The Demon Kiss

<b>3.5 Stars - Good</b><br /><br />Following the events from The Trouble with Spells, the young witch Portia Mullins embarks on a journey with her two best friends, searching for her warlock boyfriend Vance Mangum who disappeared after nearly killing Portia. Vance is hunting down his evil warlock father, Damien, to take him down for good so he will no longer be a threat to those he loves. But Portia easily catches up to him and with a lot of determination convinces Vance to accept their help and the help of their coven.<br />Following a paper trail to Mexico they find Vance’s father and uncover his evil plans, which are even more terrifying then imagined…<br /><br />The action is amped up in this exciting tale of magic and romance. I definitely enjoyed The Demon Kiss more then its predecessor, The Trouble with Spells. I really adore author, Lacey Weatherford, straight and to the point writing style. The plot moved quickly and consistently, the characters are more fleshed out here and a complexity is added to Portia and Vance’s relationship that was missing in the first novel.<br />There were times when I forgot that Portia was only sixteen because of the maturity shown in many areas but there was a lot more drama here in The Demon Kiss and in some scenes between Portia and Vance, Portia would go off on an emotional rant that quickly reminded me of her young age and even seemed a bit Twilight-esk. But thankfully, these scenes were few. There was also some cringe-worthy scenes when Vance and Portia openly talked about sex with her father and Portia would be seen leaving Vance's room in the morning . It’s an incredibly romantic story but as in the first novel, the adult/mother in me kept rearing her head to say ‘Yeah right!’<br />Vance receives a whole new dimension in The Demon Kiss and an intriguing dark side that I hope to see more of in future installments. Brad and Shelly have developed a more decisive role as well, and their humorous dialogues added key elements to the story. Surprising twists were interweaved with the additional action and really pushed this novel forward.<br /><br />Action, romance, tension and espionage makes The Demon Kiss an exciting paranormal romance for young adult readers. <br />

<b> <a href="http://romancingthedarkside.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-demon-kiss-by-lacey-weatherford.html" rel="nofollow noopener">Romancing the Dark Side Review:</a> </b><br /><br />An emotional journey that will keep you on the edge of your seat with anticipation!<br /><br />The Demon Kiss picks up right where The Trouble With Spells left off. After overcoming a near demon conversion, Vance Mangum has left his girlfriend Portia and his coven in search of his now demon father. Not one to sit around, Portia enlists the help of her friends Shelly and Brad to join her in finding Vance. What starts off as a simple mission to retrieve Vance, soon turns into an unexpected battle against evil that will test the power of love between Portia and Vance once again.<br /><br />This book was a whirlwind of emotions! As Vance and Portia embark on their journey to find his father, their bond becomes stronger than ever. Vance is still dealing with his withdrawals from his blood lust and while he tries to keep his distance from Portia, she is determined to stand by his side and help him through this difficult time by using her magical powers to heal him. It's great to see their romance blossoming with each chapter and how protective they are of each other. We finally get to see more of Vance's father Damien in this story and he is quite the villain! He's ruthless, devious and probably the only character you love to hate. There are tender moments, moments of suspense and a cliffhanger I didn't see coming!<br /><br />Lacey Weatherford has created a great love story with fascinating characters that will have you addicted to the series in no time. There was a lot more action in this installment which made it more exciting to read. The storytelling draws you in to the point of becoming emotionally invested in the main characters and wishing for a happy ending. I was fond of Vance while reading The Trouble With Spells but I completely fell in love with him in this book...he's one dreamy warlock! This is truly a story that will tug on your heart strings whether you're 16 or 36 and I am highly anticipating the next chapter in this magical romance!<br /><br />{ebook courtesy of author/Bookish Snob Promotions for review}

Favorite Lines “I’m wearing happy memories,”<br /><br />“I’ll never disappear from you, Vance,” I replied, “Not as long as there is breath in my body would I ever leave you.”<br /><br />“You can’t blame a guy for spreading a little cheese every now and then.”<br /><br />“I’m not wasting anything. I want you to be well more than anything in the world. I would even sacrifice my own life if it would accomplish that for you.”<br /><br />“You never know what life is going to throw at you, so grab the one thing that makes you happier than anything else and run with it.”<br /><br />“I mean that I have everything I want right here at my fingertips.” He reached out to rub his fingers over my hand before he continued. “And everything out there in the world is threatening to take it all away from me.”<br /><br />“Kiss me,” he said when he was finished, looking down at me tenderly.<br />“Why? So you can steal my powers now?” I teased back, albeit badly.<br />“No, just your heart,” he replied, seriously.<br />“You can’t steal what already belongs to you,”<br /><br />Just wow! Portia and Vance are back together again (thank god) and this time it's them who are hunting for his father. The find out he's not only stealing power through blood but, now he's performing a ritual that completely drains the witch of power. A Demon Kiss! <br />When the coven finds him they spend there time watching and trying to fibre out what to do next. Then he takes Portia, Vance will do whatever needs to be done to get her back. The time finally comes when he will face off with his father. I of course will NOT TELL you what happens but, it's OMG epic!<br />This author once again does it! She made you fall in love with the characters in book 1 but by book 2 you ready to fight for them! <br />Fantabulous book!<br /><br />FIVE DEMON KISS FAIRIES

