Review: Daemons in the Mist by Alicia Kat Vancil

Daemons in the Mist (The Marked Ones Trilogy #1)
by Alicia Kat Vancil

Blurb:
Accidentally marrying a beautiful stranger—what’s the worst that could happen?

We all have that one thing—that one thing we wish for on every first star of the night. Wealth. Fame. Love. For geeky artist Patrick Connolly, it is the attention of his beautiful and seemingly unattainable classmate Nualla Galathea. However, when he accepts her invitation for a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip to Vegas, the last thing he expects is to wake up married to her. Or to find out she’s not even human.

Patrick may think his wish has just come true. However, this gentle boy is about to find out that it will take more than artistic talent to combat the deadly secrets lurking behind the clever construct of illusions and supertech that conceal the world of the daemons from human eyes. Because when it comes to these gazelle-horned creatures, one false step might just get you killed.

In her mesmerizing debut series, up and coming author Alicia Kat Vancil leads you on an unforgettable thrill ride through the swirling fog of San Francisco that will leave your heart pounding.

My Review:
I first heard about this author when I was attending a facebook release day party for another author. Alicia Kat Vancil mentioned you could get a free copy of her first book by joining her mailing list, I thought the book sounded good, so thought why not and signed-up. Having just finished this book I think it’s a good thing I signed-up for that mailing list as I want to read more books by this author.

Daemons in the Mist takes the cliché plot line from normal human meets supernatural and fall in love and manages to twist it into a great story. While there are some cliché parts and the book is a bit predictable at times, I had a lot of fun reading this. It was exactly the type of book I was in the mood for and I like this author her writing style, the pace flowed really well and there was enough happening to keep my attention. There is some foreshadowing about events that take place later in the book and I thought it was well done. There was a small twist with a lie and a birthday I wasn’t a fan of around halfway the book, but that was only a minor issue. Towards the 70% the pace really picks up and I couldn’t put the book down, twist after twist surprised me. There are some really well done twists towards the end of the book and I feel like it sets things up for the second book. The ending wraps things up nicely, while still making me wish I had a copy of the second book to read already.

I thought it was interesting that this book was told form both point of views, Nualla the female Daemon and Patrick the normal human male. I also liked how it was the female who was the supernatural instead of the male. Both are great characters. Patrick has a bad home situation, only a few friends and is often a bit self deprecation. He always had his eye on Nualla and then one day he comes to her aid and she finally notices him and he was a chance. Nualla looks perfect, but actually her life is more complicated than it seems from the outside. I thought Nualla and Patrick made a nice couple. Beside these two there are some interesting side characters like Nualla her family, Travis and Patrick his best friend Connor. They all had enough personality to get a feel for their character. I thought it was a bit weird how Connor was so accepting of all the secrets Patrick kept, but he seemed like a great friend.

While the romance stars with them meeting and pretty soon marrying each other, it still builds nicely. They don’t declare their love for each other until later and the whole marriage thing is sort of a joke that turns into an marriage as they are both drunk and after that they start to really get to know each other. I liked how this was handled. I was afraid it would go a bit too fast when they got married so early in the book, but strangely enough it worked. They get closer to each other and I liked them together.

The focus isn’t on the world building, but the author did a great job of weaving world building into the story. I am not a fan of angel and demon stories, but here they treat daemons more as just another supernatural creature. And there are good and evil daemons, but it doesn’t get elaborated on until later in the book. I usually don’t like classifying different species as good or evil, so I am curious how that issue will be handled in later books as the evil daemons don’t play a big part in this book until the end. Beside that we learn a bit of daemon culture, how they have their own language how they hide in the city and how their society works. I liked how we got to know a bit about the daemons, but still hoped for more and I am hoping for more answers in the next book.

To conclude: this was a great book, it was fun and enjoyable and exactly what I was in the mood for when I picked it up. It was a bit cliché at times, but I thought the author handled the story very well and there were enough surprises and twists. The pace was done well, although the pace did increase towards the end of the book. The characters were likeable and even the side characters had enough depth to get a feel for their personality. The romance took some time to develop even though they get married early in the book and I liked them together. There’s some world building woven into the story, but a lot of questions still remain. The ending was well done and makes me curious about the next book!

Links:
– Goodreads
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

Would you rather read a well done cliché book or a badly done original book?