Genre: Paranormal fantasy Age Range: Adult Star Rating: 4 stars Series: second book
*SPOILER ALERT: contains SPOILERS for CAMBION’S LAW*
Blurb:
“I may have been a whole damn mess, but I was a whole damn mess on a mission.”
Half-succubus attorney Lily Knight has blood on her hands. Haunted by guilt, behind on her rent, and facing professional disgrace, Lily must figure out how to survive in the wreckage of her former life. To make ends meet, she accepts a contract job she never wanted but can’t refuse—hunting another demon murderer. This time, the victims are human, and a shadowy government agency will reward Lily with a way out of her dire financial straits.
If Lily doesn’t solve the case before the news gets out, fear and hatred will put all demonkind at risk from the proverbial torch-carrying mob. But when a young succubus on the run from the authorities begs for her help, Lily faces a new conflict of interest—especially after the suspect, Eve, reveals her father is Lily’s old frenemy.
Now Lily must juggle the pressures of a high-stakes murder case, her complicated relationship with her “not-boyfriend” Sebastian, and responsibility for a wayward teenager as she races to find the real culprit.
When her investigation brings her face to face with an ancient, implacable entity fixated on bloody justice, Lily must reckon with her worst fear: the truth about what went down with Eve’s father in the desert—and its consequences.
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
CAMBION’S BLOOD is the second instalment in this series following a half-succubus, half-human as she finds herself tangled in a murder mystery – and this time, government agencies.
The stakes this time don’t come from Lily being involved in the case – on both sides and so in a moral and legal quandary – but from the fact Eve, a teen, is a suspect. And Eve is linked to Ariel, so Lily has a lot of guilt about orphaning her. Not to mention that Eve is a young girl at risk. These all combine to gives the story highly personal stakes.
It felt like there was a slightly larger horror aspect to this story, thanks to the manner (and number) of deaths. One of them is pretty gruesomely described and sets the tone very quickly. Instead of demons dying, they’re all humans, which lets the story nudge a few more ideas about the status of demons in the world (something I hope further books would dig into more.) There are also themes about vigilante justice and the powerful covering up crimes to protect themselves or those linked to them.
While another book, at time of writing, hasn’t been announced, the epilogue is definitely setting one up. Plus Lily and Sebastian’s relationship looks like it’s entering an experimental zone of finding a new way to work with consideration to Lily’s personal ethics on control and influence, and that could be very interesting to explore playing out.
Read my reviews of other books by Erin Fulmer:
Cambion (this series):
- CAMBION’S LAW (#1)
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 