ISBN: 9781439167618
I was given this book to review.

Book three in the Megan Chase series finds Megan, human ruler of a demon clan and psychiatrist, in more trouble. This time Megan is preparing for a big time demon meeting, where a cluster of inhuman beings will try to force her into performing a ceremony that would make her a full demon. It doesn’t help that an FBI agent arrives at her office, offering immunity if she’ll just testify against the other demons (most of whom run various illegal cartels, not to mention they all seem to attract bodies in large quantities), which includes Megan’s rather serious boyfriend, fire demon Greyson Dante.

Megan finds unexpected pressure put on her relationship as the meeting starts, not from the FBI, but from the realization that if she is to have any future with him she will have to become a demon, or let him go forever. Balancing her wants against her needs, and the needs of her clan of “personal demons” is hard enough without the appearance of an angel, who is most definitely trying to kill her. Now Megan must find out who sent the angel, defeat it, decide whether she values her humanity or Greyson more and most importantly: Survive.

Demon Possessed is fast, a little confused at the beginning as all the threads present themselves but before they come together as one related plot. Megan is a bold urban fantasy heroine, who unlike others doesn’t seem to be opposed to being rescued, married, and playing a female-oriented role, she just doesn’t want to lose herself to other peoples’ demands on her. As emotional as the previous book, Demon Inside, but focusing on Megan’s future rather than her past, Demon Possessed is at times hard to stomach due to intensity of emotion, not intensity of graphic violence. But it’s a good read, and a sad farewell to Megan and Greyson and their family, as this is the last anticipated book in the series.

ISBN: 978-1439155073

Dr. Megan Chase is back, and this time, giving readers very little breathing space, Meg is trying to survive fireball flinging car chases with witches and find out who is, literally, exploding her demons. In the mean time she has to try to come to terms with her own parasitic nature, trying to balance her job as a therapist helping people overcome their trauma, and her soul-calling as the leader of the personal demons, who feed off the pain and emotional hurt of humans.

If that wasn’t bad enough Meg, on the precipice between human and demon, between accepting her own darkness and trying to deny it by helping others deny theirs, gets pulled back into the chaos of the family she walked away from and learns startling, disturbing truths about what made her become the woman she is.

I have to start this one with a purely personal response—I have never read a sex scene that made me cry before this book.

The raw emotional pain of Meg, raised in one of the worse imaginable environments, and struggling to come to terms with that as an adult, even if she tries to hide her coping behind her role as a therapist, is overwhelming. Meg is absolutely compelling as she tries to convince herself that she is a good person, despite dating a demon, being part demon, not to mention a demon queen, and the strange cravings for very inhuman things that begin to overcome her. Her own personal darkness, a textbook example of the damage childhood abuse does to an ordinary person, is delicately, but firmly tied into her struggle with the nature of the demons tied to her.

The level of emotion is incredibly high in this book. It’s hard to stomach, hard to watch and impossible not to experience along with Meg.

But despite the sheer desolation there’s a victorious element, because Megan might not be what her family wants, or what her partners in the practice want, or even what her demon followers want, but what she is under the damage is a core of molten steel trying to survive the inferno of emotions and rise in a world where she can be loved, respected and valued.

Demon Inside isn’t a book for everyone, but for those who connect with Megan because of similar pasts and emotions, it could be the sort of book that unexpectedly changes you and therefore is very highly recommended.