Oh boy, here I go again with another Sarah J Maas series that will probably rip my heart out. Having read the ACOTAR series and the Throne of Glass series, I know going into Maas' books that I can't get too attached to anyone, I can't make many assumptions, and that death could be looming around any corner.

Bryce has it all - a job that should put her career in the right direction, a loving family, and great friends who she can party all night with. That is until a demon kills her friends in a brutal attack, leaving Bryce scared and alone. Hunt Athalar works for the Archangels, and put on the case. When an arrest is made, but the killings keep on happening, Hunt is given a choice. Use Bryce and find the demon responsible, and in return win his freedom. As Bryce and Hunt continue to investigate, they discover a force could threaten Crescent City and all who live there. Bryce also begins to discover her own powers, something she never thought she'd have, and just what she can do to save her city.

First of all, this was another wonderful, heartbreaking, suspenseful start to a series that I am sure to enjoy. The world wasn't too hard to understand, and the different beings that call Crescent City home were easy to figure out. Of course we have our beautiful main character and all the hunky, muscled, powerful men she meets along the way; an unknown evil and a complicated hierarchy of those who stand to benefit from destruction; and characters who possess such a range of personalities and abilities. BUT we also have another typical female lead for SJM - thin, outrageously beautiful, curvy in all the right places, and absolutely irresistible. I'm not saying I didn't like Bryce, but reading about Bryce and the ways that she seduces her love interest just makes me think of other SJM females I've previously read about. While I enjoyed the steam in this book, it also gets a little repetitive for me, and the unrealistic way SJM writes about her characters and their looks, bodies, assets, is a little hard to get over.

I am still very much looking forward to continuing on with these characters and reading the second book when it comes out, but I'm hoping for some changes in the plotlines I've come to expect from SJM.