REVIEW: Pale Demon by Kim Harrison

Title: Pale Demon

Author: Kim Harrison

Serie: Rachel Morgan (book 9)

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Reviewed by: Sonia

A witch, an elf and a pixy decide to make a road trip.

No, this is not the beginning of a lame joke but the beginning of a great book. And I totally loved it!

In order to have her shunning rescinded and to gain her life back, Rachel has to attend the annual witch convention in San Francisco and defend herself for using black magic. But as she soon finds out, that´s not as easy as it looks. The Coven doesn´t hesitate to use all means necessary to stop her. After she finds herself on the no-fly list, Rachel is forced to accept Trent´s offer to ride with him through the continent. Trent has 3 days to complete a mysterious elf quest that he doesn´t wanna speak of and needs Rachel to protect him. And so the journey begins.

Chased by elven assassins trying to stop Trent and by the Coven trying to stop Rachel, every mile becomes a fight for their lives. As if the trail of dead bodies, wrecked cars and destroyed national monuments left behind was not enough, something unimaginable happens – a demon able to walk in the sun. And this time it was not Rachel who releases him, but Trent himself.

Ku´Sox was an ancient attempt of the demons to fight the elves. Created by genetic manipulation and demon magic, he had become so dangerous for every race that the demons were forced to use all their collective sources to stop him. And now he is released again and destroying everything.

I loved this book. It was the perfect combination of action-packed scenes and character development. Rachel starts to see the other side of Trent. In fact she is attracted to him more and more. Could he really be more than the politician, more than the powerful biodrug lord, more than a man not hesitating to kill in order to gain what he wants? Dare she trust him with her life? Risk everything – her home, her friends, her entire existence if she chooses wrong? And in the end, her final fate lays in his hands. But this time, nothing will be the same again.

This book was a roller coaster, not giving us a moment to catch our breathe. We see Rachel fighting the wild, dangerous and uncontrollable elven magic in order to save Trent´s life, trying to clear her name in the process and yet failing because of a person close to her and in the end she is forced not only to accept her true origin but fight hard to prove it. Rachel finally sees that nothing is black or white, in fact it never has been.

I loved that we could see more of the life in the ever-after and especially more about her demon teacher Al. We see his weaknesses and we see his loyalty to Rachel. It might be twisted and wicked, but it is loyalty nonetheless. To my greatest pleasure, Rachel also realizes that she and Pierce can never be together, that he will never accept her for what she really is. I never liked him anyway :-)

In the end, Trent gives Rachel the biggest gift – a possibility to choose her own path, without being forced to any direction. And she did choose. I might not like her choice but she deserved the chance. And knowing her habit of always getting into trouble, I have a feeling that the peace will not last long :-) And that´s what we all love about this serie!

MY RATING: *****