Dashing Devil

Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda

This book gets a great 4 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes for having a protagonist that actually gets better the more that you read.  At first I wasn't really gelling well with the story and characters, it all seemed like something I'd read hundreds of times before.  Then after just feeling blah for a good portion of the book, the action and characters really started to surprise me.

Billi is the only girl in this group of modern Knights Templar.  It was distracting at first because her dad and the other knights have the same names as the famous Knights of the Round Table.  Once you get past the names though you see that them having these kind of names does fit with their personalities and helps the reader connect with a familiar name.

They fight against the unholy for all they're worth.  The only problem is that their aren't that many of them left.  Billi's mother was killed by ghouls when she was young and her relationship with her father is frosty at best.  She seems to just be going through the motions until her friend Kay comes back from his year of training.  They were really close before he left but he seems to be very different then he was before.

To say that Billi has boy troubles would be quite the understatement.  The love triangle in this book is solved in a rather spectacular fashion.  I know I didn't think that it would unfold like it did.  After finishing the book and processing the ending it does feel like this was the only way that the love triangle could have ended. 

The bad guy of this story has a pretty terrifying plan and he's convinced that what he's doing is right.  Billi and the others have to prove him wrong or die trying.  He's not the only bad guy out there though and the Knights Templar may just not have enough members to win.

This story is full of some well done grotesque imagery.  The most haunting line is the first line in the book which says, ""KILLING HIM SHOULD BE EASY; HE'S ONLY SIX."  If blood and gore is something that makes you squirm you might want to slowly back away from this book.  If you're like me though and love great battles and complex characters then this book could indeed be something that you are looking for.  Warning though don't get overly attached to some characters or you'll find yourself tearing up like I did.

The ending is insane, but in a good way.  Without giving away any spoilers, I'll just say that there's a lot of carnage and uncertainty going on.  It ends on a sad note but will leave you questing to know what the future will bring.