Review: Where Demons Fear to Tread - Stephanie Chong

Series: The Company of Angels 1
Genre: Paranormal romance
Pages: 358
Published: August 23rd 2011
Publisher: Mira
Source: For review
Review by Lis

Fledging guardian angel and yoga teacher Serena St. Clair dares enter Devil's Paradise nightclub on a mission—to retrieve the wayward Hollywood "It Boy" she's assigned to protect. But she's ambushed by the club's owner, arch demon Julian Ascher. The most powerful demonic entity in Los Angeles, Julian is handsome as sin, a master of temptation who loves nothing more than corrupting pleasure–seeking humans. He won't release the lost soul Serena is supposed to guard. Unless she accepts his dangerous wager…
After the disastrous way his human life ended, Julian vowed that no woman would get the better of him again. Yet this sexy–sweet angel, smelling of fresh ocean air and happiness, triggers centuries–old feelings. Now, their high–stakes game of seduction, where angels fall from grace and where demons fear to tread, will lead them either to an eternity in hell.or a deliciously hot heaven.

....................

What’s up with Angels and Demons? It’s are a rising trend in romance books just as vampires and werewolves once were. It’s a bit scary to tell you the truth. I grew up on stories of myth, legends and stories from the bible where Angels and Demons are divine and devilish creatures. Especially Angels are glorious, divine, mystical and powerful creatures. It seems weird to humanize them and put them in romance books. At least, it seems to me. Alright, enough of my rambling. Can you guess what this story is about?

Where Demons Fear to Tread is the story of Serena who is new addition to the company of Angels (you can see heaven as one big celestial company), Julian, an Archdemon, and to an extend Nick, Serena’s ward. This is where the story begins, because Nick is Hollywood’s latest bad boy and partying hard while Serena tries to watch over him and teach him yoga to get him straightened out. This is apparently not an  easy feat and it’s proven when Nick parties in Julian’s latest soul ensnaring club. Serena follows and BAM, Julian sees a new project. In fact, Julian is quite taken with Serena. And it’s: let the games begin. The price? Souls. 

While this story is not at all bad, it was hard for me to like the character of Serena. The author created a typical black and white story where angels are the good guys and demons the bad guys. It’s only later in the story where the lines blur, but more on that later. Serena is your typical sweet, selfless and self-sacrificing Angel who believes in love. She seems too naïve to me. Almost as if she doesn’t know anything about the world. But she believes in her ideals. 

Julian on the other hand is a victim of circumstance and your archetypal bad boy. He’s been around the block a time or two and knows what’s out there. He’s jaded and burned by love. Yet, Serena’s light shines so brightly that he’s attracted to it and will do anything to have her… 

There is another important character in this book and that’s Serena’s ward, Nick. In a way he’s the foil for Julian. Julian is fiercely independent and makes his own choices and knows exactly what he’s doing. He doesn’t care who he breaks, who he hurts or what he takes as long as he comes out on top. Nick is the opposite. Sensitive and sweet and very ignorant, he feels misunderstood by his divorced parents and will do anything to get their attention. He believes the only right thing in his world in Serena. While trying to get everyone’s attention, Nick makes all the wrong choices. And where Julian moves towards redemption, Nick moves towards damnation. 

Where Demons Fear to Tread is also a story of redemption. In this case that of Julian through Serena. There are several more themes in this story, one among them is choices. Everything is a choice you can make. While I like that, it clashes with the black and white view of angels and demons, good and bad that the author portrays in this story. 

To me the view of Angels and Demons in this story was kept very simple. Both the Angels as the Demons portray very human characteristics. In fact, both Julian as Serena live among humans and Serena even owns a yoga studio. It feels weird and unlike what we know of them in the first place. It also made me wonder how it works, because if everyone upon death either becomes a demon or an angel… where do they put everyone. Doesn’t the world get crowded?

While Where Demons Fear to Tread is not essentially a bad one, you have to like it to love it. It left me mostly feeling annoyed with a need to kick Serena hard and thump Nick on the head and tell him to: grow up. Julian is deliciously evil, just the right amount of evil to still keep him likable. 

So if you love a sweet romance between an Angel and a Demon, than this is the book for you!