The Fangirl Reviews: Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

Luc Cain isn’t your average new student at ( the so appropriately nicknamed )Hades High school, he also just happens to be a demon sent from acquisitions to tag Catholic girl Frannie for the underworld.  All he has to is make her sin. Piece of cake, right?

Too bad Frannie has a little bit more up her sleeve than the ability to use her judo training to control her emotions.  It turns out that this tough girl also has an “ability” that has both The Almighty and Lucifer alike vying to tag her for their respective kingdoms.

So when another gorgeous new kid Gabe, with a serious glow about him, shows up at school, it’s hard for Frannie to resist him.  But there’s a thin side between the dark side and the light side, and it turns out that it may be harder to choose between Heaven and Hell than Frannie thought.

Page Count:  368

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Similar to:  Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Recommended for:  Girls 14 + *

Stars: 4/5

The good:

*     Wow.  I have been searching for a kick-butt girl protagonist that isn’t just all about flirting and I think I’ve found her in the voice of Frannie.  Sure she may have fallen for two unearthly boys, but she doesn’t let her feelings for them get in the way of everything.  She’s very headstrong, knows what she wants and is willing to fight for it.  Authors, we need more Frannie in YA literature!

*   Desrochers was able to take the traditional Good Vs. Evil story and put a spin on it that makes you question who is really on the dark side.  It wasn’t like anything else that I had ever read before and I enjoyed the way it left me questioning everything until the heart pounding end.  By the time I was done with this book (yes I read it in one sitting on a plane ride to Las Vegas), I was instantly craving more.

*    Sometimes shuffling from two different protagonist can fall flat and instead of giving a 360 view of the story it ends up just making the writer look like they’re trying too hard to write the opposite sex.  This was NOT the case for this novel.  With Desrochers creative imagery, rooted in dark mythology, I felt like I really got to feel every aspect of the story and grew to love these characters the more I read their take on the story.

The not-so-good:

*     I think I’ve said this in every review, but I don’t like references to current pop culture in stories.  It’s just my personal preference and this isn’t something that Desrochers does a lot, but she does mention a some current music that I don’t feel is timeless.  I don’t always mind this and I do think that The Fray “You found me,” is a perfect song for Frannie, but I just can’t change my mind on pop culture references.

*   There was some language that would really take me out of this story when I read it.  It may be because I have slang issues, but Frannie’s frequent using of the word “cause” instead of “because” would throw me for a loop.  Since her slang use of the word was consistent throughout the story I got used to it, but it was the only time she really used any slang, so it did throw me a bit while reading.  Luc also used some out of date terms like “As if” and more than once said “As you wish” which brought me back to Princess Bride and I couldn’t help but stifle a giggle.  I can kind of see where he would use out of date terms since he is an older demon, but it’s just something that stuck out to me as I read.

*    Gabe *swoon*.  Maybe it’s because I like blonde men in literature, but even though I did swoon over Gabe…I wanted more of him.  I felt like his relationship with Frannie sort of fell flat.  I could see why she was interested in him (hello angelic glow) and I could see why he was interested in her (that whole “gift”), but it just really didn’t push my buttons to think that he had the same heart pounding attraction to her that was being presented.  There are two more books in this series, so maybe we will get to see more of how this relationship grows…or maybe she will leave them all for her ex, Reefer.  (Note:  I just found out that the sequel is going to be from THREE points of view, so you may have to ignore this whole point.)

All in all this book was definitely more than I expected.  Not that I was expecting anything bad, but the concept intrigued me so I thought I would give it a shot and wasn’t expecting to be blown away like I was.  It’s definitely worth a read if you are looking for a change from you’re A-typical paranormal romance.

*With that being said I noted why I rated this novel for age 14 plus which is something that I rarely do.  There is A LOT of mythology in this novel, especially religious and Greek mythology with references to The River Styx and Dante.  I didn’t learn much of this mythology until freshman English and even then some people don’t learn it until much later on and that’s even if they do at all.  You don’t necessarily need to know the mythology to understand the novel, but it definitely helps.

