Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a book set in the modern contemporary world. Though it is also one filled with creatures of fantasy. Demons, angels, imps, succubi.

The main character is a succubus named Georgina Kincaid. She’s . . . oh, I don’t know, several millennia old. Lives what some may consider a ‘normal’ type of life. Normal house – with cat, work in a bookstore, read books, occasionally suck men’s life force out of them through sex. You know, the norm.

Georgina is kind of a ‘bad’ succubus though – the ‘best’ energy comes from sucking out the life force from the pure, the innocent, the uncorrupted, but she prefers slime-balls. Even if that doesn’t give her as much ‘energy’ as ‘non-slime-balls’. She prefers them not because she actually prefers hanging around assholes, but because she doesn’t want to drain the life of ‘nice guys’. And even a kiss can take a little something.

Well, the book opens with Georgina doing a favor for a friend. I’d misread Imp as Pimp at first, since the friend is an Imp, and had a wrong impression on the dynamic going on but I quickly realized my mistake. Right, so, as a favor for an Imp named Hugh, Georgina spends a few moments with a 34 year old virgin who lives in his parent’s basement and really likes gaming.

So that’s how readers first meet Georgina. Though it is more of a tell not show for that first encounter, or, more literally, something along the lines of ‘six minutes later I went outside’. I mention because there are in fact some graphic moments in this book. With multiple men (separate encounters, not at once). Well, it is a book about a succubus.

So – Georgina meet. Hugh briefly meet. Then some angry vampire dude is meet – I believe his name was something like ‘Duane’, but I could be mistaken. Doesn’t tremendously matter because the story finally kicks off when Duane turns up dead and Jerome, Georgina’s boss (these demons have weird out of this world names, eh?) questions her as a suspect. Except Georgina didn’t even know vampires could die.

Right, so that is one story line – someone is wandering around killing immortal beings. And for whatever reason two things are expressed immediately: everyone immediately thinks Georgina had something to do with the deaths and – no one thinks she did it herself – as in, using her own powers, because apparently everyone is more powerful than her. So, it’s that kind of story as well. Weak ass main character.

Another story line involves sex, or romance, or . . . one or both or all three. Hmm. What’s the third? Erotica? I forget. So, right, there’s this dude who writes books so good that Georgina tells a random stranger that she’d become the author’s love slave if she had access to early material, ARCs. That’d be Seth. Then there’s Georgina’s other boss (see I already messed up, Jerome is the local head demon, ‘Archdemon’ or something), this other boss is the owner of the bookstore Georgina works at. That other boss likes taking every opportunity to rub against Georgina and hump her. Then there’s a random guy, Roman, meet in the book store who Georgina flirts with, wiggles near, keeps saying she won’t go out on a date with, and keeps going out on dates with. Because reasons.

This is obviously not one of those romance books with a ‘virginal’ ‘maiden’ who ends up near-ish some ‘bad boy’ asshole who glares and grunts and stuff. No, everyone but that bookstore boss would fall, as far as Georgina knows, into the ‘nice guy’ category.

Right, so, this was super fun, funny, and enjoyable. As a stand-alone. Not sure I’ll ever get around to reading the next book, as I kind of liked how things worked here.

Rating: 4.34

March 20 2017



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