The Devil You Know (Morgan Kingsley, #2) (Morgan Kingsley Exorcist)

by Jenna Black

[Melanie]

Review originally posted at BooksOfMyHeart.net.

So, I’m continuing my reread of Jenna Black’s Morgan Kingsley series. She lives in a world where people willingly allow a demon to possess them to make them heal faster and become stronger. There are some who even worship these demons like gods and feel it is an honor to sacrifice your life, so the demon can walk this earth. See, when you’re possessed by a demon, you become a passenger in your own body.

Morgan is an exorcist. She has never liked the idea of demon possession, no matter how much her parents tried to convince her to take a demon. Morgan is called in to exorcise any demon who is found to break the laws, which includes violence or illegal possession. Sometimes, the human recovers their ability to live on their own without the demon and others become catatonic and may or may not ever recover.

So, there is a demon war brewing. One faction wants to allow demons full run of the human world and let them do whatever they want. There is another faction, ruled by the current demon king, who wants to keep things as is or even put more rules in place to protect humans. Morgan finds herself in the middle of this work and working with both demons and humans to help solve it.

I don’t want to go into too many details so as to avoid spoilers for both this book and the first book. I will just say this is a very interesting world. I love reading about the dynamics of Morgan’s family, which are full on fanatics when it comes to worshiping demons. Morgan learns some really difficult truths in this story, too.

I also really love these characters. Morgan is a very strong heroine, even as she makes some bad decisions at times. She’s also very vulnerable at times too. I really like her boyfriend, Brian. I think he is very good for her. He forces her to really look at herself and make those tough choices that must be made sometimes. I also really like the Adam, a cop who works on demon crimes, which is odd, since he’s demon possessed himself. There is also Adam’s boyfriend, Domenic. Dom was demon possessed, but his demon was exorcised because his demon fought off people who didn’t like demons and one person didn’t live. There is also Andy, Morgan’s brother, who when his demon is exorcised is left catatonic.

Lastly, I have to mention two demons who are prominent in this story. Lugh is the current king of the demons. He wants to keep things as is. However, his brother is trying to kill Lugh and take his throne, so that demons can turn the human world into a playground. There is also Raphael, which is another brother of Lugh’s, but this one is on Lugh’s side. Though he does have different moral code than Lugh and is willing to get his hands dirty, and even seems to enjoy it.

If you’re looking for a fun Urban Fantasy series with a strong heroine that is flawed, this is a great one for you. This world created by Jenna Black is really fun. She also has a great ability to create fun and interesting characters.