Black Magic

Demon Curse #1

by Alex Fox

Dante is a witch. Phineas is a vampire. The two are roommates.

Phineas is a supernatural drug dealer and Dante is, reluctantly, Phineas’s best customer. The drug helps control his illness, affectionately called Demon Curse. There’s no telling when it’ll kill him, but he knows it will. It took his parents years ago, and he’s expected to go any day now.

When Dante learns Demon Curse is as its name states – a curse – he’s determined to find who’s responsible and save himself. But the one responsible targeted Dante for his powers, and is on the other end waiting to collect his soul when he passes. They have no intention of letting Dante live.

But Phineas has no intention of letting Dante die. He knows the only cure for the curse, and is determined to convince Dante to use it, even if Dante insists he’d rather die than become a vampire.

Genres: Vampires, Paranormal, Fantasy

255 pages, ebook

First published June 17, 2017

Reviews

[Leo The Great · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

I love the characters! The writing was good. Thank you so much for this story. I look forward to the next one.

[Christine Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing story, good pacing. Never lost interest. enjoyed the story and characters. The cover is striking, caught my eye.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm having mixed feelings about this book. One one hand it was entertaining. The majority of the book is taken up by Dante fixing the magical problems of an assortment of mundies and supernaturals, all the while rolling his eyes and desperately wanting to be a member of the "in crowd" high council which denies him as he is dying from a magical curse. Phineas is his vampire, drug dealer, roommate; apparently gay, but you don't find that out definitively until about 80%, and it's still not completely clear if he and Dante are in a "more than roommates" relationship, as the apex of "sexy times" in this book is a couple of kisses and maybe a deep stare. Gwen is a fox shifter on the run from her unwanted controlling/abusive vampire ex-boyfriend, and Dante helps her out and makes her his secretary/PA. Outside of that, the plot and characters are so nebulous, I had to wait until the the expository at the end to figure out what was actually happening, and even then, it's not entirely explained with any great detail as the one who is getting the explanation gets angry and storms off. The book cover was perplexing for a long while until the villain Nyx was introduced. There are some humorous elements to it, and like I said, it was entertaining. AF's writing is engaging, but his/her plotting/story telling needs a bit more.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting start that rapidly went awry. The last 1/4 was terribler.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a little confused as to whether I liked this book or not. The writing didn't seem to flow for me for some reason. It was a bit stilted...The main character, Dante seemed to spend most of his time rolling his eyes and being mildly irritated at stuff that didn't necessarily warrant being irritated at. I was confused about his "roommate"...are they a couple or not? Sometimes it seemed yes, but then there would be veiled allusions to Phineas sleeping with women...and Dante asks if someone has turned him bi, but then when I finished the book, the ad for the next one says it's"twice as gay". Well this one wasn't really all that gay if I'm honest...but does this mean they are an item?! Its hardly the main plotline in the story, I just want to know.
It was good enough that I'll be reading the second one, but it did take me a while to decide if I'd bother.

[Nightwings81 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the premise and definitely want to continue the series, but I did find the writing style a little quirky--you could make a drinking game every time the author tells us that the characters sighed or rolled their eyes. After the first three mentions of Dante "sighing" on one page, I started to think Fox was writing it as a joke, and would start adding mention of "sighed again", or "felt he did nothing but sigh". That never happened, however, and it seems that sighing and rolling their eyes were the only ways the author knew to convey exasperation, frustration, and annoyance.

[Furio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far more mystery than urban fantasy, this work shares with its real genre a slow pace and an understated tone. The focus is clearly on the characters who, unfortunately, are not very well rounded nor very interesting.
The lack of compelling rhythm added to nondescript characters sums up to a rather disappointing reading experience.

[Pamela Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in the : Demon Curse Book Series

This was a decent start to this new series I really liked these characters although Gwen did work on my nerves I'm not quite sure how I feel about her as a character . I'm looking forward too the next book in this series .

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I just couldn't connect with either characters.

[Selena Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a lot of eye rolling in this book (I mean a LOT) but the characters were fun and the story kept me interested right to the end.

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this. But it didn't flow very well and would often jump to a new subject rather abruptly.
Other than that, it was a really good read