Succubus In The City Book Review

Succubus In The City
- Nina Harper

Publisher: UK - Piatkus

Why I picked it up: I’m a fan of Richelle Mead’s Succubus series so this seemed like a different take on the Succubus myth.

Back Blurb: Lily has what looks like the perfect life: a fabulous day job at a fashion magazine; a killer figure she can literally never lose; and a great group of girlfriends who are always there for her. Oh, and she also just-so-happens to be a succubus: an immortal demon who draws her power from other men's pleasure. Although working for the Devil does have it's perks, Lily's realising that serving up bad boys to the fiery pits of Hell is just getting ...well, lonely. Just once, Lily would like to wake up in the morning to something more than a pile of ashes but, contractually bound to Satan, she will only be released if someone truly loves her. Then the devilishly handsome PI Nathan Coleman enters her life and Lily begins to wonder if he might be the man she's been waiting for. He wants to ask Lily a few questions about a missing man, but suddenly someone - or something - wants Lily and her demon friends dead, and Nathan seems to know more than he'll admit to. Can a sweet-talking mortal and a girl from Hell ever really find true love?

What I thought: The best thing about being a Succubus in Nina Harper’s book seems to be the ability to eat as much ice-cream, big breakfasts, large meals and take-away’s and still fit into your Jimmy Choos without needing to spend hours in the gym. Sounds like heaven. Or hell, depending on your point of view. The books strength is in dealing with how Satan’s chosen deal with life on earth by following the latest trends and fashions and driving temptations from there. The sub-plot about the latest incarnation of ‘The Burning Men’ targeting Lily and her friends seems to have been dropped by the end of book (possibly to be picked up by the sequel?) and there is no resolution here. In fact while I very much enjoyed the Urban fantasy take on the Sex and the City theme, I was slightly disappointed at the ending as it seemed to merely fizzle out when it should have popped. However, Lily and her friends seemed like fully rounded characters (especially Sybil & Satan) and it’s nice to see some Urban Fantasy that has more than one girl in. Usually UF has a ‘strong but troubled’ heroine who is continually surrounded by men offering variously to seduce her, help her or kill her. It’s nice to see that there are authors out there trying to have multiple strong women who have different personalities (Kelley Armstrong is brilliant at this and for TV shows Farscape was great – by the end there were more female cast members than male and each had a unique personality), so I will be looking forward to the sequel, Succubus Take Manhattan.

Recommended for: Sex and the City fans who want a touch of Urban Fantasy

Rating: 7 out of 10