Rating:  4.5 stars out of 5

Angus Donohue doesn’t want to be a warlock. He believes draining demons for magic is evil, but it’s a dangerous opinion to have—his father is a powerful and well-connected warlock, and Angus is expected to follow the family tradition.

 

His only way out is to fail the demon summoning class. Failure means expulsion from the Warlock College. Despite Angus’s best efforts to fumble the summoning, it works. Although not the way anyone expects.

 

Angus’s demon, Saka, is a powerful mage with his own need for a warlock.

 

Saka wants to use Angus in a ritual to rebalance the magic that is being stripped from Demonside by warlocks. If Angus survives his demon’s desires and the perils of Demonside, he’ll have to face the Warlock College and their demands.

 

Angus must choose: obey the College and forget about Demonside or trust Saka and try to fix the damage before it’s too late. Whatever he does, he is in the middle of a war he isn’t qualified to fight.

 

This is wonderful and thought out story.  Angus has been struggling with himself since his father placed him in Warlock College and has been trying to figure out how to get out without just quitting like he wants to.  When Saka takes him back to Demonside most of his beliefs and research about the use of demons in his world are confirmed.

 

Both Angus’s and Saka’s worlds were well developed and I wasn’t questioning the actions of the characters throughout the story as can often happen with little things seem to be missing.  While the “relationship” between Angus and Saka is not the main focus of the story it is important for this story for the future in this series.  They both have a deep connection to the other, but are unable to actually voice this to others or really themselves.

 

We see the views of both Angus and Saka in this story.  Angus is trying to figure out how to help Saka while also not being a rogue on his side; unfortunately he has more confrontation than he planned on.  I couldn’t help, but feel his desperation and how hopeless his situation felt at many points throughout the story.  Saka has never fully agreed with what many on his side deem the proper solution for bring the worlds back into balance, but as long as he is able he will work to do what he thinks is the best solution.  This is a great start to this series and I look forward to more of these stories.

 

Cover art by Catt Ford is wonderful and shows both of the worlds Angus is trying to live in.

 

Sales Links: DSP Publications | Amazon | B&N

 

Book Details:

ebook, 226 pages

Published: February 14, 2017 by DSP Publications

ISBN-13: 9781635332674

Edition Language: English

Series: Studies in Demonology #1