Fangirl Friday

Fangirl Friday Interview With The Incredible Lisa Desrochers

Lisa's debut novel, PERSONAL DEMONS was just released last month to an already terrific fan base and a movie already in the works!  When not writing or spending time with her husband and two beautiful daughters, you can find her practicing Physical Therapy full-time or spending her weekends lecturing on a variety of health care topics.  Her tenacity and ability to write a great novel and still maintain a full-time job is what inspires full-time workers, like me, to keep going!  For more Lisa info you can go to:  www.lisawrites.com or lisadesrochers.blogspot.com

Magan:   For those who haven't heard of your debut novel PERSONAL DEMONS can you tell them what it's about?


Lisa:  Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a wicked streak and a unique skill set that has the king of Hell tingling with anticipation. She finds herself in the middle of a battle for her soul between Lucifer Cain, who works in Acquisitions for Hell, and Gabriel, the angel sent to protect her, and it isn’t long before Luc and Gabe find themselves fighting for more than just her soul.

Magan:  Through the grapevine, I've heard that your main character is quite the kick butt girl. How did you come up with her character and did you use any part of your own adolescence to create this story?

Lisa:  On the outside Frannie is pretty tough. She’s taken some hard knocks in her young life and has built walls to protect herself from getting hurt. As we get to know her, we find out that, on the inside, it’s a whole different story. She’s vulnerable and confused. She’s also very flawed. I think this describes a lot of us at adolescence. My own life experiences are very different than Frannie’s, but I can remember feeling like I had to put up the though front so people wouldn’t realize how seriously screwed up I felt on the inside.

Magan:  Did you struggle through any part of writing this story and how did you push through it?

Lisa:  Honestly, Personal Demons very nearly wrote itself. I was just the poorly paid help with the laptop. My characters had conversations in my head and I wrote them down. (Luc is much more clever than I am, and he’ll never let me forget it.) The first draft was done in about six weeks. A few pieces came to me after that and got added, but overall, it went pretty smoothly.

Magan:  How did you find your agent? Did you face any rejection and how did you deal with that?

Lisa:  I found my agent in the standard way—by sending queries. This is another part of the process that went pretty smoothly. Once I’d taken a few months to revise and polish Personal Demons, I spent a week or so crafting a kickass query, and another week researching agents. Out of the list of 20 agents I compiled who said they were looking for exactly what I’d written, I sent it off to five. I did this with the thought that, if no one requested, I’d revise my query and send it to the second group. It turned out that all but one of that original group of five requested manuscripts. In the end I had 12 manuscript requests and four offers of representation. I’m convinced the high request rate was because I was very careful who I sent queries to.

Magan:  What's the best advice that you can give to writers?

Lisa:  Write the story you were meant to write. In other words, write for yourself, and not what you think agents/editors are looking for. I wrote Personal Demons, which is a demon story that happens to have an angel or two, before angels were trending. If you write to a trend, you’ve already missed it. Start your own trend. You know if what you’re writing feels authentic. If it doesn’t, stop and write something that does.

Magan:  Do you have any upcoming projects besides the sequel to PERSONAL DEMONS?

Lisa:  There are actually two more books in the Personal Demons trilogy, so I’ve been very busy with that. There is another set of characters that have started having conversations in my head lately, though, so I won’t be able to ignore them for long. =)

Magan:  Will you be doing any upcoming book tours?

Lisa:  I have several appearances scheduled through November. They’re listed here: http://lisadesrochers.blogspot.com/p/tour-stops.html

Magan:    I heard that film rights were acquired for PERSONAL DEMONS, who is your dream cast?

Lisa:  We’re still working on film rights, but I did need to come up with a cast, which I posted on my blog back in July. I chose Logan Lerman for Luc, Lucas Till for Gabe, and Chloe Mortez as Frannie. I think they’d all do a great job =)    (Fangirl note:  I love me some Logan Lerman, ever since Jack&Bobby I just can't get enough!)

Magan:   Favorite book, movie, and TV show?

Lisa:  It’s impossible to choose a single book. I love anything by Melissa Marr, Kristin Cashore, J.K. Rowling and JRR Tolkien. My favorite movie is The Princess Bride. TV is tough, because I don’t watch it much, but I guess I’d say the early seasons of Supernatural.

Magan:  Famous last words?

Lisa:  Are you serious????