THE ACCIDENTAL DEMON SLAYER

Author: Angie Fox ISBN: 9780505527691 8/2008 PARANORMAL Publisher: DORCHESTER

It's never a good day when an ancient demon shows up on your toilet bowl. For Lizzie Brown, that's just the beginning. Soon her hyperactive terrier starts talking, and her long-lost biker witch Grandma is hurling Smuckers jars filled with magic. Just when she thinks she's seen it all, Lizzie learns she's a demon slayer—and all hell is after her. Of course, that's not the only thing after her. Dimitri Kallinikos, a devastatingly handsome shape-shifting griffin needs Lizzie to slay a demon of his own. But how do you talk a girl you've never met into going straight to the underworld? Lie. And if that doesn't work, how dangerous could a little seduction be...?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Angie Fox sets her paranormal romance, THE ACCIDENTAL DEMON SLAYER, in contemporary Atlanta, the wilds of rural Tennessee and somewhere on the second level of Hell. On her thirtieth birthday, Lizzie Brown discovers from her grandma (whom she's never known) that she's really a demon slayer from a long line of demon slayers, and a demon seeking her power is on his way. Right after they deal with a little monster in her bathroom, they head for Grandma's coven in Memphis. They are beset by all kinds of nasty critters along they way and are forced to accept the help of a Dimitri, an extremely handsome, shape-shifting man/griffin (part lion, part eagle) from the Greek island of Santorini.

Fox creates a story that just races by like a freight train. I read it so quickly, I couldn't stop to question why Lizzie just took Grandma's story at face value or that of course Dimitri is handsome (do you know a shape shifter who would choose to be ugly?), or that suddenly Lizzie can understand everything her little Jack Russell terrier is telling her. The book is billed as a "demonically delightful paranormal romp" and I have to agree with that appraisal, given the caveat that even though there is a lot of sexual tension and some out and out lust between Lizzie and her self-appointed protector, there really isn't much romance.

Lizzie seems to be a regular super hero accepting her powers and despite Dimitri's attempts to train her, she does better on her own, reacting to situations as they arise. Fox definitely throws in a handful of surprises, including the menu for the feast beast as well as the unlikely allies they find hanging out at a rather unusual Shoney's restaurant.

I recommend THE ACCIDENTAL DEMON SLAYER to any reader who likes a little bit of sexual intimacy with their haunted, spell-bound murder and mayhem.

Susan Barton