WOW! I wasn't sure I would like the first book, let alone the series, because it was so heavy on the romance. But I found myself captivated by the epic love story that the author painted across her pages. I picked the first book up on Friday, and here I sit on Sunday, wondering why the fates had to torture me so, because the fifth and final book will not release until Feb. 2012. <br /><br />While I loved the series, I think my one and only complaint about it was the lack of realistic language. Teenagers, placed in precarious positions and sexual situations, are not going to yell things like, "darn" and "dang," especially if they happen to be evil (or under the influence of evil) at the time. As the mother of a teen, I could see my daughter seriously rolling her eyes at that and telling the author to "get real."<br /><br />Fans of YA romance, especially of the paranormal variety will love this series! Each story is well thought out, beautifully written, and the characters become people you definitely find yourself caring about. There are some pretty hot moments, gooshey romancey moments, some great action, and without a doubt a lot of magic and emotion. I suggest you go ahead and buy every book in the series before you sit down to read. It'll save you the time and trouble of having to go back and get them later!

<i> <b>"It hurts to be away from you, but I think it might hurt more to be with you."</b> </i> <br /><br />I really enjoyed this. It was a quick, light and easy read and it felt familiar as I have read the first book but it was a very long time ago. The only reason I haven't read this sooner is purely because I have so many books to get through and not enough hours in a day. <br /><br />Portia didn't seem half as feisty as I remember she seemed more obsessed with sacrificing her self every few pages. It's obvious that Vance means the world to her and that she would rather die than be without him This book was all about Vance and trying to find Damien's father so they could finally put a stop to all the witches and warlocks that he was killing and taking there powers. <br /><br />I can't wait to get on to the next book, which I'm off to do now!

As soon as I had finished The Trouble with Spells, I instantly picked up this book. I was so happy that I had the sequel waiting because I wouldn’t have wanted to be made to wait to find out what was going to happen next. If possible, The Demon Kiss was much more addictive. <br /><br />Portia really grows a lot in this instalment of the series. I loved her in the first book and The Demon Kiss didn’t do anything to change that. If anything, I ended up loving her more. Although she is still able to show how much she cares for Vance and those around her, she also shows a completely different side. Portia has grown into an extremely strong main female character due to the outcomes of ‘The Trouble with Spells’. I really enjoyed how she wasn’t about to let Vance get away with what he did and took it upon herself to go and sort things out. This only intensified the passion in their relationship because Portia wasn’t afraid to show that she would go to any length to save what she has with Vance. <br /><br />Just when I thought Vance couldn’t get any hotter, he does. The passion and chemistry between him and Portia was outstanding throughout and I could really feel what they were. There is so much that I don’t know about Vance and that is part of the attraction. There was always the thoughts in the back of my mind that he could be truly evil, even though that isn’t how he is portrayed. Due to how the first book ended, anything could happen with Vance and it’s the not knowing that makes him so interesting. Bad boys are supposed to be surrounded by mystery and Vance certainly has that going for him. I loved that I got to see some new sides to Vance’s character that I wasn’t expecting. I knew form the first book that he truly loved Portia and felt so much for her but this is expanded upon a lot more this time around which resulted in my sighing lovingly so many times because he was so adorable. <br /><br />Portia’s best friend, Shelly, and her boyfriend Brad get a much bigger role in this book which was fantastic to see. We saw glimpses of them both in ‘The Trouble with Spells’ and I really wanted to find out more about them. Shelly and Brad brought a lot of humour to the book, especially when it came to voicing their opinions on Portia and Vance’s relationship and how they acted around other people. Not only are these two characters funny but they are brave and prepared to do anything to help their friends. I guess I wouldn’t say no to a road trip to Mexico either though. <br /><br />The fact that we see quite a few different settings made this book exciting and fast paced. There never seemed to be much time where something wasn’t happening, even when the characters are stuck in one place for quite a long amount of time. Each time the story moved to a different location, the characters found new and scary situations to deal with and I liked seeing how everyone coped in different ways. <br /><br />There is a lot of mystery surrounding Vance’s Dad (Damien) and what he is really up to and I was glad to see that this wasn’t revealed until fairly far into the story. I was kept guessing about his intentions throughout and could never really tell what was going to happen. It was also interesting to see how Damien’s actions were going to affect everyone else in the book and what the bigger picture was. As a villain, Damien really freaked me out. If he was my boyfriends’ Dad, I would probably run for miles. <br /><br />Lacey Weatherford has totally upped her game with this amazing sequel. The romance, the action and the mystery are all upped a couple of notches, making The Demon Kiss a thoroughly enjoyable book. Enjoyable isn’t a strong enough word really though because I was even more in love with it as I was with The Trouble with Spells. With the third book in the series being released in a few months, I imagine things are only going to get a whole lot more exciting.

