If you like your books steamy (this is an adult fantasy romance, not for kids or teens!) and you aren’t easily offended by potty-mouthed, crass guardian angels, read on!
The fourth installment in the Lily Harper series will see Lily on yet another mission deeper into the Underground City. More specifically, Lily will travel to the dreaded City of Dis where heretics and sinners remain imprisoned in their crypts, burning for all eternity. Here, Lily will find herself battling real and imagined nemeses. Luckily for Lily, she’s accompanied by Bill, her foul mouthed guardian angel, and Tallis Black, the hard-headed Bladesmith. Even though Tallis is an expert at keeping Lily safe, he isn’t exactly an expert when it comes to matters of the heart. Where Tallis is concerned, Lily is just as frustrated as she always has been. But if Lily is anything, it's determined which means she won't give up on the evasive Bladesmith so easily. Their journey will bring Lily and Tallis closer and allow Lily a rare glimpse into her enigmatic companion. However, it will also pit them against hellish creatures and obstacles which could tear them apart. Literally. Then there's the enigma that is the Master of the Underground City, Alaire. Once Lily lives up to her end of the agreement between them, she will find herself facing her greatest battle yet, her own struggle between light and dark...
I’m a huge fan of anything paranormal and I always have been. I get super excited whenever they have those Twilight Zone Marathon days and anything ghost or vampire related will always attract my attention.
My interests are varied but aside from writing, I’m most excited about traveling. I’m extremely fortunate to have been able to live in England and Scotland, both places really having a profound effect on my books.
Thanks for checking out my books and I hope you enjoy them! Happy Haunting!
Really????? Another cliffhanger?????? and Bill?? forget about him, he is so demeaning and disrespectful. Why does Lily let him talk to her that way??? He is not funny, he is annoying bordering on insulting. Lily is supposed to be a warrior and strong but she lets him treat her like she is dirt!!!!!!!!!!!!! And that is just the tip of the iceberg about what I didn't like about this book. I love HP Mallory and this series started out great but it is going down hill fast. I will give it one more book and then we will see......
This was a seriously miserable, unhappy, teeth-gritting, cursing-under-the-breath book to read. From the first page to the last, there was not a moment of happiness, not a single event or word that could provoke even the slightest smile. And as I read the last page, I couldn’t help but think that it will take either a serious deus ex machina or a major miracle for H. P. Mallory to fix the mess she has created in this tale.
Every third page for nearly half of the book, Mallory writes in a scene that contains the narcissistic, vulgar tirades of Bill, the Guardian Angel. We are beat over the head with his homeboy vocabulary and his constant sexual diatribes. Even though explicit language usually just rolls off my proverbial back, quite frankly, it wasn’t long before I was practically screaming for Bill to just “put a sock in it.”
And for the same amount of pages, we are bombarded with Mallory having Tallis answer every question that Lily poses with the words “I don’t know” in a Scottish brogue. It didn’t take too long for that device to become just as irritating as Bill’s outbursts.
Finally, after two chapters, I simply began skipping over any scene that contained Bill. Next I began skimming through Mallory’s attempt to imbue Lily with a Valley Girl persona accompanied by TSTL tendencies. Then I began skimming the conversations between Lily and Tallis that simply repeated everything they had said to each other fourteen times before.
That skipping and skimming surely made getting to the meat of the plot a lot easier. Approximately 45% of the way into the book, the story started gaining substance and it picked up momentum substantially. A decent plotline, with less Bill, more physical action, and creditable problems for Lily and Tallis finally emerged.
And then, on the last page, in the throes of the major crisis, the tale acquired my personal literary kiss of death.
SPOILER ALERT!
There are two actions that will stop me from pursuing future books in a series. One is killing off, physically or psychologically, a long-standing main character. The other is ending a book with a major cliffhanger rather than with a hook.
By the end of this book, both have happened. The major characters of Lily & Tallis are in the middle of a major life-and-death crisis – physical death for one of them and psychological destruction for the other. The villain, Alaire, has just smugly played his trump card. And then, literally, in the middle of the dialogue that will determine everyone’s fate, we get those three fatal words: TO BE CONTINUED.
It is my intention that I will not read any further additions to this series until said series has been completed. Should I decide, at that point, to pursue what happens with Lily and Tallis, at least I won’t find myself blindsided.
