Gale Reads: The Demon Trapper's Daughter by Jana Oliver

Howdy! I already started reading the books I got from the last book fair at SMX last month and I finished one this morning so I wanted to do a book review before I forget any details :)


TITLE: The Demon Trapper's Daughter (US) /  Forsaken (UK) -- BOOK 1

AUTHOR: Jana Oliver
GENRE: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
SERIES: The Demon Trapper Series (4 books)
WEBSITE: http://www.demontrappers.com/

SYNOPSIS: (from the website)

"It’s the year 2018, and with human society seriously disrupted by the economic upheavals of the previous decade, Lucifer has increased the number of demons in all major cities. Atlanta is no exception. Fortunately, humans are protected by Demon Trappers, who work to keep homes and streets safe from the things that go bump in the night. Seventeen-year-old Riley, only daughter of legendary Demon Trapper Paul Blackthorne, has always dreamed of following in her father’s footsteps. When she’s not keeping up with her homework or trying to manage her growing attraction to fellow Trapper apprentice, Simon, Riley’s out saving citizens from Grade One Hellspawn. Business as usual, really, for a demon-trapping teen. When a Grade Five Geo-Fiend crashes Riley’s routine assignment at a library, jeopardizing her life and her chosen livelihood, she realizes that she’s caught in the middle of a battle between Heaven and Hell."

COVER TALK:
I am loving the book cover. I have it in the US version (because my book came from the US library) and I prefer it than the UK release. I liked that it doesn't show the face of the girl but it showed her holding a glass sphere. I really love it whenever cover designers make them mysterious with pretty colors. I am not saying the UK version is bad but I liked the simplicity of the US one with a girl and the red background :)


MY REVIEW:
I got this because I got intrigued by the synopsis at the back. I really liked action packed and fantasy fueled stories especially if the main character is the one fighting the battles. You might have noticed that I am in love with Ilona Andrew's Kate Daniels Series and also Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy Series just basing it on my previous Gale Reads posts. I am really attracted to those strong willed women fighters because I hated puny whiny ones the most. I thought this one would be like those two and so I decided to get this and for a bargain too (only Php99 for a hard bound).

Let's start with the things I liked about this book. This book has a very unique take on demons in general and I liked how the author described these creatures very well. It actually matched my idea of what they look like if I see one--strong, scary and mischievous. I think Ilona Andrews influenced Jana Oliver because you can definitely see glimpses of the world Andrews created for Kate Daniels -- a ruined Atlanta where necromancers roamed and magic prevails.

I think this is a good first book for the series because it introduced smoothly all the main characters that will play a big part on the whole series. They introduced Riley, Beck, Simon, the Guild of Demon Trappers, Ori, Peter and the Vatican guys. They also introduced the conflict going on and the power struggles between good and evil, Angels vs Demons,  hunters vs trappers, boys vs girls.

This also reminded me of the Violet Eden Chapters by Jessica Shirvington because the lead character Riley resembles Violet in personality so I believe Riley will still develop throughout the rest of the series and won't stay immature like in this first book (hopefully). There's also a love square involved so I'm not sure what would happen next :)

[spoiler alert]

Now, let's go to the things I didn't like about the book. 
1 - I hated the way Beck talks. I know he is supposed to be a Southener but please I can't take the "yer" instead of "your" and "ya" instead of "you". Just make it in grammatically correct sentences please. It throws me off whenever I see his statements.

2- There's also a couple of errors all throughout the story. I hoped the proof reader did a good job next time since it kinda distract me to see a "him" when it's supposed to be a "her". But I'm glad there's no major grammatical error and I liked her world building.

3- There are parts that I think are boring or too slow. It took me 2-3 days to finish this book coz it's not really a page turner.

4- There's no romance/love story building among Riley and the 3 guys. I can't feel the spark and I already know who she'll end up with just by making the story be shown in the perspective of Riley and Beck. So I don't know why the author decided to make it a love square.

5. I also didn't like the conflicts in the information: Riley has no money to make ends meet but she has a car even thought the gas price is high, she buys Holy Water that sells $12 a pint, and she can indulge herself to buy hot chocolate and pants. 

6. I'm not liking the idea of sippy cups being used as a container for demons or that Holy Water is the main tool to fight them. Or you use Moby Dick to capture a demon just because it's boring.

OVER-ALL RATING: 3/5

I am not yet sure if I liked this series or not. There are a lot of books now a days in this genre and there are better ones but there's something about the unique concept of demons and sippy cups and angels to attract me to it. I will definitely get the 2nd book just so I can see if the story will progress nicely. Hopefully it does or this series will end up being on my "unfinished list".

WHO WILL YOU RECOMMEND THIS TO?
I will definitely recommend this to teenagers who like to read about urban fantasy and love stories. Those who have enjoyed the likes of Violet Eden Chapters, Kate Daniels and Twilight will enjoy this book.

Thanks for dropping by!