Z (1001 Dark Nights)

by Larissa Ione

[Melanie]

Review originally posted at RabidReads.com.

3.5 stars

This novella is set in the world built by Larissa Ione that starts of in the Demonica series and continues in the spin off series, Lords of Deliverance. You can read this novella as a stand alone novella if you want to dip your toe into the world. I do love the world that Ms. Ione has built. Demonica starts off with demon brothers that run a hospital. Each one finds their mate and they find out they have more siblings too. Then Lords of Deliverance is about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The characters are a ton of fun.

In this book, we don’t get to see many of the characters from the main series. Really there is only Azagoth and his mate and Revenant. I do love both of these characters and was happy to spend time with them again. I love how Ms. Ione was able to make the leaders of Hell be so evil, but yet loveable at the same time.

Zhubaal is a fallen angel and Azagoth’s right hand. He has spent all of his free time searching for the love of his life who feel before him. She died, but he wants to find her reincarnated soul. When he bonded with her, he felt it was for life, eternal life.

Vex is a emim, daughter of two fallen angels. She isn’t well liked among the others around Sheoul. She also has the ability to suck souls into herself after they are killed. There was a great market for demon souls, that is until Revenant put a stop to it. Now Vex has nowhere to go to get rid of these souls inside of her, but to Azagoth.

This is not my favorite of the novellas in the Demonica world. I thought Zhubaal’s obsession with his ex, Laura was very hurtful to Vex. I know that she felt used. Some of the things that are said would’ve made me walk away and never look back. He was wanting her to be someone she wasn’t and I know that I’m not willing to do that. Vex wasn’t either, but it took a bit.

I pretty much saw how this was all going to work out from the get go. I also figured out the whole ex-girlfriend thing from the beginning. That didn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy learning more about these two characters. I loved Vex. I thought she was a strong character with everything going against her and she stayed strong. I like how she stood up to Zhubaal’s treatment of her. There was a twist I didn’t see coming when a particular demon soul in Vex that Azagoth has a hard time getting out. That was a fun twist.

If you haven’t tried this series, I highly recommend it. It is a fun series with snark, sexy alpha males, strong women, action and all the fun of a Paranormal Romance or Urban Fantasy.