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The Devil Inside (Morgan Kingsley #1)
Jenna Black
Published: Nov. 27, 2007 (Dell)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: purchased
Reviewed by: Jenn
Rating (out of 5): 4 stars
Morgan Kinsley is an exorcist in a land where demon’s are allowed to possess the bodies of humans. In fact, some humans volunteer to give their lives so the demons have a home. Morgan’s job is to kill the rogue demons—the ones who get a little out of hand and give the good demon’s a bad name. Honestly, I love that concept! I’m all in! Give me more! But in a twist of bad luck, Morgan finds that she is harboring an illegal demon. A demon that an enemy shoved into her body for safe—not so safe—keeping. A demon she never asked for, and certainly never wanted. Not just any demon, but a rebel with a cause.
And Morgan wants him gone. NOW.
The only problem: Morgan is the only exorcist strong enough to send her demon back to the land of hell and brimstone. And to make things even worse she finds herself having to protect her new body-buddy from the very people who put him inside of her in the first place, because some of the other demon’s want him dead with a capital DEAD. Unfortunately that means Morgan will die too. Morgan must learn to trust the very people she has always hated, dive into a world scary enough to make her tough girl legs tremble, and except the demon inside as her ally in order to protect the people she loves.
The Devil Inside drew me in from the very first page. I loved the sassy Morgan and her kill em’ and leave attitude. She’s the kind of character I love: tough, snarky, sexy, and stuck with a horrible set of circumstances. The demon world fascinated me and Morgan’s drama was the perfect amount of how-is-she-going-to-get-out-of-this for me. All of the above is the reason I will gladly pick up book two and continue to read this series.
However, there was one part of the book that bothered me.
The BDSM. Now, I’m not a prude, I love sex in my books and lots of it. I’m okay with whips and chains and rough play, but the hard-core sex in this book didn’t seem to relate to the plot. At times it seemed to over shadow the more important parts of the story and bury the plot under mounds of leather and whips. Morgan, who is clearly all about the smexy times at the start of the book, is left feeling a mixture of uncomfortable and turned-on by the harder sex acts she is forced to witness. I think I might have had an easier time believing this section of the story if Morgan hadn’t been so hot-to-trot at the start of the book and Little Miss Chastity Belt at the end.
Overall The Devil Inside is a fun and fast read. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes a kickbutt heroine with plenty of attitude and some sexy men to add to your book boyfriend collection. Just go into knowing that you made need a cold shower when you finish the book.
Sexual content: Graphic Sex
I read this series a few years ago when BDSM was not as common in romance novels as it seems to be today and those elements definitely felt over the top. In retrospect, I wonder if the way it’s used to set the demons apart from the humans is a bit judgmental.
Margaret, that is a really good thought about the BDSM being used to showcase the demons in the book. I never thought about it like that, but now that you mentioned it, I have to agree that your theory is spot on.