Thursday, May 26, 2011

Book Review: Devil May Care, by Jolene Ballard Gutierrez


Devil May Care is an exciting tale of angels and demons, danger and romance. 

Strange things begin happening to Ana—things like spontaneously flying through the air—and she is understandably concerned. While at the library searching for information that may help, she discovers that one of the librarians, Gabrielle, is an angel. Gabrielle gives Ana a secret book and offers to help train her to control her powers. It turns out that when Ana was a baby, an angel took over her body. Angels are here on earth to help people be good – because there are demons on earth who are here to turn people to the bad side.

Ana is instantly attracted to Dylan, a new boy at school. And the feeling is mutual. As they become acquainted, Ana’s new powers allow her to see that Dylan is a demon. But how could she be so attracted to something so evil? Dylan claims that not all demons are evil, and he tries to do good, just like the angels. Ana cannot resist his charms and a romantic relationship begins. But everything goes bad; there’s a murder. Dylan disappears; and Ana isn’t sure of anything anymore.

The plot moves along nicely. I felt emotionally attached to Ana and Dylan, and there are other characters that are interesting and contribute to the story. Ana actually has parents that seem to take part in her life. It was easy to tell that good or evil was not going to be determined by whether one is an angel or a demon. Nirea is a perfect angel gone bad—really hated her from the very beginning. The ending was very tense and had my heart pounding. 

There were a couple of things that bothered me about the book. There is “instalove.” I didn’t feel that it was realistic that Ana sees Dylan one day, goes out on her first date a short while later, and very soon is falling into bed with him. She didn’t seem mature enough, and the relationship was unrealistic. A slower progression would have made this more believable.

A couple of scenes were a bit confusing. The church scene, in particular, required some re-reading for me to understand what was going on. I needed a few more details. Sometimes emotions seemed to change a bit too quickly, and the flow seemed a bit choppy. These angels come from heaven and the demons are from hell. The book isn’t preachy, but there is an unavoidable religious element. That was fine with me, but I think it’s worth mentioning.

Gutierrez has written a well-thought-out story that had no problems keeping my interest. There weren’t any huge surprises or twists, but I was still somewhat out of breath at the end of the book. I would recommend this to teens who enjoy a paranormal romance with a bit of a thrill.

Self published
Copy obtained from the author for review
266 pages

Rating: 3/5




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1 comment:

  1. Annette, thank you so much for reviewing my book--I appreciate your time and your thoughts about it!

    ReplyDelete

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