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I'm a long time fan of Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series. I think I started reading the series just after the third book came out and I've been continually impressed by the breadth and depth of the world. Every book expands the mythology a little more and gives Rachel new and exciting bad guys to fight. Heck, half the time she learns something new about herself and her powers along the way, too. The point is that I'd been following Kim Harrison's blog as she wrote Pale Demon and at one point she said that it was her favorite book to date. I've liked to whole damn series so far, so I just kinda nodded along and thought that every writer probably loves the current book they're working on the best.

And then I read the book.

Oh, guys. It is amazing. Plunking our heroes down in a car and sending them on this type of EPIC JOURNEY was awesome! Heck, the road trip itself would have been a sight with Rachel, Trent, Jenks, and Ivy crammed into a car together but when you throw in a bad, bad, bad badbadbad demon who is a little crazed and a lot deadly... well, things go from uncomfortable and strained to downright deadly. What's not to love with this? Rachel's trying to get her life back on track and prove she's not a black witch and yet every time she turns around she's being forced to use the demon magic to keep her friends safe. Trent's keeping secrets (as usual) and he's on this epic quest that he refuses to speak about, Jenks is looking for a purpose since his beloved Matalina's death... everything just comes together so wonderfully in this book.

I freely admit that I have a soft spot for both Trent (drug-lord, murderer, politician) and Al (badass demon who can manipulate like nobody's business, yo!) and I loved how much face time they got. Trent gets some of his polish stripped off and gains a little humanity. Al gets to show a slightly softer side. I loved it!

Speaking of Al, the time spent in the Ever After was fabulous. Learning about female demons and the things they can do... awesome!

And, oh, the setup for things to come! Perfect!

Yes, I really, really, really liked this book. I couldn't put it down. I literally locked myself in my room at one point and told people to stay away. I am going to say that reading this book without reading the others is the series would be tragic. Also, you probably wouldn't understand half the references that get thrown out. If you've been following this series, jump on this book. If you haven't started the series yet, what's wrong with you? This book takes everything that's been building up since book one and smacks you with it.

It's fabulous.

-Kelly @