Spoilers and Rant
-The majority of the story was predictable and pointless. The book begins with Charley moaning about her agoraphobia — she's not left her flat or worked a case for 2 months since she was tortured. Anyway, that changes quickly enough when she takes on a case for a woman who's been tormented by a mystery somebody and just like that Charley's agoraphobia and emotional scars seem to vanish and she goes on her merry way to investigate the girl's tormentor. There were a few times Charley mentioned she wanted to be at home but those just felt like half hearted attempts at trying to show her slowly recovering. I wasn't impressed with Charley's post traumatic stress or how it was handled — it didn't feel realistic enough.
There was a nonsensical side plot about a bunch of bank robbers that added nothing to the story. The actual long running arc in the series of Charley being a portal and Reyes being something or other and demons wanting to use Charley to invade heaven/enslave mankind, felt very much like an afterthought. Instead of focusing on the demon invasion, it's just forgotten about and the bulk of the story is taken up with Charley's 'case of the week' — a plot that won't add anything to the series as a whole.
After 3 books, there should have been more about the demon shit going down and the oncoming war but apart from being attacked by demons sporadically there was hardly any development in that story. None of Charley's investigations matter to the series overall, so why does it always take up all of the book?!
-The humour was grating. I initially thought Charley's humour was quite refreshing - I was just tired of all the emo, alpha bitch and angsty heroines but now her humour just gets on my nerves. First of all, her jokes are lame and induce much eye rolling and second her humour is inappropriate and never ends, not even when scenes/situations require gravitas. I can no longer stand Charley's awful humour.
Charley
-Charley was a dumb bitch..I don't even know where to start because her idiocy was that epic.
-After Reyes set her up as bait for his psycho dad, Charley ended up tortured and almost killed. Is Charley mad at Reyes for this? No, well in fairness Charley says she is but she doesn't act like it. No, what she acts like is a horny teenager because Reyes is just that 'hawt'. After a few chapters, she gives up the pretense of being mad at him and stupidly claims that she was never really mad at him to begin with — she just forgives and forgets because in Charley's head there was actually nothing to forgive or forget in the first place. He did not betray her in any way — he had every right to fuck her over!
-So Charley for some bizarre reason realises that she no right to be mad at Reyes. Not only that, she comes to the epiphany she was actually never angry at him BUT THAT she was actually angry at herself for being tortured by a lunatic — no, no it's not Reyes fault for fucking her over and setting up his sadistic stepdad to torture and kill her..it was perfectly reasonable for him to use the woman he 'loves' as bait for a psycho… Reyes did nothing wrong, if anything Charley's in the wrong, I mean she shouldn't have let herself get tortured..bad Charley for being a victim!! How dare she get herself tortured! I also don't know how she dared to be upset that Reyes got her tortured — the bloody cheek of her!!
-Even though Reyes treated her worse than shit, Charley didn't care because deep down she loves when he uses and abuses her, it gets her hot and bothered..So hot and bothered that she starts rubbing up against Reyes every chance she gets and then she rewards him getting her tortured by having sex with him..as you do.
-Funnily enough by the end, Charley was somehow made out to be the bad guy in the relationship because she apparently betrayed him (even though she didn't). So, Reyes then proceeds to throw a hissy fit and act like a bitch because naturally she deserves to feel his wrath. But when Charley was mad at him, he acted like she was being a bitch for deigning to be pissed at him, so it's okay for him to get pissed at Charley because his feelings are fwagile and important but it's not okay for Charley to get mad at Reyes because her feelings don't matter..ugh.
-Charley believes everything that Reyes tells her — never mind that he's the son of Satan, never mind that he repeatedly lied to her, never mind that he was happy to sacrifice her life so he could get out of prison, never mind he was a general in hell for millennia, never mind all the evul he's no doubt committed, never mind that he treats her like shit, never mind he's done nothing to earn her trust — none of that matters god dammit because she's so randy and he's so hot and thus nothing else matters. Charley puts Reyes on a pedestal and no matter what he's done or what anyone else says, she doesn't care because Reyes is her pwecious, sexy, sex-baby-god from sexerton.
-Even though Charley being with Reyes will probably cause hell on Earth, she refuses to give up on him because what's the fate of the world matter compared to getting laid by your hot abusive boyfriend?! Reyes even tells her she might need to kill him at some point in order to stop Satan and his gang from fucking over the world and Charley's all 'OMG, no way, your like super hawt, there's no way I could like kill that hawt body. I like can't believe you'd like even suggest that like. The world will like have to totes save itself, I ain't giving up my man, my va-ja-jay like needs you for like sexy times'.
-I was pissed that Charley forgave her dad yet again. She just kept making excuses for him — sure, she was mad for a while but as soon as he gives her hug or says something nice, she forgets about all the times he shat all over her.
-I got sick of the amount of times Charley kept throwing up and having to be saved by Reyes and Artemis - she was bloody useless. She's turned into an honest to god damsel in distress.
