Erica Hayes – Cherry Kisses

A Shadowfae novella, published May 23, 2013. Also published in the anthology Hex-Appeal, it is about 55 pages.
Genre: urban fantasy
Cover: intriguing, beautiful colors



Sexy con-artist Lena Falco isn't a witch, not technically. She uses her cache of stolen magic tricks to seduce and bedazzle her marks. When she's hired by a demon to steal a cursed magical amulet from a monstrous tower in Hell, it must be her lucky day.
The prize? A single wish - whatever she wants.
The catch? There's competition: Ethan Benford, swordsman and enchanter, arrogant, maddeningly sexy and the only incorruptible man in town.
Lena's been burnt before by Ethan's easy charm, and she vows he'll meet his match this time. But is ultimate power worth betraying the only man who truly believes in her?


Well, the blurb says most of it, really. Lena gets hired by a demon to retrieve something from Hell. Ethan has been given the same job, so they team up and enter Hell by drinking a very foul potion. There they have to fight their way through countless monsters and such, until they find their prize. Once back home, Ethan tries to convince Lena she should not give their prize to the demon who wants it so badly, but to destroy it. Lena is really attracted to Ethan, she saved his life while risking her own, so what will she choose?


I’ve done it, I have read my first Kindle freebie for my personal reading challenges. The good news for you? It is still a Kindle freebie.
The bad thing for me? My previous short story was also filled with bad things, so I was not really in the mood for this. The story started out fun, with Lena fleecing her vampire mark, but the time in Hell was filled with filth, fighting, monsters and other scary and gross things. I really, really don’t like those things. The ending though, that was good and fun again, and I did not see that coming.

Would I read more? Yes, perhaps I would. I liked Lena, she is different, direct, a con artist who knows she will never reform, nor does she want to. She will always take the easy road. The world building, well, there was not really much room for that, but there are vampires, humans, demons and fae in here, and I like a mixed creature world.

Still, the brutality and gore, nope, I can do without that.

6 stars.



Buy it/get it free from Amazon:
here

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian