The Demon's Librarian

Title: The Demon's Librarian

Author: Lilith Saintcrow

Publisher: ImaJinn

Copyright Date: 2009

Print Date: February 2009

ISBN: 9781933417448

Pages: 218

Book Description (from back cover):

Demon's are preying on schoolchildren in her city, so Francesca Barnes does what any red-blooded librarian would do — she does some research and goes hunting. But the books she finds in a secret cache don’t tell her the whole story. Chess has no idea what she’s just stepped into, or just how special she is.

Orion is Drakul, part demon, and a loyal servant of the Order. He doesn’t expect a motorcycle-riding librarian to be messing around with demonic forces, and he doesn’t expect her to smell so ———— good. But Ryan’s got bigger problems. His partner has disappeared, and the forces of Darkness are rising.

Now Chess is Ryan’s only hope of finding his partner, and Ryan is Chess’s only hope of survival. Because the demons now know Chess exists, and that she is the heir to a long-lost power that could push back their dark tide. If Ryan can just keep her alive long enough, she might just be the key to destroying the demons completely.

But Ryan doesn’t know he’s been betrayed by the very Order he serves. And if Chess does by some miracle survive, he won’t ever be able to touch her again…

Comments:

I first heard about this book because of its inspiration. That is, Wendy @ The Misadventures of Super Librarian mentioned her role (wanting a strong librarian heroine) and Lilith Saintcrow's response (writing this).

So, being interested in reading books about strong librarian protagonists myself (having aspired to the librarian role — despite continued lack of success), and knowing I really like Lilith Saintcrow's writing anyway (I've read her Society duology, the Dante Valentine books, the first Jill Kismet book, and the first two of her Lili St. Crow YA books), I've certainly been interested in reading this.

I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed reading about Chess and Ryan, their relationship, the fight against evil, etc. I enjoyed the fact that while Chess was strong, that didn't automatically make Ryan weak. And I liked that while Ryan wasn't weak, he also wasn't that super alpha type. And, to be honest (though I know others wouldn't agree w/ this), I liked reading a strong book w/ lovely romance and no sex scenes.