Succubus

Succubi have always had a special soft spot in my heart. Possibly due to a TV show that I randomly happened upon in which a woman does not know about the whole magical underworld she is part of until she kills the wrong guy (once she figured out her powers she only sucked really bad people dry), and we the viewer get to explore this warring magical factions dynamic with her and the regular human best friend she picks up along the way. If you know the show title, let me know, since I’d like to watch it again. But my point is, the beginning of Kate Fox’s paranormal romance Succubus, in which main character Tempest gives us a run down of how she discovered her unfortunate ability, felt a little like that.

In general, succubus stories run the range from totally awesome nobody actually gets hurt powers to extremely sad whoops did I just kill him?, and Tempest is on the sad end of the spectrum. She’s accidentally killed five boyfriends before figuring it out and swearing off sex and romantic relationships to avoid harming anyone else. Which is why you might be surprised to learn that her voice is, in fact, extremely funny. She has made the best of things and is a doula (bringing life into the world as some kind of cosmic reckoning with dark power is not uncommon, and doula seems the most popular profession in such books these day, I should probably do a round up of them). In addition, she homeschools her niece and has close relationships with her mom, her sister, and a teen she met on an internet forum for people who think they have dark powers. In his case, anyone who loves him suffers extreme depression so he’s pretty socially isolated.

Which is why it is really unfortunate when Tempest develops an intense attraction to one of the doctors she meets at the hospital. He is feeling it too, and resisting is getting harder and harder. Even worse? He’s the brother of the last guy Tempest accidentally killed with sex. But that’s not all! Apparently someone is running around killing those with powers, and Tempest is on the hit list. IMPORTANT NOTES: If you get the ick from people being sequentially sexually involved with siblings, this is not the book for you. If you cannot handle seeing death or harm come to juveniles, this is not the book for you.

Once you get past the fact that you would think any of these people is absolutely making stuff up, the romance aspect is fun in a push and pull kind of way. There are several open door sex scenes and the paranormal bit of the storyline provides both internal and external conflicts. You see the first twist coming a mile away but the second one was a true surprise. And Tempest really is very funny. The only thing I couldn’t really get on board with were the many individuals, including children, who clearly had psychiatric issues that were just being completely ignored by the people around them who didn’t even try and get them help/support. I also admit to being completely fooled by the book cover coloring into thinking this would be a bisexual romance even though nothing about the cover copy suggests this. Neither participant in the main ship mentioned anything about being anything other than straight (Although I am open to the fact that they could be and the cover is trying to tell them something too! Or hinting to a fun sequel!)

In my catalogue of succubus media, Succubus definitely gets a spot in the good list. There was tension, consensual hot yet life threatening sex scenes, and even a cello player. It also features a heroine who likes reading romance novels (I should probably make a round up of those books too), and has an adorable kid sidekick (yep! another contender for a romance round up category). It’s good for spooky season, but really all year round.

Note: BookishlyJewish received an arc of this book from publisher. We’re just slow readers.

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