Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Personal Demons

Author:Lisa Desrochers
Publisher: Tor Teen
Date: September 14, 2010
Pages: 365
Genre: YA- Paranormal
Source: ALA

This one was a little tough for me. I was completely into this story up until the point where I wasn't. Right out of the box, it's fast, suspenseful and oh so sexy. Then it's kind of like, if you divide the book exactly in half, the first half was totally captivating and the last half was, eh, well- it just wasn't.

Riddled with YA cliche, (In insta-love with the new boy who is now her class partner, new boy is smoldering hot, girl is clueless as to why all the guys want her, enter the love triangle, yada yada) this story could have very easily been a disaster. Surprisingly, the aforementioned elements worked in this scenario, again, up until the point where they didn't.

Frannie is a normal high school girl, with average everything- including an average soul. It seems that Heaven and Hell have been playing a rather nasty game of dodge ball, and each side is trying to claim the best players before the other team lands them. Frannie's soul has been firmly on the fence for years. Having lost a brother at a young age, she has some serious issues with the guys upstairs. Her strong Catholic upbringing has kept her on the straight and narrow but with her doubts and one really dark, painful secret she could just as easily tip towards the other side. Heaven and Hell each send their individual ambassadors to entice Frannie toward their side. And of course, Hell sends Luc- that smoldering, wicked looking new guy who just exudes dark hotness. Heaven counters by sending Gabe, a tall handsome blonde who threatens to make Frannie feel the one thing she has sworn off since her brother died- love. The battle over Frannie's soul begins and quickly turns dangerous, and neither side is playing fair.

Let me point out, that even with all the heaven and hell goings on, this is not some underhanded attempt by an author to sneak a little God into your reading. In fact, given the elements, it was delightfully surprising to find not one ounce of religion in this book. So don't run screaming.

My issues where never with the plot, because well, a demon and an angel fighting over your soul- that's just hot. Where Desrochers drops the ball is in her attempt to balance the players in her love triangle. Gabe seems to have been randomly thrown in without ceremony and almost written as an after thought. He has very little dialogue or presence and Frannie's feelings for him just have to be assumed because Frannie said so. Her constant struggle against her feelings for Luc was where the real action was. The front cover asks the question:

"If you had to choose between Heaven and Hell, which would it be? Are you sure about that?

which would lead you to believe that you're in for some serious friction. Nope. Frannie never even made it a choice- Luc does, because he's awesome like that. So I got a bit turned off in the second half of the book when the only chemistry was between Frannie and Luc but Gabe was still considered to be a contender and we're suppose to believe that Frannie still doesn't know which one to choose. Why didn't Gabe get any chapters from his point of view? That would have made me feel a bit more connected to him.

Frannie annoyed the hell out of me. If she said "Whatever" one more time, we were going to have words. I can think of a lot of people more deserving of a hot demon lurver (pick me! pick me). But don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike this book, the actual story was amazing and I was hooked on the heat from page one, she just lost me in the second half when everyone was so decidedly vague- which should be near impossible to pull off.

Will I read the sequel? Yeah. I will.

Thoughts?