Beyond the Veil by Pippa DaCosta (The Veil Series #1)
Released: February 10, 2014
Urban Fantasy
Self Published

Reviewed by May

Charlie Henderson is living a lie. Her real name is Muse and her attempt at a normal life is about to go up in smoke.

When a half-demon assassin walks into her life, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, Muse must return to the one man she hoped never to see again and ask for help. The Prince of Greed isn’t known for his charity. The price is high, but the cost could tear her apart.

Trapped between the malevolent intentions of a Prince of Hell, an assassin with ulterior motives, and her bloodthirsty demon-kin, Muse must embrace the lure of chaos at her core; the demon inside her, in order to survive.

As far as urban fantasy series go, this book is strong. We have an interesting leading lady who is strong but has a lot of issues and problems from her past. She was raised in hell – I mean that on both an actual and personal level – and she’s just now coming into  her own. There are clearly things about her we don’t yet know about, things she herself doesn’t understand and that makes for a good start in my book. The author takes care to share with us just enough detail and pull us into her world. From page one I was intrigued and as I turned the final page I still wanted more.

However.

I’m really done with UF authors using the love triangle in their books. It’s overdone and nothing will make me abandon a series faster. I have serious concerns that this author is leading her heroine into a triangle that I quite frankly can’t understand nor do I have interest in.

Who is her potential love interest and who is an enemy? Who will turn out to be on her side and who is out to get her? It’s really hard to say for sure although I have my theories and I’m stuck between being frustrated and intrigued by this set up.

As I struggle to write this review I find I can’t say much more without spoiling things. The most wonderful thing about this book was how the story unfolded and details are revealed. I give the author a lot of credit for that, as it isn’t an easy thing to pull off with so much going on. The weak points are that there seemed to be a strange love conflict brewing, and that the plot pretty much boiled down to our heroine running around and away from things.

My concerns aside, I will be picking up book two in this series and reading as soon as possible. The ending to this book left me hungry for more and I have every hope that I’m wrong about the love triangle and that this will turn into a series, and a heroine, that I can really enjoy and recommend.

Grade: B-

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