Kate is back, juggling the life of a soccer mom and now a full time demon hunter – dedicated to ridding the city of infernal monsters and keep it safe for her children. In between doing the shopping, taking her daughter to the mall, getting her 3 year old in child care and ensuring there’s a meal on the table. Add in that her husband is running for office which means she hardly ever sees him as he runs around for campaign donations – and she’s inevitably dragged into important social occasions she’s neither interested in, nor has time for. It’s hectic. It’s even more hectic when the only person who knows about her demon hunting secret is her best friend, Laura.And the demons are certainly present – forcing her to kill one and leave its body in her daughter’s school, which is always awkward. The demons are plotting something, something that could invoke the worst of the worst demons out there – and something that may easily catch up her daughter in the process. Finding the answers and protecting her family is only complicated by messages from her ex-husband’s past, a secret she never knew, her own daughter’s curiosity – and a new hunter in town. One without the ties she’s used to – but one who knows far too much about her, and her dead husband Eric’s past.This book is very fluffy – which makes it a fun, light read. Kate’s fumbling around her life is pretty amusing (albeit not always funny) and the contrast between fighting demons, stabbing them in the eye and having to dispose of the body on the one hand and then facing down snarly, unpleasant PTA members on the other is jarring in all the best ways. This book also added some more on to the world building with the imprisoned demons and the plot to release them which adds a level of what’s at stake and the consequences of failure. But in some ways I think the light hearted, fun nature of the book detracts from any sense of epic; it’s not heavy enough or gritty enough for the horror of the consequences to come through.The only problem I have with the writing is probably unsolvable without damaging he book’s premise. The whole point of this series, the thing that makes it novel and unique, is that Kate is a harassed mother trying to juggle her parenting and family duties with her duties as a demon hunter. To maintain that theme, we have to see Kate through all her juggling of kids, child care, PTA dramas, volunteering etc etc and it’s not very interesting or engaging. But if you cut it, then you lose the entire theme and purpose of the book itself. But this also makes me look at the series itself and wonder at how it continues for another 5 books because the gimmick is feeling stale round the edgesRead More
CALIFORNIA DEMON By JULIE KENNER BerkleyJune 2006Kate Connor, Demon Hunter extraordinaire, was officially out of retirement for fifteen-plus years. She worked for a super-secret arm of the Vatican known as Forz. She and her late husband, Eric, moved to San Diablo, California, the most demon free place on earth because of the Cathedral there, whose mortar is enriched with the bones of Saints. Recently a demon attacked Kate in her kitchen and she learned that the High Demon Goramesh was in San Diablo and planning a pernicious attack in her city. She was able to thwart this fiend, but now another band of demons is roaming the area with an even more heinous goal. Needless to say, Kate is now out of retirement. Kate inadvertently finds an ancient book that is identified by Father Ben as The Malevolenaumachia Demonica, a manual capable of calling forth demons that have been bound and chained in Tartarus, the deepest bowels of Hell. These demons are many times more evil and more powerful than Goramesh. The book is safely hidden in the cathedral where demons cannot find it. Kate is a full time mom to fourteen-year-old daughter, Allie, not quite three-year-old Timmy, and wife to husband Stuart, who is running for County Attorney. She does volunteer work at Coastal Mists Nursing Home, mainly because demons can slip into a comatose, near death body, and affect a "miraculous cure." Only Kate's best friend and neighbor, Laura, knows about Kate's demon hunting business. Allie is active in school activities this year, and has a major crush on a member of the surf club. Both Kate and Allie are drawn to the school sponsor of the club; something about him reminds them of Eric, who was killed by muggers five years ago. Kate learns some disturbing things about Eric from her mentor at Forz. When the demons launch their attack, it seems nothing can stop them. But when Allie's life is put in danger, Kate becomes a lean-mean-demon killing-machine, and a joy to behold in action! It's easy to believe that Julie Kenner has tons of fun writing these tongue-in-cheek fantasy thrillers, and the writing gods have truly blessed her with talent and a fertile imagination. CALIFORNIA DEMON has plenty of action along with fantastic humor and a superb plot. The characters are so real that it is conceivable that your own neighbor might secretly be fighting off demons to save the world. This is pure enjoyment from beginning to end.Betty Cox, Reader To Reader
What do You think about California Demon (2006)?
In this follow-up to 2006's Carpe Demon, we return to San Diablo, California, a small quiet suburb outside Los Angeles, where Suburban housewife and Level Four Demon Hunter Kate Conner is on the job. On one hand, she's trying to keep house for her husband, teenage daughter, and toddler son, while on the other, she's hunting down a demon who just took over the body of an old man and escaped the old age home!But Kate's up against more than she can handle when it turns out that the special guest appearing at the high school surf competition is a Demon himself... and her daughter Allie is right smack in the middle of the action. With the help of her best friend Laura, and what may well be the spirit of her dead husband, Kate takes on the Demon and still manages to get dinner on the table in time. ;)I enjoyed this 2nd book in the series. Even though I don't particularly relate to the whole housewife/soccer mom mentality, I have several friends who are in that phase of their lives, so I can appreciate it. ;)
—Cherie
Julie Kenner hit the repetitive mark in this one very, very quickly. Through the first sixty pages or so, I honestly wasn't sure if I wanted to keep toughing through the book, since the parts of her writing style that bothered me in her first book drove me close to insane in this one. Despite the annoying repetition - yes, Kate, we get it, you have mommy guilt, you love your husband. I know. I KNOW - I was actually pretty entertained by this book once the plot really took over. While the big plot twists were really not that surprising or twisty, I was still intrigued enough that I wanted to get to the end, and occasionally wanted to have nothing to do with my coursework and instead keep reading the novel. Since it was a fun, light read, much like Carpe Demon, and I'm always pretty burned out on the more serious stuff by the end of the quarter, California Demon served it's purpose wonderfully. It helped me recharge with something light-hearted and genuinely interesting before I dove back into the thicker stuff for finals week (of course, finishing finals might call for a trip to the library to pick up her third book. But you didn't hear me say that).
—Heather
I love this series. I'm actually a little sad I'm already on book three cos that means I'm halfway done:( I must say that the reason I'm zipping through them is I'm listening to the audio books. The reader really brings the characters to life and I think eliminates the redundancy people mention because when it is read with emotion it doesn't seem redundant at all. I am already stressing about finding the last two books in Audio cos they aren't available in that format from my library... Great series and I could totally see it as a tv series..
—Tiffini
