Review: The Devil's Reprise by Karina Halle

Title: The Devil's Reprise (Devils #2)

Author: Karina Halle

Date of publication: 29 Oct 2013

Genre: NA Romance / Horror / Paranormal

Author's links:

Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

My rating: 3.5 stars

Goodreads Blurb

Given a second chance, music journalist Dawn Emerson and guitarist Sage Knightly are reunited, only to have their lives threatened again by a demonic bargain. The sequel to THE DEVIL’S METAL, from USA Today bestselling author Karina Halle.

When Dawn Emerson got the chance to go on tour with her favorite metal band, Hybrid, she thought she landed the writing gig of the century. But what started off as a dream for the budding music journalist quickly turned into a nightmare that she and guitarist Sage Knightly barely escaped alive.

Now, months after they went their separate ways, Sage invites Dawn to accompany him on his first solo tour across Europe and write about it for Creem Magazine. But like the last tour, nothing is as easy as it seems. Sage is a broken man on the path to self-destruction and Dawn isn’t sure if she’s the right person to save him. And aside from having to pick up the pieces of their burgeoning relationship, they have to negotiate the mysterious new photographer assigned to Dawn’s story, as well as vindictive promoters and demonic groupies they thought they’d never see again.

Because this time, it’s Dawn who made a deal with the devil and the only thing worse than having to uphold a bargain with the prince of darkness is not remembering how you’re supposed to pay it back.

It may be with their souls.

My Review

This is the second and final book in the Devils series by Karina Halle. I really enjoyed the first one and I had very high expectations of this one. They were met and surpassed in some aspects, still I was disappointed with some things.

This book continues the story of Dawn and Sage after they survived the unthinkable. The focused is really on their relationship or rather on their struggles to form a relationship under most unusual circumstances. 

The story is told from the POV both of Sage and Dawn and this we get to see deep into the mind and soul of both of them. We already knew a lot about the inner world of Dawn but here we are taken deep into the head of Sage as well. And it is a dark and turbulent place and at the same it is passionate, intense. There was more than occasion when I slipped making all the wrong choices but ultimately he proved to himself and to Dawn that he was capable of love.

I liked Dawn when she was talking about music and her feelings for Sage, but the deal she supposedly made with the Devil and her fight out of it fell flat for me. Things were too similar to Sage's situation in book one, but they were also fuzzy and unclear, lacking the thrill of the unexpected. We were already familiar with the Jacobs and the demons and their fights were seemed predictable.

A major let down for me was the fact that this book didn't recreate the atmosphere of the music scene of 1970s as well as book one in the series. Reading the story of Sage and Dawn, I often forgot that the events were taking place in the 1970s, they could have easily happened at any other time, to any other rock star. 

Overall, the love story is steamier and more emotionally intense which I really liked. The action portion of the book had stronger elements of horror and more powerful presence of supernatural forces, yet it failed to excite me as much as it did in book one. The story is marked by in-depth portrayal of emotional turmoil and the writing of Ms Halle is as usually brilliantly captivating. This book is a must-read if you have started the series and I believe it will be greatly appreciated by all Ms Halle's fans.