Author Unpublished

Title: Serpent's Storm

Author: Amber Benson

Genre: Urban Paranormal Fantasy

Rating: 3 or 5 Stars (dual rating)

Description/Synopsis: Calliope just wants to make it big in the Big Apple like any other working girl. But Callie is also Death's Daughter, no matter how much she tries to stay out of the family business. And now her older sister has made a deal with the Devil himself to engage in a hostile takeover of both Death Inc. and Heaven-once they get Callie out of the way.

WARNING - SPOILERS MAY ENSUE BEYOND THIS POINT - REVIEW BELOW

Serpent's Storm is the 3rd book in the Calliope Reaper-Jones series, and so far, the best one I've read yet. (Hence the slightly higher dual-rating). Callie's life is thrown out of whack unexpectedly when out of nowhere - she's become death again. How'd that happen? Someone has staged a coup in purgatory, and the real Grim Reaper (Callie's father) is now dead.

Whether she wants the job or not, Callie steps up to the plate and starts trying to figure out what is going on. What ensues is an adventure full of double-crossing, curses, and a full out war in Purgatory and Hell.

I really have to say that I enjoyed this book a lot more than the previous two. There were a few parts that were a little lackluster (I didn't enjoy the entirety of the dank little island village or it's inhabitants), and I really didn't understand why Callie had a 5-minute sexcapade with Frank in the subway. (Come on.. that was just gratuitous... it had absolutely no bearing on the story what so ever), but over all, I really liked Callie more in this story. She was a bit less whiny and self-centered this time around. Yes, she still continued to get herself in situations that could have or should have been avoided - but she also came into her own a little in this novel. She saw what needed to be done, and she did it without pausing to worry over what everyone else would say.

The result, of course, was that this book was a tad more serious than the previous two. Don't get me wrong, there was still plenty of silliness and snarky comments, but instead of throwing tantrums every five minutes, Callie was at least trying to do what was right.  It's nice to see that Callie's character is growing through these novels and I hope that at the end she turns out to be as awesome as I'm hoping.

If you were on the fence with the previous two books of this series, give this one a try, you may like it more.