When I pulled this book out of the stack to read, I thought that if I had to read one more female first person narrated paranormal that I may poke out my eyes and never read again. Then I began to read and remembered why I had read so many female first person narrated paranormals in the first place. When the lead is charming and unaffected and the alternate reality is richly drawn, it is easy to escape into the author’s world.
Georgina Kincaid is a succubus who draws life energy from having sex with mortals. She sold her soul to Lilith many thousands of years ago to rectify a mistake she made and she now pays for it with her life. Georgina does not, in any way, feel sorry for herself. She has made the best lemonade she can from her situation but the hundreds of years that have passed have only heightened her state of loneliness. She cannot love because every intimate touch draws life away from the mortal and who kills the person that they love the most? [rhetorical question, of course]
Georgina is currently inhabiting a cute redhead’s brunette’s body and has made a life for herself in Seattle as an assistant manager of an independent bookstore. She obviously has no love life. Her looks are unimportant as she can shape shift. Her John Cusack look alike boss, Jerome, wants her to seduce more men. There is a succubus quota that Georgie’s not quite filling. She’s kind of a slacker succubus. Plus, someone is going around hurting Georgie and her friends (an incubus and a couple of vamps) and it may lead to an immortal throwdown of some epic kind.
Georgie’s personal life heats up with the arrival of her favorite author, Seth Morgenstern, in the bookstore for a signing, and the appearance of a very attractive stranger, Roman. Roman aggressively pursues Georgie and while she enjoys the attention, she knows that she cannot be intimate with him. Meanwhile, she and the very shy Seth begin developing a relationship which can also go nowhere.
Georgie’s dissatisfaction is completely believable. She wants a personal connection but her nature denies her. Her life is spent hanging out with her guy friends and reading books. She’s a bit neurotic but she’s had centuries to refine her seduction techniques to perfection. The shy Seth contrasted with the bold Roman was a great touch.
The problems are that the story is completely devoid of any other meaningful women. There are passing appearances but Georgie has not even one immortal female friend. It seemed odd. A cast of a thousand men appear in this book and many of them could be future love interests for Georgie which makes me leery of future books. [I like to call this the Anita Blake effect]. There was also an issue I had with an event at the end of the story which I felt weakened the drama of the climax and seemed convenient and manipulative in light of the previous rules of that had been introduced throughout the book.
Having said that, Georgie is very appealing. The dialogue is smart and the story sped by. I will definitely be aboard for another book. B
Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead
Published by: Kensington (March 1, 2007)
ISBN 10: 0758216416
ISBN 13: 978-0758216410
Genre: Paranormal Romance