I will be very glad when this generation of authors gets off the cliffhanger-train and returns to the novel that ends with a hook and a promise of situations to come. Cliffhangers do not make me salivate with curiosity and the desire to purchase the next book on its publication date. They simply make me angry and I want to move on to an author who knows how to end a major story arc in the same book in which that arc began.
Dammit HP you and your crazy cliffhanger endings. This is absolutely one of my favorite series and I seriously need to sleep on that cliffhanger before I write a proper review
Lily is still reeling from Tallis telling her that he loves her. Unfortunately, they have bigger issues, so talking about their feelings gets put on the back burner. Lily, Tallis, and her pal, Angel Bill, have all manner of baddies to fight on their way to the next level of the Underground City, the City of Dis.
Meanwhile, Lily is having visions of a past with Tallis. Tallis refuses to talk about them, so Lily is left wondering what their signifigance in all this means. Lily owes Alaire, the Master of the Underground City, a favor, and being indebted to him has her in a constant state of worry. She has no idea what Alaire's favor is going to cost her.
Wow! All I can say is that a lot happens in PERSEPHONE, so hang on for the ride. Lily and Tallis are fighting more than an attraction. It's obvious they have a strong connection to one another, and I'm guessing that will be revealed later on, as Tallis isn't very forthcoming on the subject. I knew Alaire was setting Lily up for something bad, but I just didn't foresee that outcome. I'm wondering how Lily is going to pull through this one. PERSEPHONE gets 3.5 stars from me. Looking forward to reading the next installment in H.P. Mallory's Lily Harper series, the novella, THE BLADESMITH.
In this story Lily, Tallis and Bill head to the City of Dis to save a soul. In addition to the soul Lily must perform a favor owed to Alaire. I saving her life she owes him a favor and now it is due. But beware of favors because this one will bit her really badly! Many things will happen and you will meet a different Lily and the change is not what she would want. Plot twist, yes and betrayals. An interesting book which I think you will enjoy!
Lily and Tallis and Bill are on another mission to retrieve another soul. Saxon saves her and leads her to her destiny prepared.by Alaire. She is overcome by a entity and is no longer herself. Alaire offers Tallis absolution if he will leave Alaire to continue his plans. What will he do?
This by far is the best book of the series so far it flowed really well. Plus well we all knew S was up to no good because Tallis told us. We also all knew the manager of the underworld had something in store for Lily. I just do not believe anyone saw this coming. but maybe Tali’s, but will have to find out. In the next book. I’m so pleased I stuck with this series.
Lily must complete her assignment and keep her promise to Alaire. Discovering Tallis loves her and she him she’s determined to break through to him but her trip Underground causes her to lose herself and all she holds dear. Can she be saved. I’m ready for more of her sty.
What a huge change of events! You have met several different people and creatures in this series, but in this book some characters are changed and seem unrecognizable. Ms. Mallory will keep you guessing!
Lily must go further into the Underground City in her job as a soul retriever. The City of Dis makes the other levels sound like fun. Lily and Tallis grow closer but, Tallis does his backing off thing that is very annoying. Don’t forget, Lily has a debt to repay the master of the underground city.
Better than 1-3. The main 2 characters are getting deeper. Bill is still super annoying. The plot felt like more was at stake. I definitely saw the ending coming because of the title of the book however.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Okay, so this want much of a surprise when I realized what he asked for especially with the title of the book. However, I love these way it got there. I can't wait to see what happens next.
