Claire ChiltonCritiques

You know the Adam Sandler Movie "Little Nicky"?

If you at any point allowed yourself a little giggle then this book might be for you.

Hustle (The Hunted Hearts Book 1)
Claire Chilton
Light very enjoyable read. Good plot, plenty of action, pleasant romance. The story flows along smoothly. My only gripe is it’s a bit too short. But I will be buying the rest of this series. I would recommend this series.

We first meet Dora in the church of her televangelist father. She is the typical brooding teenager in that rebellion is her top priority. While her parents are busy trying to save souls, Dora's goal is to successfully summon a demon. Having failed many times, Dora is extremely hopeful and surprised when Demons attack the congregation. It is only when she returns to room, sure of the punishment to come that she realises she hasn't summoned the thick horned, fire breathing demon with a tail but the dashingly handsome and beautifully built, blonde haired Kieron. For his part, Kieron has determined that it is his duty to serve Dora and if possible get into her pants. What neither of them realise is that their time of getting to know each other on the earthly plane will be short because as a witch, the townspeople, lead by the rotary club and Dora's parents intend to burn her alive as a witch.

Given the choice between burning to death and hell, Dora chooses to return with Kieron to hell. At first it all seems cool as Dora manages to learn to cast spells and even pick up a pet demon. It isn't long however that Dora learns that the cost of being in hell is losing her pure soul and the love she has for Kieron.

In many ways, Demonic Dora is your typical angsty YA novel. Both Dora and Kiernon have troubled family history and it very much informs their view on the world and actions. There is a lot of poo in this book and yes I mean it literally. It felt like someone was flinging poo at someone else on almost every single page. It was so bad that at one point Kiernon even mentioned Dora's fascination with throwing poo to defeat her advisories. At first, these situations were absolutely funny but over time became puerile and irritating. As this book is meant for an audience far younger than I, I can sort of give this a bit of a past. I further didn't understand how an entire town could get together to decide to just make a pyre and burn one of their citizens on it. This was never explained and made little sense to me. I did however giggle about the fact that Dora was chastised for using the word "holy" and encouraged to say "fuck" instead.

Demonic Dora truly left me with mixed feelings. The world building of Chilton was absolutely great. Chilton's descriptions of hell in particular were imaginative and so far removed from the typical pop culture references. It helped to alleviate my frustrations in times when the story seemed to jump from place to place without any form of cohesion.

As a protagonist, I simply adored Dora. When Dora first arrived in hell she was a powerless human with a fully intact soul but over time as she learned the ropes, she became powerful. What intrigued me about Dora was take no shit attitude and fearlessness. Dora constantly used her wits to engage in battle, fully aware that she was the most powerless person in the room. It didn't always work out in her favor but Dora's first instinct was never to sit and hope that someone would come and save her.

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I received a free copy of this book to review

Demonic Dora is a farcical, black comedy about teenage Dora who hates her life and decides summoning a demon will solve all her problems. It doesn’t. What it does is lead to her almost being burned at the stake by her fanatical religious parents. Luckily, the demon she summoned saves her – by dragging her to Hell with him. Dora loves Hell and thrives there, until she realizes all isn’t as it seems and then things go straight to, well, Hell.

To me the humor of this book is its main focus, the plot and characters seemingly built around it, so if you’re not into poo jokes and slapstick gags, this book isn’t for you. While the comedy in this book didn’t exactly match up with my sense of humor, I described some of the scenes to a sophomore in high school and she howled with laughter, so the fact that it wasn't right for me doesn't mean it's not right for others.

I don’t think I’ll read any other books in this series, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to people I know who would enjoy this brand of comedy (and let’s face it, we all know some that do)

ARC given by the publisher thru NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Eeek. It was okay. Hmm... I'm being generous with 2 star. More like 1.5 stars and I just rounded it up. I don't know why the reviews I saw and the ratings are all 4 to 5 stars. :O

I am disappointed to say the least. I was expecting something more. And what's up with the use of poo, crap, shit, manure and whatnot as a means of saving or retaliating with other people or I should say demons. WTF. It's just so wrong. Every time there's something going on, you bet your arse there'll be shit in there. *rolls eyes* Why choose SHIT?! WHY?!?! Can't you use, some other things? Uh, like those birds pecking them instead of shitting on them. Because that is just so fucking GROSS.

And since I mention the word 'FUCKING'... I do believe this is YA, right? I mean there's no age mentioned... BUT I liked to think it is Young Adult. Okay. So I know Young Adults nowadays, curse all the time. But that does not mean it's okay to use FUCKING in a book. NO. It's not a good promotion for kids/teens. Does that mean it's okay for kids today to say Fucking for every word they say?! Sorry, but it's not appropriate language. They should have Warning on the summary.

WARNING: Explicit language content or something.

And from the start I was hoping to know why she do the things she do, I mean you're a daughter of a priest (this is a bit weird for me since to my knowledge, priests doesn't marry and have a kid. :O maybe like a preacher of sorts?), so okay, they push you to do stuffs you don't want to do... But why summon a demon? Why THAT kind of mindset? Cause you're dark emo? I just don't get as to WHY she was inclined to do those. She could do drugs or something but why SUMMON A DEMON? WHY is that? Well, whatever, it's the author's privilege to do whatever she wants with the story. I just wished it was fully explained.

Kieron... Is something I wished to be a badass. But nooooo... he's a bit wimpy of sorts. I mean, grow a backbone! You cannot let Dora or anyone else dictate what you need to do. Even Dora got that right. And they don't have chemistry. Dora and Kieron that is. Well, okay maybe a bit. But not that much as I would have like.

I think the only character I like or rather likable is... Pooey. LMAO. :P He got ninja skills. LOL. I round it up to two stars cause there are some parts that I laugh or smirk. That's it.

I really enjoyed this book!!! I absolutely love when an author can make me laugh out loud while reading. I loved the author's writing style, and wouldn't want her to change a thing. The story and the characters were all great in my opinion. I feel like this book was meant to offend and shock the reader, mission accomplished!! Very entertaining and funny. I definitely recommend this book and hope to read more by this author in the future.