Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

Succubus Blues
Book One of the Georgina Kincaid Novels
by Richelle Mead
reviewed by Megsly

Succubus. An alluring, shape-shifting demon who seduces and pleasures mortal men. Pathetic. A succubus with great shoes and no social life. See: Georgina Kincaid.

When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants, the wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical?

But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid’s life is far less exotic. Her boss is a middle-management demon with a thing for John Cusack movies. Her immortal best friends haven’t stopped teasing her about the time she shape-shifted into the Demon Goddess getup complete with whip and wings. And she can’t have a decent date without sucking away part of the guy’s life. At least there’s her day job at a local bookstore–free books; all the white chocolate mochas she can drink; and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can’t.

But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle’s demon underground. And for once, all of her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won’t help because Georgina’s about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny…

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of Richelle Mead’s popular Vampire Academy series, and I’d never read any of her other work, so when I somehow (don’t ask me how, cause I honestly have no recollection of how I got this book…cause I’m not a big fan of succubus books either,) managed to get this on my Kindle, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I needed a dose of something different, so I figured what the hell and jumped in to read.

I’m not gonna lie, I went into this expecting this book to be chocked full of smutty sex and dirty lines, and to be missing that key ingredient called a plot. I mean, what else could you expect from a succubus book? It is a creature that exists only to lure the souls of men to hell through sex and diviance…so why would a succubus have any good qualities about her and why would her book need a plot? So I was definitely surprised when I found that not only was Georgina Kincaid a lovable character, but that she was also funny, humane, and definitely stuck smack dab into the middle of a delicious plot involving dorky, mystery writing authors, quarky book store employees, a rather desirous angel, a bored middle management archdemon, and a bunch of poker, silly jokes and self loathing. The plot surrounding this odd assortment of characters was well thought out, detailed and a complete and total page turner. And surprisingly, there was like…no sex. Well, I take that back, there was a little, but it wasn’t like diving into a trashy romance novel and having sex for 30 pages, plot for 20, sex for 30 pages, plot for 20 (get the idea?) It was actually a plot driven book, centering on the less devious aspects of demonizing mortals and stealing souls.

Also, as I said, the characters are an interesting assortment of qualities. Georgina herself is hilarious. I think I love her as a female lead. She’s brave, she’s fearless, and at the same time she’s a total chicken-shit. But no matter how much doing certain things unnerves her or scares her, she sucks it up and takes one from the team. Whether it’s dressing up like a demon with horns and a tail and wings to seduce a geeky fat guy on her bosses orders, or whether it’s facing someone head on who wants her truly dead. Then there’s Carter, who I believe is my personal crush. What can I say, I have a thing for angels. I also love the vamps, who though they aren’t main characters in the book, add some depth and variety to an already eclectic mix of supernatural critters.  Another intriguing aspect of the books is the mortals, who are just as present and just as important as the immortals in this little game they play. You have Seth, who is a love interest (I mean…like he’s a real love interest of Georgina…she’s got the hots for him!) and Roman (wait, another mortal love interest? Yup) who pretty  much pushes himself into Georgina’s life, and she’s not complaining. So what’s a succubus to do? All those mortal souls to steal through sex and seduction, and two mortal souls she doesn’t want to steal…it’s a tricky situation!

I absolutely loved this book, it was intriguing, mysterious, fun and humorous, and it’s relatable in so many ways in regards to the quest for answers we’re all searching for. Georgina, though she’s centuries old, still has no idea for the answer to life’s many questions and is plagued by the constant worries over friendship, love and work problems. The plot is twisting and fast paced (but not too fast) and oh so entertaining! So go ahead, give it a read and I hope you find it as fun as I did!

Below is my rating of Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead. These are reflective strictly of my opinion on the novels I’ve read and are not necessarily reflective of the other staff members at MVF.

Plot – 8
Character Development – 7.5
Grammar and Punctuation – 9.5
Paranormal Element – 10
Prose – 7.5

Total Score – 8.5

Total is derived from the average of all 5 scores.