Made with love
© Victoria Gryson 2024
I’m bound to a demon.
For my entire life, I avoided magic at all costs. Now, I’m responsible for a demon who wields magic more powerful than the toughest mage or sorcerer.
Demons are evil.
That’s what my textbooks say. That’s what I see. He’s ruthless, he’s temperamental, he’s cold. But he protects me without fail. I wonder if he’s hiding a heart behind his hostility.
My demon is a monster.
Whether he’s heartless or not, my contract with him is illegal and beyond dangerous. Together, we must find a way to return him to his own world before anyone discovers our secret. If that wasn’t bad enough, I’ve come to realize something else:
My demon isn’t the only monster I should be worried about.
Last night, when I finished the book I just sat there, staring. Normally when I finish one of these awesome Guild Codex instalments I’m all pumped and ready to jump into the next. But not this time… and I wondered why not. Even now, when writing this review I’m still stumped on why I felt/feel that way (though I am of course looking forward to the next instalment, are you crazy?). Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mindset to read the book, maybe something triggered a subconscious part,… I have no clue, but please keep in mind that this might colour my review a bit.
This instalment takes us all over the place, we go hunting in the woods, in the city, in the drainage pipes, … as I’ve said: all over the place 🙂 Of course, all scenes and environments were clear and well detailed (as we’ve come to expect from the author).
Robin and Zylas hit a bit of a rough (okay, rougher) patch in this instalment. While Robin is looking for the family grimoire, Zylas feels she’s not doing it fast enough, he gets cagey and annoyed and stuff tends to end up broken when that happens. In other words: tension galore. I feel that this book dives deep into Robins emotions, her wants and her expectations. Which are often not the same as Zylas’s. Zylas on the other hand remains a pretty closed book, though we do get some glimpses here and there of another side of him, which I soooooo want to read more about!!
What I love about these books is that the characters (all characters, not just Robin and Zylas) feel so alive, so real. I really, really love how well the author writes her characters.
I felt that this book was a lot slower than the ones before (and what we are used to from both series). It didn’t get boring, and you didn’t quite notice it while you’re reading but in hindsight, yeah, it felt slower. Though, as always, there was a good balance between all the conversation and the action.
The book itself was well written with no (noticeable) errors. There is no sex described (if that is important to you).
The book is 305 pages long, spread over 27 chapters and told from Robin’s point of view.
At the end of the book, the author warns about reading part 3, as it will contain major spoilers for the other series (Guild Codex: Spellbound). Both series will be intertwined from now on, and I have to admit, this makes me so so happy, I cant wait to get to book 6 (Druid Vices and a Vodka), yay!
© Victoria Gryson 2024