topside and sees Paul, an angel, trying to get Amanda to go to Heaven, he’s not too happy either. Well, except he’s in the mood for a fight. But once he’s gotten a good look at Amanda he’s in a much better mood. She’s gorgeous, of course! And she’s so confused about what’s going on. She’s still not fully cognizant of the fact that she’s dead. She doesn’t understand about the accident. She only remembers being at the party with the office workers. She doesn’t know how she got here. So Damian has to explain what’s going on. Then he starts reading the file and listening in on things and taking a really deep look into her and things don’t add up.
Damian takes Amanda back to the office party and they listen in on what people are saying and it’s not good. Everyone is making comments about her and Paul and how she’s going to hate herself in the morning. Also how it was so not like her to do that. People were a bit worried about her for leaving with him because of his reputation with women. Amanda was puzzled about what they could be talking about. She couldn’t imagine that she and Roger could possibly be going home together to do anything like what they were referring to. Roger could only have been giving her a ride because she was too tipsy to drive. But that didn’t make sense with her accident. And why had she been crying? Roger had always been so polite and nice to her. This is one naive woman! It’s one thing to be a virgin in your 20s or even 30s, but to be so innocent that you can’t even imagine that someone would try to take advantage of you is dangerous!
This virgin is running around with a hunky demon! He’s perfectly willing to change her status! And when they get to Amanda’s apartment so that Damian can absorb the vibes of her life, Amanda decides that this is her last chance to change her status before she goes to Hell for what she did. She’s still convinced she killed the old man in the accident. So she asks Damian to make love to her! There goes her status! And, of course, Damian is more than happy to help her with that.
Then, after she’s had her status changed, and there’s no going back. Then they go to the morgue and find out the truth of the accident. The drugging. The heart attack. No fault. They stop off at the boiling sea to mull over the information and try to put everything into perspective. And that’s when the assembly loses its patience with Damian and demands their presence.
This is a fun and funny read. Damian and Amanda find humor in things and find a way to have fun together during their hunt for evidence to clear Amanda. And, of course, there is their time spent in Amanda’s apartment changing her status. Damian thoroughly enjoyed that, as did Amanda! That’s what made her change things for the ending. She and Damian were well matched. It’s a great Christmas read.
Recommended
1058 wc
a thoughtful reveal 