Morgan believes Julienne dead, and that he is every bit as responsible as Xavier for it. He didn't realize until now how much he cared for her. He wants revenge, along with stopping Xavier from taking over the mortal realm and turning humans into slaves. Xavier himself relishes the challenge of Morgan's fight, and sends a man after him, not to kill Morgan, but to wound him.

While the book can be easily understood with reading the first one, a reader would be left in the dark about many things without it, particularly the details on the relationship between Morgan and Julienne. It's also not for the faint of heart, as sexual sadism runs rampant through the evil doers in the book. It's not vividly described, but it happens often enough to be a bit disturbing.

Much of the book was focused on picking up where the last one left off. It was the setting for the rest of the story, yet the beginning was much too long to be a real page-turner. But once the story did pick up, I found I could read it without stopping. The author sometimes jumped from point-of-views; in one paragraph alone, the words could be coming from Julienne's point-of-view, and then jump to an omniscient point-of-view. On the plus side, it gave great insight into the characters and their motivations. At no time did I feel that either characters were irrational in their decisions; even the villains had their reasons. I enjoyed how the author made sure the characters had full personalities, and I enjoyed the rather complicated, and all too human, relationship between Morgan and Julienne. The story line, while it had romance, was much more about the conflict between Morgan and Xavier. Readers of dark fantasy may enjoy Descent of Demons very well.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Explicit

Reviewer: Tara Black
August 31, 2004