Fang Me (Demon Underground #3) by Parker Blue

Thanks again to Bell Bridge Books and netGalley for this book! Now, without further ado, here are my thoughts on the third book in Parker Blue‘s Demon Underground series, Fang Me. I’m sad that this is the last book I have for the series but I’ve had a lot of fun visiting Val’s world. Can’t wait to see what happens next!

Book 3: Fang Me (March 2011)

The vampires want it. The demons want it too. And someone is willing to kill Val for it.

Val and Fang have to find the powerful Encyclopedia Magicka before either of San Antonio’s warring underworld factions locate it, or the consequences will be deadly for the entire city. As usual, Val’s vampire enemies (they still call her The Slayer), want her dead, and even some of her fellow demons may be less than trustworthy, since they’d like to grab the legendary book of spells before she does. Val has a personal claim to the Encyclopedia–her demon father left it to her when he died–but someone stole it recently. And that can’t be good.

Battling vamps and dodging demons, Val struggles to unravel the mystery and find the thief. At the same time, she’s fighting her attraction to sweet, sexy Shade, her favorite shadow demon. Rumor has it that Val will lose her part-demon, vampire-fighting powers if she gives herself to him.

With a crowd of vamps and demons out to trick her or kill her, it’s not a good time for her to risk her job as the city’s best vampire hunter by falling in love. The stakes are high and aimed right at her heart. But Lola, Val’s hungry little lust demon, doesn’t like being denied. Will Lola finally get her way?

What’s a part-lust-demon-teen supposed to do? Whatever it takes.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Val has a couple problems in Fang Me. While her main task is finding the missing Encyclopedia Magicka, she also has to deal with a big romantic question: Should she seal the deal with her boyfriend, Shade, and lose her super strength and speed or should she keep her virginity and her Slayer powers? In fact, this is almost a bigger part of the book than the quest for the missing magic books because it’s such a big question for Val and, eventually, for all of the other characters in the book who find out about the consequences of a succubus losing her virginity and who want her to keep her superpowers. Parker Blue does a great job of capturing Val’s dilemma about the physical side of Val and Shade’s relationship, and treats it with enough subtlety that it remains appropriate for a teenage audience. I’ve expressed trepidation about a succubus in a teen novel in previous posts about the series but I think that the author has done a great job of talking about the sexy stuff while keeping it clean. I guess a lot of my nervousness comes from the fact that the other succubi I’m familiar with are a lot racier, like Lost Girl or Richelle Mead‘s Georgina Kincaid series.

The magic books are the other big point of the story, as is Trevor, a dude from L.A. who shows up claiming to be the keeper of the Encyclopedia Magicka. I say “claims” because Val is super suspicious of Trevor, even though everyone else likes him just fine. Val’s suspicions lead to some tensions between her and Shade, which is nice because Shade’s often a little too perfect and it’s nice to see him man up a bit and question Val’s opinions.

The resolution of Fang Me is really great — full of action and exciting developments. I don’t want to say too much about it but I will say that the climax leaves me itching to read the next book, though it’s not due out until next year. Such a long time to wait…