Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

"Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She's spent years keeping everyone at a distance - even her closest friends - and it seems her senior year will be more of the same...until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can't seem to stay away from him. What she doesn't know is that Luc works in Acquisitions - for Hell - and she possesses a unique skill set that has the King of Hell tingling with anticipation. All Luc has to do is get her to sin, and he's as tempting as they come. Frannie doesn't stand a chance.

Unfortunately for Luc, Heaven has other plans, and the angel, Gabe, is going to do whatever it takes to make sure that Luc doesn't get what he came for. And it isn't long before they find themselves fighting for more than just her soul.

But if Luc fails, there will be Hell to pay...for all of them."

Personal Demons is the debut book from Lisa Desrochers, the first of a planned trilogy. Take a girl, a Catholic girl with a crisis of faith and a very special skill. Add in an incredibly hot demon intent on corrupting her to take her back to Hell. An equally hot angel, intent on saving her soul to take her back to Heaven. Both wanting her for that special skill on their own sides. Add in some good old teenage hormones and you've got one of the hottest teen reads there are. Like, hot enough I was worrying about the sizzle factor it could cause on my favourite shelf. Yes really.

Okay, so this book is not simply about the love triangle, though it's certainly about that as well. It's about a girl who can't forgive herself for something that happened in her past. It's brought her to keep everyone at bay and question everything about the God she was raised to believe. When Luc and Gabe both suddenly appear as students at her high school, with obvious interest in her, things start spiraling out of control. Frannie is someone who has worked hard for her control, to keep others at a distance. She knows that Luc is bad for her. She knows that Gabe should be the easy choice of the two. But letting either of them in is something she isn't really prepared for.

I was hooked from the first snippet of this book I read on Lisa's blog, so of course I was very excited for it to finally be out and me to finally have my hands on it. And I wasn't let down at all. I could barely put it down and finished it in a day pretty easily. I confess that despite my love for the snippets I'd already read, I thought this would primarily be a love triangle story, with only semi deep characters. Which would have been okay, cause sometimes those books are exactly what's wanted. But that wasn't actually the case. Frannie and Luc (who both narrate the story) were both deep, well rounded characters who grew and changed through the book. Gabe was as well, although we don't see as much of him as Luc. The battle for Frannie's soul, and her heart, is the main plot of the book, but there is so much else tied in to it and it works beautifully.

And the sexual tension between Frannie and the boys? Oh hell! Seriously intense. Both guys are very hot, and have different qualities that made me love them both pretty equally. I am totally team Luc, but I think I want Gabe for myself. Don't get me wrong, Luc is amazing, and I love his darker edge, but there is just something about Gabe that I just fell in love with. And yet I'm team Luc because for Frannie, I believe that's the only way it should go.

It's a fast paced read, and very well written. The chemistry between characters is undeniable, but also the depth and seriousness to them. This isn't a light, easy read, or I didn't find it as such. It honestly made me think a lot more than I thought it would, in a very good way. Some really good twists along the way and some great character development as well. It's dark, sexy and simply fantastic. There's some good funny moments as well, and some of the reactions to Luc and Gabe constantly had me cracking up. The ending got pretty intense and while certain aspects felt a little light for what had happened, there was still a subtle darker undertone of things still to come. I loved it from page one and I am very excited for books 2 and 3, Original Sin and Hellbent (out 2011 and 2012). I think my only real complaint is with the cover. While the modals' may be a match on the physical description (more or less), both Frannie and Luc look too old to be 17 (okay, so Luc isn't 17, but he is meant to look like he is). But really, what does a cover matter? I loved it the inside content. A must read.

Rating: 9/10