"Persephone" by H.P. Mallory is the fourth installment in the Lily Harper Series. Warning this review contains spoilers. After just surviving a near death experience, Tallis revels to Lily that he is in love with her. Under normal circumstances this revelation would be considered an amazing thing, but it is neither the right place or the right time to find out something like that. Interrupted by Bill and then Saxon, Tallis and Lily will bury and dwell on their feelings for each other for most of the novel. Then there is Alaire, the Master of the Underground City. He has fixated on Lily since he first set eyes on her. Much to Tallis's dismay, Alaire is changing the way things are done in the Underground, but to what end? We still aren't entirely sure. The one thing we do know is that Lily owes him a favor for saving her life (despite having been the cause of her needing her life saved in the first place). Will this favor allow for her to put him out of her mind or will it be her undoing? Overall, this was a good addition to the Lily Harper Series. I have some theories about the plot line and a few gripes. One theory is that Tallis was the former Master of the Underground City, hence their rivalry. Another theory is that Afterlife Enterprises is kind of evil. They send people whom they wronged, by allowing them to die prematurely, to the Underground only to have them fight for their lives and their souls. Jason seems to have broker a deal with Alaire for Lily's soul. Where several of the soul retrievers we've met already have spent years waiting for assignments to find their ten souls, Lily has been sent back over and over again with barely a break between assignments. Jason also seems to be fine with allowing soul retrievers to be murdered by Alaire's creations as he beefs up security to keep Tallis out. The gripe I have with the series is that I really wonder if all of these men really like Lily as a person and not just Lily's outer shell. Sure she's considered 'innocent' despite being fully aware of all of the evils in the world, but that doesn't mean there aren't other 'innocent' people out there. Based on one of the previous books, her body isn't innocent, nor is her mind because she knows the same things that every modern woman learns in school. The thing about her is that she isn't jaded by other people's short comings and that doesn't effect her ability to forgive them. Now, Bill has known Lily her whole life, so he is the only one that can sincerely love her for her. Though I find the Friends without Penalties thing a bit gross since he knew her as a baby. So, that does go to show that despite knowing her for her whole life, he's also focusing on her outside shell in that instance and not her inner beauty. Tallis can't stand her at first, but at least he learns to accept her for who she is and what she has to say. Everyone else just seems to be annoyed with her when she constantly questions them. One last theory. Based upon the visions, it seems to me that Lily and Tallis are soulmates since she is remembering a past life. Though if she did turn into his tree, than does that mean the tree is now dead since she was reborn? If Persephone (I'm calling her that since that is the title of the book) leaves Lily's shell and allows her to return, will Tallis not feel the same about her since she is now 'sullen'? Even though he wasn't technically dealing with the real Lily. (It's not like her body was innocent to begin with.) Would Tallis have even fallen in love with her if she still looked like her old self? (I really wonder how he would react to seeing a picture of her form her former life.) Anyway, I can't wait to read the next novel in the series. It will be interesting to see where H.P. Mallory takes this series.
I struggle with this series because I love elements of it, scottish warrior, underworld, the mythology of introducing the queen of hell. But at the same time I cant stand Bill and some of the explicit adult content. Bill is an extremely vulgar and inappropriate character, who adds comedy to the books, but I dont find that sort of stuff humorous. Yet I finished it because there are some good aspects.I like the relationship between the Lily and Tallis, I love the setting for the world and the creativity of the story. I dont like some of the sex scenes because they are not romantic, they are sex scenes for the sake of having sex scenes. They dont add to the story or seem appropriate in my opinion.
For those who are wondering, it does end on a cliffhanger, but I feel its not as bad as previous books by HP Mallory, this book felt more complete, maybe due to the fact that it was longer.
This series also bothers me because it seems like Lily is too dependent on Tallis. Other works by HP Mallory that I enjoyed immensely like Jolie Wilkins or Dulcie ONeil, they seemed stronger and more independent.
I look forward to seeing how the story line plays out despite some things I found I didnt like.
**Spoilers Below**
This book picks up right where the previous books left off. I feel that she was too quick to forgive Tallis, but she did. There was alot of back and forth between the two of them, and sexual tension which makes a romance novel. The cast is sent on a new mission, and its to an even more dangerous part of the underworld. Along the way Allaire does his best stalking. There is a creepy scene in which Lily is separated from her companions and is nearly raped by a beast. That scene was disturbing. That is also one of the times Lily shows her strength and managed to fight off the beast. The ending besides her basically raping Tallis was really cool seeing Lily become the queen of the underworld through the trickery of Allaire.
'Persephone' is the continuing story of Lily Harper as she works as a soul retriever under the watchful eye of her foul-mouthed guardian angel Bill and alongside Scottish bladesmith Tallis.
I felt like the wait for this book took forever but when it came I wasn't disappointed. There's a twist in the tale that was a pretty ballsy move and seems to have upset some of the readers quite a bit. I like unexpected developments so this was fine by me. What did start to grate on my nerves this time around was Bill. He's the sort of character who when used sparingly is absolutely hilarious, but this book just seemed to be jam-packed full of him which was just too much to take. This was what brought this volume down to four stars as the story otherwise was very well done.
Overall this is an entertaining read with a cool storyline. I'd recommend the series to fans of urban fantasy and paranormal romance.
Interesting title, which makes you wonder why it was picked. But this story of Lily, Tallis and Bill is just awesome. You start up where the last one left off and Lily is in a dilemma that takes you a while to get a handle on. But the story moves quickly with many places that leave you hanging in suspense about what is going to happen next. The last part of the book is one that really grabs you and keeps you wondering what is going to happen. Is Lily strong enough? Which of the men in her life will win? And you are left with another cliffhanger where the future hangs on the decisions that must be made.
