Incubus by Carol Goodman/The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark not so early review

Incubus by Carol Goodman (Fairwick Chronicles #1)

won at Firstreads on Goodreads


Synopsis from Goodreads
‘This is where all stories start, on the edge of a dark wood…’

Dr. Callie McFay travels to the small college town of Fairwick in New York State for a job interview. Despite it being her second choice she finds herself talked into accepting a job offer from the Folklore Department to teach a class on demons and vampires. She also finds herself drawn to an old house in the woods where Gothic novelist Dahlia LaMotte used to live and buys it on a whim, despite the seeming reluctance of the estate agent to sell it to her.

But on the night of her job interview, she had a very vivid erotic dream about a man made out of shadows and moonlight, and this dream becomes a regular occurrence when she moves into her new home. Callie starts to feel like a heroine in one of the Gothic novels she teaches as slowly it dawns on her that things at the college – and in her home – are not what they seem. She learns that her house is supposed to be haunted by LaMotte’s former lover and her new – and rather strange – colleagues tell her an unfamiliar fairy tale about an incubus-demon with a human past who was enchanted by a fairy queen…

 The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark


Egalley thanks to Random House 


Synopsis from Goodreads
I gasped . . . or tried to. My mouth opened, but I couldn’t draw breath. . . . His lips, pearly wet, parted and he blew into my mouth. My lungs expanded beneath his weight. When I exhaled he sucked in my breath and his weight turned from cold marble into warm living flesh.

Since accepting a teaching position at remote Fairwick College in upstate New York, Callie McFay has experienced the same disturbingly erotic dream every night: A mist enters her bedroom, then takes the shape of a virile, seductive stranger who proceeds to ravish her in the most toe-curling, wholly satisfying ways possible. Perhaps these dreams are the result of writing her bestselling book, The Sex Lives of Demon Lovers. After all, Callie’s lifelong passion is the intersection of lurid fairy tales and Gothic literature—which is why she finds herself at Fairwick’s renowned folklore department, living in a once-stately Victorian house that, at first sight, seemed to call her name.But Callie soon realizes that her dreams are alarmingly real. She has a demon lover—an incubus—and he will seduce her, pleasure her, and eventually suck the very life from her. Then Callie makes another startling discovery: He’s not the only mythical creature in Fairwick. As the tenured witches of the college and the resident fairies in the surrounding woods prepare to cast out the incubus, Callie must accomplish something infinitely more difficult—banishing this demon lover from her heart.

Publication date: 27/12/2011

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Yes, my Dear Reader, the confusion is all mine. Would you know by looking at these two covers that the book is one and the same? I didn't. So what happened? I've won Incubus and then requested The Demon Lover from Netgalley. :))) Laugh now, I won't begrudge you.

Sometimes I really don't understand the publishers. Could they at least give any indication that this is the same book by not changing the authors name for the US cover?

Anyway, let's get back to the important bits which is what I thought of the book itself. And yes, I've read half of each book just to make sure.

It's not a particularly straightforward book. I was getting confused a lot with the main character. She is literally hot and cold. I don't think she knew what she wanted or what she was doing.

The supporting characters however were marvelous. Carol Goodman created this frozen in time, winter-ish fairytal-ish environment  which I never get tired of. There are fairies, witches, and magical doors between worlds, old haunted houses, noir-ish writers, Bela Lugosi type of vampires and even Mediterranean magical creatures.

The evil is very predictable, but the whole Gothic spirit of the book I thought was marvelously done. I didn't really care about Callie and her incubus, but her familiar mouse Ralph was adorable!

So, if you like Gothic literature and its atmosphere it will be a comfort read for you, but if you want to read a paranormal romance, I wouldn't call this book one. This is something else entirely.

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Несмотря на две совершенно различные обложки - книга одна и та же, и я совсем не понимаю, чего добиваются издательства, когда не указывает, что книга вышла под вот этим именем в Англии и под вот этим выходит в США.


Кстати, это также не паранормальный роман.


Главная героиня Калли мне совсем не пришлась по душе, она совершенно не знает чего хочет и что с ней происходит.


Читать книгу стоит ради замечательной готичной атмосферы и прекрасных второстепенных персонажей. Чего только стоит симпатяшка мышка Ральф, защищающих Калли от зла.


Здесь вы найдёте маленький городок, замороженный посреди зимы и застывший во времени, вампиры Бела Лугоси, феи, двери между мирами, ведьмы, норвежские божества, инкубы и суккубы, проклятья и главный злодей, которого вычисляешь с первого же его появления. Писанина в стиле нуар, студенты, страдающие от анемии, тени, высасывающие из тебя жизнь... 


Читала с удовольствием чисто из-за вот таких восхитительных деталей. Так что, открывайте книгу на свой страх и риск, так как ожидать что-то привычное от неё не стоит.

7.5/10