Review – The Demoness of Waking Dreams (Company of Angels, Book 2) by Stephanie Chong (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Size: 368 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Release Date: August 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0778313144
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Company of Angels series
Source: copy from publisher for review
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the second book in the Company of Angels series by Chong. I did not read the first book in this series, but each book in the series is supposed to stand well on its own. This was an okay read, but pretty typical paranormal romance fare. I didn’t hate the book, but I was pretty ambivalent about it too. I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Luciana is a dangerous Rogue demoness and has been a demoness for centuries. Brendan is a relatively new Guardian Angel who is tasked with the mission of capturing her. As Luciana invades Brendan’s dreams both of them end up challenging their roles of good and evil.

This is pretty typical pararnormal romance fair. Both Luciana and Brendan have tortured pasts amd are drawn to each other. This pretty much turns into a man chases woman type of storyline. Luciana tries to seduce Brendan but finds that she is one one being seduced in turn. Brendan is trying to redeem Luciana but finds that the darkness in her matches the darkness in himself. Their love is star-crossed and doomed from the start.

The writing is okay; but the conversations between Brandon and Luciana sound a bit awkward at times and don’t flow well. Most of the book is easy to read and flows well; it is just character conversations that are awkward. Also there is pretty much no humor in this book at all and it makes for a dry read at times.

I thought the chemistry between Luciana and Brendan was lackluster as well; there is some heat here but not much. I was never able to really care if they managed to make it as a couple. I was never on the edge of my seat desperate to know what would happen. Most of the sex scenes take place in their dreams, and to be honest they are pretty boring and unimaginative scenes.

There isn’t a ton of plot outside of Brendan hunting down Luciana for the Company of Angels. You learn a little about Brendan and Luciana’s past and about the past between the demons and angels…but it’s just enough to hold the story together and not very elaborate.

Overall this definitely wasn’t my favorite paranormal romance read. There are much better series out there. It’s not a horrible book, but I didn’t find it to be all that engaging either. The story is pretty much typical paranormal romance fare; there is some plot here but not much. The story mainly revolves around Brendan hunting down Luciana. I would tentatively recommend if you are a huge paranormal romance fan and enjoy angel/demon love stories. Mostly though I would say look elsewhere for your PNR fix.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– 150+ Books Reading Challenge