Book Review – Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead

When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants, the wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical?

But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid's life is far less exotic. At least there's her day job at a local bookstore--free books; all the white chocolate mochas she can drink; and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can't.

But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle's demon underground. And for once, all of her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won't help because Georgina's about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny. . .

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Book Review:

This book was not even on my radar until recently thanks to Nereyda at Nick and Nereyda’s Infinite Booklist.  OH MY GOSH!! I am HOOKED!!  I am a HUGE Richelle Mead fangirl.  I devoured her Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series like they were book candy.  I can’t get enough.  I love her writing style and the worlds she creates.  So when Nereyda raved and gushed about this series, I knew I had to get on the Georgina Kincaid  train.

One of Richelle Mead’s strong points are her characters.  In every book of hers that I have read, there is ALWAYS at least one character that I really enjoyed.  In the Vampire Academy series, I loved Rose.  I am obsessed with Adrian from the Bloodlines series.  Most recently, Mae in Gameboard of the Gods was rather intriguing.  In Succubus Blues, I fell in SERIOUS LOVE with Georgina “Georgie” Kincaid.  Georgie is a succubus.  I’m not up on my Greek or Roman mythology, so I had no idea what a succubus is until I read this book.  A succubus is an immortal temptress and seductress who must sleep with mortals to steal their life force.  Without this life force, they feel weak and drained.

Georgie is not like the other succubi.  She has a conscience and doesn’t do what normal succubi do.  Instead of using her alluring looks and shapeshifting powers to seduce the most attractive men and steal their life force – the ones with the most life, she goes after men who are scum.  As a general rule, she doesn’t date because dating will lead to to kisses, which leads to sex which can awaken her succubus powers.  Despite having supernatural powers and abilities, she tries to be human as possible.  She uses the occasional shapeshifting powers, for the most part she does most things on her own.  Unnecessarily using her shapeshifting powers felt like cheating.  She wants to blend in with the rest of the world.

Georgie has a lot of interesting quirks that made me adore her.  She has a sharp wits.  The arguments and mini-fights she has with her best friends are hilarious.  Her friends dish out the insults and she spits it right back at them.  She is also a voracious reader.  She loves reading so much that she works in a bookstore and lives right around the corner. Georgie is a major fangirl of author Seth Mortensen. When she meets him for the first time, it is so endearing.  It was this scene that made me fall in love with her.  She loves Seth’s books so much that she only allows her to read 5 pages a night of his book.

Georgie had a couple of male suitors in Succubus Blues.  Roman is the epitome of tall, dark and handsome – just the kind of guy that she tries to stay away from. From the beginning he comes on strong and is very persistent.  Georgie is well-versed in saying no and setting up boundaries, but Roman is different.  Roman is extremely sexy and I thought they were a hot couple, but from from the beginning I was all the way on Team Seth.  If you follow my Goodreads updates, you would have seen that I wanted Roman out of the way from the first “Hello, my name is Roman.”

“My instincts drove me to seek sex out, and looking at him, I realized that urge might be strong independence of any sort of succubus need to feed.”

Seth Mortensen is a bestselling author of Georgie’s favorite book series.  Seth was a different male love interest.  In fact, he wasn’t much of a love interest, as there wasn’t any “loving” going on between these two in this book.  But the connection between Georgie and Seth grabbed my attention.  Seth was quiet and didn’t have much to say in person, but boy could this guy write an email!  All of the things he could say – and didn’t want to say – to Georgie he wrote in these verbose and eloquently written emails.  It made my heart sing.  I couldn’t wait for them to talk and “not have coffee” together. Seth was too good of a person that Georgie new he had a lot of life force.  She had to stay away. Selfishly, Georgie was concerned with what would happen if she stole too much of his life force.

“Sleep with Seth Mortensen? Good grief. It was the most preposterous thing I’d ever heard. It was appealing. If I absorbed his life force, there was no telling how long it’d be until his next book came out.”

Part of what made this book so great was the smooth storyline.  Richelle Mead includes many different paranormal creatures in this book as well as elements of mythology.  I also loved hearing about Georgina’s life before she became a succubus.  It provided this great character depth and gave an explanation as to why she is so guilt-ridden and cautious.  The secondary characters were phenomenal.  I enjoyed bickering between Jerome, the archdemon of the Seattle hierarchy, and his unlikely friend, Carter, an angel and loved seeing Georgie interact with them.

I can’t say enough good things about this book.  I am looking forward to continuing the series as soon as I read some of my other books.  I’ve heard they only get more addictive and crazy.  Guys, I am on board the Georgie Kincaid train!  Hop on board with me and join me as I root for Seth and Georgie because ROMAN SUCKS (He actually does suck that bad, I just like Seth more.)!!

Favorite Quotes:

“Let’s practice on you. You want a white chocolate mocha?”
“Yeah,” I conceded. Everyone I worked with knew about that particular vice. I usually managed to take down three of them a day. Mochas that was, not coworkers.

“My soul was a given. I’d carry it as long as I walked the earth, but it would have a lease on it so to speak. That was the standard price for any hellish deal. But hell wanted more of me: my eternal service in the corruption of souls.”