The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark

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"I gasped, or tried to. My mouth opened, but I couldn’t draw breath. His lips, pearly wet, parted and he blew into my mouth. My lungs expanded beneath his weight. When I exhaled he sucked my breath in and his weight turned from cold marble into warm living flesh."

Since accepting a teaching position at remote Fairwick College in upstate New York, Callie McFay has experienced the same disturbingly erotic dream every night: A mist enters her bedroom, then takes the shape of a virile, seductive stranger who proceeds to ravish her in the most toe-curling, wholly satisfying ways possible. Perhaps these dreams are the result of her having written the bestselling book The Sex Lives of Demon Lovers. Callie’s lifelong passion is the intersection of lurid fairy tales and Gothic literature—which is why she’s found herself at Fairwick’s renowned folklore department, living in a once-stately Victorian house that, at first sight, seemed to call her name.

But Callie soon realizes that her dreams are alarmingly real. She has a demon lover—an incubus—and he will seduce her, pleasure her, and eventually suck the very life from her. Then Callie makes another startling discovery: Her incubus is not the only mythical creature in Fairwick. As the tenured witches of the college and the resident fairies in the surrounding woods prepare to cast out the demon, Callie must accomplish something infinitely more difficult—banishing this supernatural lover from her heart.

I was a bit apprehensive about requesting The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark. I had been wooed earlier in the year by a bestselling book with some similarities: witches in an academic setting, a supernatural lover, magic. It turned out to be a laughable love story with an irritating protagonist; I could not even finish it. The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark is the spellbinding, literary gothic romance with an intelligent heroine that disappointing book marketed itself as (but wasn't).

What got me to read The Demon Lover, despite my reservations, was the fact that Juliet Dark is the pseudonym for Carol Goodman - who is well-known for writing literary mysteries. I was right to trust my instincts for The Demon Lover is the grown-up's [insert any hot YA paranormal romance]; it's like the coolest lit professor ever decided to teach a class on gothic novels, then slipped in folklore on fairies, witches, vampires, and other magical creatures. There were references to Twilight, The Mysteries of Udolpho, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Dracula, The Faerie Queene, Tam Lin, and (what won my devotion) an outright homage to the queen of gothic romances, Victoria Holt. (Holt also penned a novel called The Demon Lover, which I don't think is a coincidence. And yeah, I own a copy.)

Clearly, Dark knows the traditions very well, subtly weaving in themes from the aforementioned within the narrative. The Demon Lover is a gothic novel that talks about gothic novels. I love the literary critical analyses made by Callie, who's a lit professor at Fairwick College, which simultaneously reflected The Demon Lover’s plot development and style.

I cannot write a review of this book without mentioning the erotic scenes - not only were women being ravished by men made of flesh and blood, but by moonlight, the wind, shadows. These sensuous, fever-inducing passages were addictive. But aside from that, Dark's writing is sumptuous, the setting - rich, and the plot - full of dark foreboding, mystery, and magic.

"'That is the Ganconer, as he's called in Celtic myth. His name means "love talker"...He's the incubus who rides his horse, the night mare, into the dreams of women whom he seduces. The women he comes to in their sleep fall under his spell and begin to waste away. He sucks them dry like vampire. He's what you write about in your book---the demon lover...But he is the most dangerous of demons because he is the most beautiful...the Ganconer assumes the shape of your heart's desire.'"

For a fan of gothic romance as I am, The Demon Lover was a lavish literary feast that not only celebrates the genre but enriches it by incorporating fairy lore, enchantment, incubi and other supernatural creatures.

If Victoria Holt and Possession's A.S. Byatt decided to collaborate on a paranormal novel, I think the result would be very much like The Demon Lover.

Thank you very much to the Amazon Vine program for providing a copy for me to review!