Demon's Dance by Evey Brett

Demon's Dance by Evey Brett
Stars: 3/5

Overall
While this book wasn't bad, it wasn't great either. It wasn't one of those that I struggled to get through, but there are some definite negatives. The basic concept of an abused cambion (a half-human, half-incubus) struggling with his demon half and trying to make it on his own is good, but some of the players are morally questionable, creating a teetering balance of enjoyability. It could just be that this book isn't my cup of tea, but read ahead and make your own decision.

Strengths
The writing was fairly good. It didn't bring me to tears or move me exceptionally, but it kept me reading through some fairly rough patches. It was steady and consistent and is probably good enough that I'd consider reading other works by this author, despite some of the qualms I had with this book.

Tristan and Cory. Our leading men have a rather nice dynamic. Tristan is the most compassionate character, and while Cory makes mistakes, most can be written off as being human and desperate for human contact, or poor decision making, although I cannot see how he creates any sort of positive bond with Blanco.

The world. We are given an interesting world, much like our own with some additions...namely incubus and succubus, but there are some other people who are Sensitives or have similar gifts. The keepers of the cambions, the Wardens, have a duty to have sex just as much as they enjoy it, in order to keep the demon within their ward sated.

Weaknesses
Morals? Some of the characters behave in ways that to the average person will be bothersome/horrifying. Blanco is possibly the bigger example, but depending on what bothers you, Cory may offend you too. Blanco considers himself Tristan's guardian and when we see things from his perspective, he seems like a reasonable man.

However, he often comes across as a pervy old man (he's 60ish while the other two lead males are mid-20s, early 30s). He gets off watching (and narrating) Cory masturbating and presumably watching Tristan and Cory have sex. In addition, there is an event at the end that adds to this, though it was asked for by one of the other leads. All the sexual encounters are consensual, but he still sometimes reads as a perv.

Another element which touched on the questionable morals nerve is the relationship of cambion and Warden. While Blanco insists that the Warden's role is to keep his ward safe (and he feels guilt at his own failings in this matter, so a few points in his direction), the relationships seem off balance. Cambions are controlled by the Warden in where they go (etc), and they can be sold out for sex by their Warden, in order to sate their demon's lust (while bringing profit to their Warden). I buy it, but I'd probably buy it more if the only time we saw a cambion being used thusly wasn't Tristan being horribly abused--it didn't leave a very good impression of the system.