The Devil's Playground: Number 5 in series (Morgan Kingsley, #5) (Morgan Kingsley Exorcist)

by Jenna Black

No one ever wants to serve in Hell...The Seven Deadlies, a demon club in Philadelphia, has always catered to the most attractive and desirable hosts. Recently, though, more and more of the lower dregs of society have been showing up with demons of their own - in alarming numbers. Morgan is sure that Dougal is behind this, but isn't sure why. Is Dougal building an army to snatch the throne of the demons from Lugh? If there's one person who can get to the bottom of this, it's Morgan Kingsley, but caught between her mortal lover Brian and the demon she lusts for, Lugh, it's going to take everything she has to keep her head - and heart - in the game.

• ISBN10: 0749940166
• ISBN13: 9780749940164
• Publish Date: 1 April 2010 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 11 February 2014
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Piatkus Books
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Melanie]

Review originally posted at BooksOfMyHeart.net.

This is the fifth, and last book, in the Morgan Kingsley, urban fantasy series. This is a series you must read in order. Each book builds on the previous story, so you would be pretty lost if you started the series here.

If you’re not familiar with this series, which is set in Philadelphia, demons exist and possess people to walk the Mortal Plain. By human law, demons are only allowed to possess willing humans. If that demon is found to possess someone against their will or injure a human in an act of violence of any kind, they are exorcised (which humans believe kill the demon, but actually, only being burned alive in a human can kill them. Exorcism just sends them back to the Demon Plain). Morgan is one of those exorcists. She comes in when the government orders an exorcism. If she performs an exorcism without a court order, she would be up for murder.

Throughout the series, Morgan, who has never been a fan of demons, finds herself working with demons as she tries to protect Lugh, the demon king trapped on the Mortal Plain. Lugh’s brother Dugal wants to take over the throne. Morgan finds herself with many death threats throughout the series. We see how she struggles with many different things, from her relationship with her boyfriend, Brian to dealing with her estranged family.

This has been a really fun series with action, adventure, drama, and romance. I love the characters in this story. They are widely diverse in the personalities. Ms. Black really kept me on my toes with these characters. You never really knew what what going to happen next.

Now, I know I didn’t say much about The Devil’s Playground in particular. That is because I can’t say much without spoiling the entire series for you. I’ll just say that this book does wrap up the series really well, though the first time I read the series, I really hoped we would get more. If you’re looking for a gritty urban fantasy series, this is a good one. And, with only five books, it is one you can get through fairly quickly (when compared to some of those double digit series out there. I know those can be daunting, even though I love them too.)