Review: Demon Hunting in the Deep South by Lexi George

Series: Demon Hunting #2

Pub. Date:  March 22, 2016

Publisher:  Lyrical Press

Pages:  369

I was feeling a bit stressed due to some doggy aging issues happening in my house, so I decided to head back to Hannah, Alabama for a serving of Lexi George's zany southern colloquialisms and over-the-top southern stereotypes. Of course I can't forget the skeazy demons and yummalicious demon hunters which are congregating in this podunk town full of unique and endearingly hilarious characters.

Our Dalvahni demon hunter in this installment is Ansgar, who featured previously in Demon Hunting in Dixie as Brand's sidekick and partner. In the first story, Ansgar was taken with Addy's BFF, Evangeline.  Things seemed to be going well between them until Evie was possessed by a demon and Ansgar had to shoot an arrow through her heart.  After that, Ansgar thought Evie would be better off if he erased her memory and went on his demon-hunting way.  Ansgar was a bit one-dimensional for me. He got the job done as a hero, but he seemed like Brand 2.0 - there wasn't a whole lot of difference in their characters.  That being said, I still love the uber-literal personalities of the Dalvahni warriors. Their manner of speech cracks me up repeatedly, even when I have to read their dialogue more than once to figure out what they are talking about... that even makes it funnier.

Evangeline has one of the worst self-esteem problems that I have read... and I hated that she was such a doormat. Having been bullied by the mean girls of the town since she was school-age, Evie seems to have given up. She is a mild meek mouse that buries her beauty in baggy clothes and slumped shoulders. So I was glad to see Evie shedding her insecurity and embracing her inner sassypants. I hate that it took a guy (or demon hunter) to bring it out of her... but whatever it took, at least now she is standing up for herself and embracing her perfectly imperfect self.  Something we have heard of a lot lately in the romance community. (Should I post a picture of a DQ Blizzard here?)

I found the demonic subplot of this book to be more interesting than the last. Death Star Meredith has been murdered and Evie is being framed... it was like a supernatural southern soap opera.  Plus there is a new outrageous character introduced (Nicole) and her little demonic dog, Frodo the Allihuahua (alligator chihuahua). So you can expect even more silly southernisms like:

It was slicker than a rat’s ass in a Crisco factory.

Unfortunately for me, my dog-based depression cast a pall over my reading and I didn't quite enjoy this one as much as I did the first. However once we started to see some improvement in the doggy health department, I was able to get into the story more and ended up liking how everything turned out.  I am looking forward to reading Beck's story next in Demon Hunting in a Dive Bar.

Black Dragons