-A lot of Charley's 'quirks' like naming her tits/car/sofa and drinking coffee was less quirky and more annoying.
-Charley uses the word va-ja-jay for her vagina..ugh.
Reyes
-Reyes has been destroyed — he's a fucker. I can't believe I actually used to like this bastard.
-I was hoping that Reyes would do some much needed groveling and begging for forgiveness. Did that happen? No, it was actually quite the opposite. He was mad at Charley for not 'getting the fuck over it' — he honestly believed she had no right to be upset with him or hurt by what he did. There was an apology but it was without feeling and just seemed insincere — he genuinely didn't give a fuck that he was the reason she was tortured. He didn't care that she was suffering or scared, he didn't feel guilty AT ALL. Was I supposed to believe that he loved her?! Because him lacking empathy towards Charley's pain and being indifferent to her suffering made me think the opposite.
-The way Reyes treated Charley was vile — he constantly pushed her around and grabbed her throat, bullied her, intimidated her and abused her. The only reason I can think he did that was because he's probably a wife beater and likes to hurt and control her. He wants Charley to be his good little submissive bitch and that's why he's always threatening and hurting her. Oh well, at least Charley seemed to like being abused.
-All of Charley's family and friends kept going on and on about how Reyes saved Charley from Earl..they were all hugging him and thanking him and he was loving all the thanks and hero worship, even Charley felt grateful for him rescuing her. Naturally, I was screaming WTF IS THIS SHIT!! It was his fault she was attacked in the first fucking place!! Why does Charley forget that?! And why does Reyes accept all the thanks and shit from Charley's friends and family like he's proud of himself for saving her?! He's disgusting!! He should have felt guilty and awful when everyone was thanking him because it was his fucking fault for putting her in danger and not protecting her but no, he likes his ego being stroked. The dick.
-Reyes got angry about the picture she kept of his abuse… after what he did, it was just bizarre that he got all self righteous about trust and betrayal — it's not like she framed it or masturbated over the damn thing!! She was keeping it as evidence, it was hardly a betrayal. But Reyes likes making Charley feel like shit — he gets off on it and so anytime he thinks she does something questionable he starts to make her feel like shit. Nice.
-Reyes may claim to wuv Charley but there's no evidence to support that. He's just horny for her because it's forbidden. The only people he has genuine affection for is his pseudo sister and his 2 friends… And it's bizarre how he cares more for them than Charley since his whole reason for being on Earth is because he wanted and wuved Charley..so why does he show his sister and friends more love than Charley when she's his whole purpose on Earth??
-Why the hell did Reyes not pay Charley the money he owed her?! He just wants her to struggle. He gave his sister 50 million dollars which she doesn't even use and then he refuses to give the 1 million he owes Charley! WTF?! He needs to pay Charley and what does it matter if he takes the 1 million from the 50 million that's never been used?! Does he think his beloved sister can't live off 49 million?! His sister doesn't even want the money that's actually rightfully his! Charley has a right to her money but because Reyes doesn't want her to be happy and worry free he won't pay her. He makes sure his sister's comfortable and looked after but he doesn't seem to give a fuck about Charley's well being. It's weird - I actually thought he seemed more in love with his sister than Charley. All he felt for Charley was lust.
-I got tired of the amount of times that Reyes lowered his head and looked at Charley from underneath his lashes. Was it meant to be sexy? Because I thought it was actually quite girly.
Charley's dad
- Where do I start with this fucker?! How many times has this guy fucked Charley over?!
1. He let Charley's stepmum treat her like shit all her life.
2. He used her on his police cases when she was a child so he could further his career. He didn't give a fuck about traumatising Charley as long as he looked like the top dog at work.
3. Like Reyes he set her up as bait to be killed so he could save his wife and other daughter who he loved more.
4. When Charley was lying in a hospital bed recovering from being tortured, he called the police so she could be arrested.
5. He shoots her not once but twice!! He claimed he wanted to see if she could protect herself or some shit but he actually wanted to kill her.
I was pissed that instead of Charley's dad winning back her trust with time and love and shit — he was given cancer so that Charley would forgive him and see the bigger picture or some shit. It was a cheap way to make everyone sympathise with him but it didn't work on me — he was a dick full stop.
This guy was the biggest mother fucker ever! I was pissed by what he did in the earlier books and I had thought he might try to redeem himself in this one but he didn't he just kept betraying Charley and shitting all over her.
I absolutely hated this — it was rubbish. Charley had no backbone, she was a doormat especially when it came to Reyes and her dad. She reacted like a dolt when they betrayed her by brushing what they did under the carpet. I no longer like the romance - Reyes and Charley have some chemistry but that's all they have, they don't have a swoon worthy or epic relationship because there's no love, trust or affection there — it's just sex and lies between them which makes them an unattractive couple.
I'm not interested in the 'investigation of the week' type plots, I'd rather have read more development on Charley's destiny and the demon war.
This was disappointing - I can't say I won't read the next book because I did enjoy the first 3 books so I'm consequently hoping for a miracle in the fifth one.