If I had to describe the series with one word it would be "shallow".
The writing is fine, the pacing is fine.
The magic, while being rather vague, was mostly fine in the first book.
Later on, the author generously adjusts the rules at her convenience.

The MC is a pushover. I complain about MCs being pushovers frequently but this is on a whole other level. This gurl needs serious therapy.
And there is no character development. No deeper insight into anything really, neither for the reader nor the MC herself.
This isn't much of a problem for just the first book, hence the 3-star rating, but it stays that way at least up to and including the fourth book and I don't see it changing later on either.

Some things that particularly bugged me:
The MC continues to lust after every hot guy she encounters even though she is stuck in a weird semi-love-triangle from the beginning. It's not nearly as obnoxious as in some other romance but it still irritated me that it was explicitly mentioned every time she encountered one.

This love triangle is utter bs but explaining that requires a spoiler.
"Ryan, I am attracted to you and I like your personality. I want to get to know you better and I want a romantic relationship with you. Oh, and btw, while we figure this out I will continue fucking this other unearthly hot guy the entire time. Cool with you?" like... WTF? How is everyone just ok with this? Yea, Ryan is pissed about her fucking that guy but not because of himself!

I have to mention the disgusting clichée of appearance. If someone is ugly or has bad hygiene you can bet it's a bad guy.
And the MC constantly judges the clothing and appearance of every other woman she encounters. It's always prefixed with something like "I don't know a lot about fashion, BUT..." but every pretty female is being judged and dismissed and on top of that, they all obviously had cosmetic surgery without exception. It's absurd really. ( )

ttp://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2009-07.html#rowland ( )

Loved this book. Great plot, great characters. So wonderful.
Note of caution: Intense language, so if you don't like that sort of thing, i wouldn't suggest reading this. ( )

Pretty competent paranormal romance. I like the complexity of the protagonist's relationship with the main demon in the series. ( )

uhhhh that escalated quickly.

In my ongoing quest to escape my twitter feed, Facebook feed, and news in general (in a vaguely responsible way), I picked up the first book of this series (and am on the waiting list for the subsequent titles). I'm interested enough to continue reading but holy crap! I'm all for women being empowered over their sex lives, by all means, have safe fwb and one-night stands ... but demon lord is MAJORLY CREEPY ABOUT SEX. GAH. ( )