Karina Halle

Publisher: Metal Blonde Books
Publication Date: May 13, 2012
Genre: Paranormal Suspense
Source: Purchased

When the life you wanted has crumbled beneath your fingers, there’s nothing left to do but pick up the pieces and soldier on. You’ve done this before.

But what happens when you no longer feel like yourself anymore? When fires spontaneously start-up around you, when you hear growling coming from underneath your bed, and you no longer recognize your face in the mirror. What happens then?

Ghost-hunter Perry Palomino doesn’t have much time to find out. Now, the evil she used to hunt is a lot closer to home. It’s inside of her, taking over her life bit-by-terrifying bit, and there’s only one person who can help her.

If part of her doesn’t kill him first.

Goodreads Summary

I featured the first book in the series, Darkhouse, on our first You Ought to Know post a few weeks ago. I’d downloaded Darkhouse for free onto my Kindle, and then proceeded to purchase and read the rest of the books in the series in a matter of days. I’m obsessed with Dex and Perry, and it was like Christmas in May when I found out I didn’t have that much longer to wait until the fifth book was released. Especially because the ending of Lying Season, the fourth book, left me paralyzed, speechless, heart broken and miserable all at the same time. In a good way, of course. So I made a note on my calendar, bought it first thing in the morning, and spent Mother’s Day letting the hubs take care of the munchkin while I lounged around and read On Demon Wings.

Holy. smokes.

This book royally pissed me off. First of all, On Demon Wings is formatted differently that the previous books in the series. Whereas the focus of the other books was about Dex and Perry essentially ghost hunting for their online show, in this case, it would be a little difficult to do because Perry’s quit the show. So, okay, I can deal with change-up – even though the terror and suspense of the ghost hunting was a major draw for me – but I’m an adult and can deal with major life changes. I also knew that Dex would probably take up little page time because of his and Perry’s epic showdown at the end of Lying Season. And when I say epic, I mean EPIC. It was just.. painful, and I’m only an innocent bystander to the whole story. Imagine how Perry must have felt.  Now I’m down a ghost hunt and one oddball Dex (SOB!), but I trust Karina Halle and hoped everything would turn out okay.

It’s been six weeks since the end of Lying Season, and Perry has just recovered enough that she doesn’t spend most of her time crying her guts out. She’s gotten a normal job, working at a normal coffee shop and she’s even made a few new friends. She’s determined to leave Dex, the show and Dex firmly in the past. Then her life starts getting strange. Even stranger than usual. She’s been feeling ill the last few weeks, inexplicably, and her nightmares/visions have been getting more frightening and real. She’s hearing voices, trash cans are suddenly bursting into flames and Perry has nowhere to turn for help.

And that’s about how the first 3/4 of the book goes. Some creepy event occurs to Perry, she’s frightened out of her wits and then blacks out. There’s a lot of blacking out in this book. An old friend from Red Fox shows up, seemingly with all the answers, but when the going gets tough he turns on her and Perry is left with no support or anyone to believe in her except her younger sister, Ada. Of course, Perry is living with her parents, so she has her parents completely freaked out and they’ve even demanded that she start seeing her therapist again.

Events finally come to a head, and it’s almost too late for Perry when Ada finally gets a clue and calls Dex. He arrives (finally!), outraged at Perry’s current state (tied to the bed, but for safety reasons, not for kink), and kidnaps her. He drives both her and Ada (who refuses to stay behind) to a nearby shaman, with experience in ousting unwanted visitors. Dex saves Perry, despite her unwanted visitor’s many attempts to kill him, and then they all return home to a madhouse. Perry’s parents have finally had enough, and the consequences of Dex and Perry’s little trip are huge. Yes, even though Dex saved her life, they’re still not happy.

I found myself getting a little bored with all the angst, blacking out and the build up to the actual action, which didn’t occur until the 85% mark. Worse, Dex didn’t show up until the 80% mark, and since he’s probably the main draw to the series (or rather, the back and forth between the two), I spent most of my time wondering where the heck he was and what he was doing. I felt that Perry didn’t do as great a job carrying the story on her own. Up until this book, the series had been focused on both of them and how effed up they are together, and Perry’s problems just weren’t enough for me. Also, it bugs the heck out of me that she’s 23 years old and still living at home with her parents. Half of her problems would be fixed if she moved out and had her own place. By her age, I was married and had already put my husband through one tour in Iraq. Then again, maybe she wouldn’t have as much conflict if she lived on her own, and maybe there wouldn’t be a story. I have no idea, all I know is that I am done with her parents.

I do need to mention that even though I’m miffed at the book overall, Halle’s writing is purely spectacular. She has such a wonderful talent of making you feel the terror that Perry and Dex feel at any given moment. I mentioned it before, but I’ll say it again here: this is NOT a series you want to read at night, alone. You’ll freak yourself out. I also never know how the story is going to end, and I enjoy the suspense of the not knowing. I’m never tempted to look ahead, and Halle’s writing keeps me enthralled from start to finish.

My Summary: Why am I giving this book an A, even though I’m seriously annoyed with it? Because Halle made me feel. Despite my inability to love the first 80% of the book, the last 20% more than made up for the beginning. All of the elements that I love about the series were there: the amazing writing talent, the terror, the suspense and the romantic tension between Dex and Perry. Plus, even though Dex didn’t take up much page time in ODW, he’s shows up as the real Dex, the one we got to know in Lying Season. I can’t wait to see more of that Dex, and even though there are traits about Perry that I don’t get, I’m still anxious for their happily ever after. At least, I hope they have a happily ever after. I’ve given up guessing what Halle is going to do with her characters.

My Rating: A