Book Review -- Salt and Silver

Anna Katherine was one of the authors I received in Jordan Summer's box o' books. The copy was an ARC (Uncorrected Advance Reading Copy) of Salt and Silver which according to the back cover is due out May 2009. (Published by Tom Doherty Associates - Paperback Edition - 368 pages) Genre is Romance (man-woman) with sub-genres of fantasy and paranormal.

We meet Allie. She and a couple friends chanted a spell they made up and managed to open a Door to Hell. As you can imagine, less than savory things come out of the Door. Demon guts get everywhere, stuff gets smashed up, there are salt circles and signals all over the place...It gets tedious.

Enter, Ryan, Allie's own personal demon hunter to guard the Door. Sexy and mysterious, leather loving, Stetson-wearing Ryan.

After years of snide-remarks and sexual tension, Allie's Door disappears and no one seems to know why. When other Doors start opening up around New York it could mean the end of the world. Ryan and Allie must survive a trip through Hell to uncover the answer.

Okay, and she'd also like some quality make out time with Ryan, and mortal peril is always a turn-on, right?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read it in one sitting and am sure I will reread it again.

This book has a bit of everything -- myth, religious lore, magic, adventure, struggle, and love. The characters engaged me from the start. There's chemistry between Ryan and Allie that keeps them real. The setting descriptions balanced the action without slowing the story down. It was a well paced and fun, first person point of view, ride. I love first person because it really pulls you into the story but I also know it is a challenging way to write and maintain the tension needed for a good story. Anna Katherine (a pseudonym for two friends) manages this well in this debut novel. I look forward to other books by this duo.