See my full review at <a href="http://thefairytalenerd.blogspot.com/2011/08/book-recap-demon-kiss-by-lacey.html" rel="nofollow noopener">The Fairytale Nerd</a>.<br /><br />LOCATION/SETTING:<br />This books begins right where book one ends. Vance left Portia to look for his father. So Portia, together with her friends went after Vance in order to bring him home. The first chapters of the book takes place in Arizona, but the characters stayed most of the time in Mexico.<br /><br />MAIN CHARACTERS:<br />Like in the first book, Portia is the narrator. Here, she becomes more familiar with her powers, and becomes more comfortable with her heritage. Her relationship with Vance is getting more serious, and the two are actually thinking long term already. As for Vance, he is still very much in love with Portia, however he is having a hard time controlling his evil side. It was especially difficult for him as he was constantly craving for Portia's blood. With this, he is having attacks/seizures as he is going through some kind of withdrawal.<br /><br />WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT:<br />Portia wakes up with Vance missing. She found out that he went searching for his father. Because of the intense connection between Vance and Portia, it was physically painful to away from Vance. So she decided to look for him and bring him back home. With the help of Brad and Shelly, she found Vance. But she didn't get the reunion she desired as Vance wanted her to leave. But it was so hard for Vance because he can feel Portia's grief. Eventually, the two made up and made out. (In this book, their relationship becomes more serious, and they find themselves thinking of their future together already.) Anyway, Their small group continued their search for Vance's father, and found out that he is in Mexico, and is actually importing witches and warlocks in order to drain them of their powers. Vance is determined to stop, and kill his father, so the coven went to Mexico, where they spied on Vance's father. Then one day, Portia was taken by Vance's father to use her as bait to get Vance to join him. Now, Vance must save Portia as he cannot bear the thought of his father killing the girl he loves.<br /><br />LOVE:<br />In the first book, I loved Portia and Vance's relationship. It was intense and sweet at the same time. Here, their relationship became deeper and more serious despite their age. I really don't want to give anything away. Their romance became bittersweet, and their coupling is still one of my favorites in the YA world.<br /><br />NO LOVE:<br />Well... honestly, I didn't like the parts of the book where Vance was absent.<br /><br />FAVORITE CHARACTER:<br />I actually liked Portia's father in this book. He does not react to teen relationships like a normal father would. He was very understanding (or maybe the proper word is helpless) of Vance and Portia's displays of affection. Nevertheless, I like him because I think that he is a unique character in the world of YA books.<br /><br />FAVORITE LINE:<br />You never know what life is going to throw at you, so grab the one thing that makes you happier than anything else and run with it.<br /><br />MUSINGS:<br />When I started this second book, I was secretly hoping it won't be like New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, where the love interest was absent for the most part of the book. It's good that I was not disappointed. Vance had sufficient airtime.

