Private Demon - Lynn Viehl

It has been a long time since I read If Angels Burn, the only thing I remebered was that I had enjoyed it and that it was a thriller with romantic elements. Recently I've been feeling like reading more of those books and picked up Private Demon.

Within her dreams lies his salvation...

Antiquities expert Jema Shaw has two lives: one during the day, when she catalogs museum artifacts and cares for her crippled, bitter mother; the other during the night, when she works with police to search for crime scene evidence. The only place Jem truly feels alive is in her dreams, where unlike real life she can pretend that she's safe and loved and wanted. Yet when a demon warrior begins showing up in her mind each night, he draws Jem with him into her most secret, intimate fantasies. Finding the key to solving three brutal assault and murder cases, however, isn't as difficult for Jem as waking up to discover that her dream lover is very real—as are the killers coming for both of them.

I wasn't disappointed, it was a book I enjoyed but in which I found several flaws.
Thierry Durand almost lost his mind after discovering his wife Angelina betrayed all Darkyn and helped the Brethren murder several of his people and including maiming their son. Trying to find salvation for what he believes was his fault in not seeing who Angelina really was he decides to try and find the attackers of Luisa Lopez, a young woman tortured by the Brethren and left for dead. With that goal he travels to Chicago were he finds Jema Shaw, a very sick young woman believed to have diabetes and whose family owns a Museum. Thierry can't resist feeding from her the first time they meet and he finds himself drawn to her to the point that he occupies the house next to her to better watch her and starts entering her dreams. I had some trouble understanding what exactly attracted him, when I finished the book I felt they had just spent a couple of hours awake and actually talking to one another, the dreams were just fantasies they shared. On the other hand Jema's other neighbor, also a Darkyn, as known her since she was a baby and is also in love with her, I must say I found him a much more sympathetic pretender to her hand. The love triangle between Thierry, Jema and Jaus lasts for most of the book and I felt Jema wasn't a very strong heroine and ultimately may have chosen the wrong mate.

The mystery was also well done, there's a bigger mystery that comes from the first novel about who are the members of the Church who are also Brethren and what are their goals and what's the role of Alex's brother in that. Alex is the heroine of the first book and is a doctor trying to find the cure for what turns them into Darkyn. Alex is such a strong character that she almost steals the show whenever she appears. I'm a big Alex fan and I hope she makes an appearance in the next books.
And then there's the mystery surrounding Jema and her heritage and health condition. Since everyone seems to have a hidden agenda, from the Darkyn to Jema's mother, the book is full of surprises. If there is a series of books that need to be read in order this one is it because several characters of the first book show up and scenes that happened previously keep being mentioned.

Grade: B