Book Review: Working for the Devil

Book: Working for the Devil (Dante Valentine book #1) by Lilith Saintcrow

Source: Library

Rating: 1 star (Did Not Finish)

Review:

I could not get into this book. I had started reading this last night, but I soon found it was so frustrating trying to read it. The story was so dull as well as being poorly written and it just felt like bad fan fiction. The story did a lot of telling the reader things instead of showing them.

I also didn't like the main character Dante Valentine who was far from being interesting or likeable. She is boring, rude, and extremely annoying. Dante is a necromancer for hire which would seem like an interesting thing but the book is just so boring and the dialogue is so forced that I didn't care. She is also supposed to be this tough kind of character but mainly she's shown as weak and whiny.

The story opened with Dante finding a demon named Jaf (or Tierce Japhrimel) standing at her front door holding a gun on her. He wasn't the traditional scary demon but an attractive guy with dark hair and green eyes. He was there to inform her that the Devil wanted to speak with her. No questions asked, she just goes with him and the duo are soon on their way by subway train where they or should I say Jaf got into a fight with a bunch of teens who were trying to act tough. This scene just felt like a way to show off the demon and have him protect Dante.

The more I read, the more I didn't like Dante. She complains non-stop and is really rude. As I mention before she acts like this tough butt kicking character but she's really weak and uses her tough persona to hide the fact that she's really too scared to do anything. Why go into a dangerous field as a freelance necromancer if you're too afraid to do something.

But what really annoyed me about this book was it didn't feel like it was the first book in the series. Because there were so many different things and people mentioned (and with no explanation) as if the reader should already know about them. It made me feel like I had picked up a book in the middle of the series with so many things just being so casually mentioned.

The story is set in the distant future but to be honest it's not clear what the world is really like because there is not a lot of details given.

I was so bored with this story that I couldn't force myself to read anymore. I'm just thankful I picked this up at the library.