I am so grateful to be done with this book. I started this back in March and took a 4-month break from it because I couldn’t stand the weirdness of it all. It was also extremely boring. I couldn’t stand it. I also forgot that Brad and Shelly weren’t beings with magical powers. I was starting to wonder at some point why Shelly was being so clingy to Portia, but then I was like… oh, yeah, she's her high school best friend.<br /><br />Originally, I felt compelled to read this book because I wanted Portia and Vance to be together again, since Vance left her at the end of book 1, but it took no time at all to reach that point in book 2.<br /><br />It’s kind of nice that Sean, Portia’s father, is allowing her to be with Vance all the time, but I didn’t appreciate the fact that they flaunted it in front of everyone they knew. PDA much? What’s worse is that not only are these people they knew, but are also people from Portia’s family. It was very inappropriate behavior.<br /><br />I couldn’t care less what Damien, Vance’s father, was doing. Yeah, yeah, he’s evil incarnate and he must be destroyed… then what? He’s boring as heck. He doesn’t even know he’s being watched. And the ending with him was incredibly lousy.<br /><br />Portia, on the other hand, was very vain and conceited, despite saying that she isn’t. I get it, she suddenly realizes something and she says she’s not vain because she’s just really surprised to find out that she’s actually really good to look at but… come on! Let me be the one to judge that; you have other things to do! From the time that I resumed reading this book until the time I finished it, she took at least 3 baths after doing absolutely nothing special for the day. Unless standing around and people watching is special. Okay, no. How about let’s not see her take a bath at all, yeah? Special day or not, seeing the protagonist shower after each of them is just redundant.<br /><br />Another thing I disliked about this book was the excessive usage of exclamation points. It’s like they’re always screaming! And that’s not all! They also use ALL CAPS to emphasize WORDS instead of using <i>italics</i>. Or exclamation points!<br /><br /><b>!!!!!</b><br /><br />I think I would’ve enjoyed this book (series) more if I cut out all the sweet Portia/Vance moments and compiled them. Seriously, it’s all I look forward to while the rest are just… eh. I mean how can anyone be excited for the next chapter when the previous one ended with:<br /><br /><blockquote> <i>“This is Sean. Talk to me,” he said.</i> </blockquote>

Original Post: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://writtenportals.blogspot.com/">http://writtenportals.blogspot.com/</a><br /><br />WARNING SOME SPOILERS POSSIBLE <br /><br /><br />Of Witches and Warlocks by Lacey Weatherford<br /><br />Where to start with this amazing book series? It has witches, it has warlocks, it has demons and soul mates, romance and sexy encounters and absolutely swoon worthy men. What is not to love? Christmas day 2011 I was given a kindle fire. Being a fan of books about Witches I simply searched the word “Witch” and I stumbled upon Lacey’s First book “The Trouble with Spells”. After buying the book I spent the better part of that day eating up the story and dying for more I purchased the rest of the series.<br /><br />Through out this series you are introduced to Portia and Vance a couple of kids with wicked powers who just can’t seem to catch a break. When all seems well in there lives, well Lacey just throws you another curve ball and your left asking yourself “what the Hell just happened here!?”. Each page is riddled with delicious romance, and action that could require CPR. If just reading about Vance didn’t already stop your heart that is.<br /><br />After discovering she is a Witch Portia Mullins is thrown through a series of loops while she basks in learning about magic and becomes better aquatinted with the mysterious Vance Magnum life is good. But not for long, Without giving to much away, Portia has to learn how to use her powers to save the ones she loves and even when the storm calms its not over through out the series she has to deal with the death of coven members the betrayal and redemption of her best friend and the person she loves most falling into the hands of dark magic. Vance turned demon by his father must battle his inner darkness and conquer his instincts in order to save the one he loves and in the end have what they always dreamed of.<br /><br />This series is a pure work of art, I am not joking when I say you need to go out and read these books. Whether you own a kindle or your would rather have a paperback novel in your hands the books are available in both formats. You will laugh with the characters cry with them, feel there joy and even though its all over you’ll go on your knees to Lacey begging for more.<br /><br />The books are honestly so good that two months later the final line of her last book still rings in my head.

This book left me begging for more and frantically searching the computer looking for the release date of the 3rd book. I think that Lacey Weatherford is a genius. She has followed up her first book (The Trouble With Spells) with a second phenomonal story. The Demon Kiss continues the journey in Portia and Vance's discovery of each other and their magic, with events that seem impossibly difficult and relentless in trying to pull them apart. Having overcome the danger of a near demon conversion, Portia and Vance embark on the journey of facing Vance's father, with the hopes of finally laying to rest the threat that hangs over Vance's fate. As I read each page, I found myself pulled deeper into the story and my emotions became tied to theirs. I loved the dynamics the author developed further with Vance and Portia and I have to say that they are rapidly becoming one of my favorite couples. Portia is more committed to doing all she can to support Vance and Vance is more determined to protect Portia at all costs. Both fall deeper into each other and for all lovers of romance, both of them sizzle on the page. One of my favorite scenes occur when Portia and Vance come face to face with the evilness that is Vance's father, Damien Cummings and as a villan, Damien definitely delivers the goods. Even through the pages he made my skin crawl and that's what I loved so much about reading this book. Not only did the author have my skin crawling, she also had me blushing through the kissing, sighing through the tenderness, laughing at the humor and cheering in those moments where Vance and Portia need it most. She has written the book in a way that engages both the mind and heart of the reader, taking them on a ride that they won't easily forget. I enjoyed every moment of reading this book and I definitely look forward to reading the next book in the series. I absolutely loved this book. Thank you Lacey for writing it.