Great book but I have mix feelings about it. I'm a huge fan of this author. Something I liked most about her books was that the main story line gets resolved with a secondary line as a cliffhanger therefore leaving you satisfied but wishing for more. That is not the case in this book. The main story line has a major cliffhanger on this one. Therefore my 4 stars instead of five. However for all of those who have been following this series this book is an awesome treat. Seeing Talli finally playing along on one of Billie's game was my favorite part. Billy as always don't disappoint. His banters are hilarious! I just hope the author doesn't take long on the next book on this series.
What does this title have to do with the story? 'Persephone' is never once mentioned by any character. I assume she is the Queen of the City of Dis, but there is nothing to confirm. I do enjoy that the books in the series pick up where the previous ended, but I'm not sure what we gained by seeing Lily and Bill go home, when they were routed right back to the Underground City. I did enjoy seeing Lily fight with demons one on one, rather than Tallis fighting everything, but that was pretty much all I enjoyed. This story did not keep my attention.. as it took nearly 2 weeks to finish, when books of this length take 2-3 days.
I've always liked HP Mallory. She creates wonderful worlds and very likable characters. I have read every one of her books! This is one if my favorite series next to the Jolie Wilkins series. This book however, was not my favorite. Most of the book was spent with the characters being angry with each other. There was so much sexual tension and normally I'm okay with this, but this was just torturous to read. To me this book didn't have the same easy flow and the last three and seemed to jump from one scene to the next with no smooth transition.
I don't like how this book ended at all, the last chapter actually infuriated me. I hope book five makes up for this one.
I have enjoyed the books greatly buying them as soon as they have come out. I find this latest one didn't disappoint either even if our not so angelic Angels lines were a bit repetitive sometimes. But all is forgiven because I love him so much. Was groaning in pain when the book finished wanting desperately to have more. I'm no shamed to admit.....I'm addicted to mallory's better off dead. I recommend people give even at least the first book better off dead a go to see what I mean. They are very gripping, interesting and funny. I've not been disappointed and happily give full stars to all four books. Desperately wanting more...waiting...waiting... Not so patiently.
I just finished Persephone LOVED it ! I have to admit I love all of H.p Mallory's books. I really like Lily she' s a strong woman in a crazy situation . Billy, to say he's not what you would expect of an angel is an understatement! Tallis well if you are into the dark Scottish warrior types well you will not be disappointed! The book moves and kept my interest the entire time . I was surprised by the ending and warning it is a cliffhanger but that's ok because it keeps you wanting more!The waiting is going to kill me but I know it will be so worth it!!! ❤
Just when I thought I waited long enough to have all the books in the series, no. I purposely waited in reading the Lily Harper Series because I knew I would be left wanting to read each book back to back! You will be left with a cliff hanger ending begging you to know what happens next!! Just when you think you are getting somewhere with the beloved characters, our awesome author throws you the ultimate curve ball, that you are like, "Wait, What? No. NO. Don't do that!!! Please H.P, hurry with the next book, I am dying to know what happens with Tallis, Lily and Alaire!!
I really enjoy the ideas in this series with the Dantes Inferno references. I love Lily and Tallis and their struggle to hold back against the feelings they have. But the only character I can't bear is Billy the Angel. How can he be any sort of Angel with his foul mouth and pervert ways. Perhaps in AfterLife Enterprises he is what angels are like? Not sure how others feel about him, and I think he has a necessary place in the story but perhaps a bit more lively and less of a pervert. My only other issue is they are just too short. I do love them and can't wait for chapter (book ) 6.
I love these characters! As well as all of her books, HP is beyond talented! The connection between Tallis and Lily is so thick it's frustrating! The entertaining and annoying Angel helps add humor to the story! Such a terrific blend of main characters. The detail is so good that you can easily see what she's talking about. Well done once again. I will not give any details as you should really read this series, you will not regret it!
Twist, turns, mystery, sexy time, cuteness, funny times, panic time, awesomeness... What is not to love about this book? I wish I had the patience to just wait until all the books or out. I love how devious Alaire is. Tallis had a lot of cuteness and hotness going on with him... I kept saying.. 'Awww...' Or 'Dayummm...' Bill, that funny imbecile.. I just love all the characters! I must admit that I shy away from the description of the monsters...