Judith‘s review of Shadow Marked (Demon Bound series, Book 1) by Anna J. Evans.

Samantha Quinn has been in the dark since age six, when her parents sacrificed her sight in a cult ritual. She is trying to get over her demonic past, but horrible lifelike visions haunt her. Her intuition gets stronger and clearer following a wild adrenaline-fueled sexual encounter with Jace, her brother’s childhood friend. And now Samantha is more tortured than ever by what she can “see”–and by what she felt in that forbidden encounter.

Samantha must prevent the deaths she sees in her premonitions and protect her body against the same demon from her twisted childhood. Her dark curse reveals that Jace will be the next victim and it is crystal clear that she must destroy the demon to protect her love.

Samantha is a woman who has lived in the dark most of her life and now she must make her way in a world where demons are a common presence and where New York City has designated a portion of the island of Manhattan as a “demon habitat.” Thus, she must not only deal with the residual presence of the demonic in her own life and her family, but observe the rules of living in a very different world from ours. Not only are her parents now absent from her life, but she still grieves over the absence of her baby sister and seeks freedom to live her own life without the interference of an overbearing older brother. Even though she knows about curfews and such, she is out on an errand at the wrong time of day in the wrong place. Her sense of smell identifies the presence of invisible demons that many don’t accept as being real, hears the screams of a woman in the distance, and encounters a Ju Du demon bent on killing her. She is saved by a demon bounty hunter who gives up a hefty prize by killing the demon and saving Samantha’s life. And thus begins the on again, off again relationship with Jace, a friend of her brother’s.

Jace is one of those guys who doesn’t “do” relationships and thinks nothing of having a woman occasionally who will “scratch his itch.” He is quite taken with Samantha, responds to her with a sort of “lust at first sight” and almost takes her up against the wall on the street. Sam, on the one hand, is not opposed to some real live hanky panky for a change, but she is not very jazzed about the setting. Their story is a series of encounters that bring them together sometimes accidentally, and sometimes intentionally. It seems that no matter how hard he runs away from Sam, he always manages to run into her.

Now the cast of characters includes some strange sorts: Sam’s ex-lover and his new gal, her brother who seems curiously set on finding a way to commit her to a mental institution because of her premonitions, a very good friend who is not present much but who gives Sam some input that helps to keep her balanced, incidental characters that populate her premonitions, and so on. The author has done well to weave the various characters in and out of the story along with some of the missing persons in Sam’s life and a final encounter with the demonic that is of crisis proportion.

I didn’t find this book an easy read but I did get interested in it from the first and it sustained my interest throughout the novel. The fairly large cast of characters required attention and the suspense that was an underlying theme preserved the tension throughout. Jace’s cynicism was a very good literary hook upon which the “hang” the questions that the characters posed. Sometimes it seemed that there would be no answers to the questions but the author was quite skillful in crafting the resolutions to the conflict. And I think the author did well in preparing for the seque to the next book in the series. The plot was solid and the story line was fairly consistent. There were a few dead spots but that well may be just me. I have not read any work by this author previously so have nothing as a basis of comparison, so cannot judge along those lines. Suffice it to say that this was a good, solid novel about the demonic, about the people who live in a world where they have an accepted presence, and about the evil that they are capable of fostering.

Lovers of fantasy/paranormal literature will find much to like in this book. It is a very subtle love story, not as overtly erotic as some I hve read. However, there are some sizzling scenes, although I don’t think as many as the PR would indicate. It was a good read and I was pleased to be able to review it. I give this novel a 3.75 out of 5.

This book is available from NAL. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place.