In Which Kati Cleanses Her Soul w/r to Meljean Brook

Truth: I read Demon Angel, Meljean Brook's first book. And well, I had a hard time with it. Mostly because it's what I call "romance for smart chicks" and the world building was kind of overwhelming for me. Plus, I never really warmed up to Lilith.

But here's the thing, seriously, everyone loves Meljean's books, and well, I love Meljean herself. Her blog is regular reading for me, and she's just really friendly and honest, and always has interesting blog topics. So I just kind of...shut up about it and didn't say anything about the fact that her work didn't really work for me. Thing is, with the group of bloggers I seem to hang around, it's hard not to get excited every time Meljean has a new book out, because, well, they all LOVE her. But thus far, I have resisted buying any of her books.

That is, until Demon Forged.

So, it started with Kate emailing me and telling me hands down, she'd read her book of the year, Demon Forged. She was all OMFG, BEST. BOOK. EVER. And then CJ read it. And she was really excited about it. Then I read a review by someone who had never read Meljean's stuff over at AAR and she gave it an A.

And then I won it at CJ's place.

When the book arrived, I just kind of hastily put it on my TBR shelf. And thought, "Sooner or later, I'll get to it." That day arrived on Monday. I finished an historical romance, which I quite enjoyed, but hadn't picked another book out to read. I went to the TBR and thought, "Might as well give it a go."

I started the book on the train on the way to work on Monday, and have been reading it at lunchtime, on the commute home, and last night into the wee hours. It's mesmerizing. I have to say, I can really see an evolution in Meljean's work. Probably part of it is that in Demon Angel, she was worldbuilding. Alot. But I also see a tremendous sense of confidence in the writing.

As someone who literally hasn't read a single book between Demon Angel and Demon Forged, I was mildly concerned that I might be completely lost. And there are a few things about the world that I wonder about (mostly signing and caches). But what really strikes me is the incredible sensuality that Meljean writes with now. It might just be the main characters, who have a really tragic past, and seem to have insurmountable differences between them. But I don't think so. To me, the sensuality I'm reading in this book is a lot about a writer being completly confident in the choices she's making. The first love scene between Irena and Alejandro is mind blowing. And what I appreciate is Meljean's ability to move the action of the story ahead (it's obvious that big things, they are a-comin'), but never waiver from focusing on the love story between the hero and heroine. It's a very fine line to walk, and to me, it's the most obvious sign of her comfort with her creation and her confidence as a writer.

The most exciting part for me is that I'm now fascinated by the world, which means I've got a whole delightful backlist to read. How cool is that?