Review: Ghostland by Jory Strong - A "Borrow My Book Tour" Review

Title: Ghostland

Author: Jory Strong

Published: April 2009

Paperback: 341 pages

Reading Level: Adult Urban Fantasy Romance

My Copy: Borrowed from Pat for Borrow My Book Tour

My rating: 3.5 of out of 5 wicked stars

Blurb:

In a post-Apocalyptic world where supernaturals have emerged from hiding, wealthy humans delight in decadence while the religious gain power through temptation. For the masses, fear reigns from birth to death, and the afterlife holds beings that only the bravest can summon—or dare to desire…

Taken from her home and family, shamaness Aisling McConaughey has no choice except to enter the “ghostlands” in order to learn the fate of a wealthy man’s mistress. But there is always a price to pay for the use of her power. To save the woman’s life she must summon the Djinn prince Zurael en Caym—and yield to his savage, sensual rage.

Zurael fears nothing except being called and bound to a human’s will. He intends to kill Aisling after she’s served as bait to find an enemy in possession of an ancient tablet. But the more he tastes of her innocent spirit, the more he’ll use his fiery touch and seductive whispers to keep her hungry for his mercy—even as they weave an erotic spell that he cannot escape…

Powerful forces threaten both their worlds, leaving Aisling and Zurael with an unbearable choice. Follow their hearts…or stay true to their honor and risk losing an eternity of pleasure.

My thoughts...

Thanks to Mandy's review on Ghostland, I knew to expect this to be a book with adult situations and not YA like I originally thought.  With that thought in mind, I dove into the world of shamaness, demons and angels.  Jory Strong wove a complex world of demons, magic and other worlds, but not so much that you got lost, but enough to keep you interested wondering what would happen next.

In the world that Aisling lived in, for every time she went into the Ghostland, she was required to pay that favor back.  It got to the point where she had so many people she owed stuff to that I wondered if she would ever pay it all back, but Jory wrapped it up nicely at the end.  The demon she summoned, Zurael, intends to kill Aisling before she can bind him to her, but it happens, fate has other plans for him.  He and Aisling share an almost unbelievable degree of lust for each other that sometimes takes away from the story being told, but in that same line...the sex is hot, Hot, HOT!

I really enjoyed the book, the world created by Jory and the characters.  This book would have rated higher for me if I hadn't felt like some of the sex in the book was just "filler".  Yes, I got that they desired each other even in the midst of peril, but I honestly got tired of hearing about how everything affected him sexually.  Aside from that, the book kept my interest and I look forward to reading the following books in the series, Spider-Touched (released August 2009), and Healer's Choice (coming September 2010).

Big thanks to Pat for sharing her books with everyone. If you are interested in participating, check out her blog about the Borrow My Book Tour.