FINDING A SERIES OR AN AUTHOR:

USING THE PAGE TABS (ABOVE) TO FIND A SERIES OR AUTHOR:

Only the most recent posts pop up on the HOME page. For searchable lists of titles/series reviewed on this Blog, click on one of the Page Tabs above. On each Page, click on the series name to go directly to my review.

AUTHOR SEARCH lists all authors reviewed on this Blog. CREATURE SEARCH groups all of the titles/series by their creature types. The RATINGS page explains the violence, sensuality, and humor (V-S-H) ratings codes found at the beginning of each Blog review and groups all titles/series by their Ratings. The PLOT TYPES page explains the SMR-UF-CH-HIS codes found at the beginning of each Blog review and groups all titles/series by their plot types. On this Blog, when you see a title, an author's name, or a word or phrase in pink type, this is a link. Just click on the pink to go to more information about that topic.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Jill Myles: THE SUCCUBUS DIARIES


Author: Jill Myles
Series: THE SUCCUBUS DIARIES
Plot Type; CH
Ratings: V-4; S-5; H-3
Publisher and Titles: Pocket Star
     “Foreplay” (short story e-book prequel at smashwords, 2020)
      Gentlemen Prefer Succubi (2010)
      Succubi Like It Hot (2010)
     “Zane’s Tale” (free short story e-book at pocketafterdark, 2010)
      My Fair Succubi (2010)

     In this world, both vampires and Serim were originally fallen angels who were thrown out of heaven when they refused to give up their human lovers. The Serim want to gain redemption and get back their wings, so they keep trying to get back into heaven. The vampires turned to the demons who gave them back their wings in return for their souls. Both the vamps and the Serim require regular sexual activity, and the vamps also require blood. The Serim sleep at night and are active during the day, while the vamps sleep during the day and are active at night.  Mixed into this volatile brew are the regular, heavenly angels, who try to control the vamps and Serim, and the demons, who try to control everybody.  

     One more type of supernatural—and the one that this series spotlights—is the succubus: a human who is drained by a vampire and then immediately has sex with a Serim. That vamp and that Serim then become the masters of that particular succubus. 

     The heroine for the series is Jackie Brighton, formerly a plump, average-looking museum docent, who wakes up in a dumpster after a drunken night on the town to find that she has become a gorgeous red-haired succubus. Gentlemen Prefer Succubi follows Jackie through her first tentative weeks in her new body as she learns that one of the major drawbacks (or is it a perk?) is that she must have sex at least once every 48 hours—for the rest of eternity, since she is now immortal.  Good thing she loves sex!  She also makes a series of very bad decisions in her new succubus life. (For a wannabe archaeologist she's not too bright.) Jackie's usual sex partners are her masters: Noah, a rich, preppy, blond Serim, and Zane, a free-spirited brunette vampire. Both of them are, of course, gorgeous. Jackie also meets the only other succubus in town: Remy Summore, a porn actress (Pronounce the “e” in her first name as a short “a” and then say her full name—get the picture?)  

     In Gentlemen Prefer Succubi, Jackie gets conned by an angel into spying on the local vampire queen, who catches her and forces her to locate a powerful religious relic, with dire results for her friend Remy. That religious relic is the heart of the story arc for the series, which focuses on Jacky's attempts to retrieve it and other similar relics.

     In Succubi Like It Hot, Jacky gets cursed, makes a deal with a demon to discover who cursed her, and then makes another deal with the demon to break the curse. That curse, by the way, forces her to have sex multiple times a day or she will die.  

     In My Fair Succubi, the Serim Council arrests Jackie and Noah, and Jackie gets pulled back into the whole vampire-angel struggle for world domination.  As the book ends, Jackie makes her big romantic decision. Will she choose Noah or Zane to be her soul mate?  Also in this book, we finally discover why Zane and Noah hate each other so much and why Zane bit Jackie back in book 1 and then made sure that Noah immediately found her. 

     A troublesome theme in this series is Jackie's powerlessness. She is almost always at the mercy of powerful men (and one woman: the vampire queen). Having no super strength, she must submit to a lot of what amounts to sexual abuserather disturbing as it crops up again and again. 

     As you can imagine, there is a LOT of sexual activity (graphically described) going on throughout the stories. Even when Jackie and her lovers are under attack, that “itch” has to be scratched.  

     The stories have a number of inconsistencies. For example, from the beginning, Jackie never gets mad at Zane for draining her and setting her in Noah's path, ensuring that she became a succubus. Also, although a big point is made that Jackie must follow all orders given by either of her masters, she does not always do so. Other times she follows orders to the letter.  And here is a small geographic error. In the second book, as Jackie is driving from Wyoming towards Oklahoma, she complains that the setting sun is getting in her eyes, but she is actually heading towards the southeastaway from the setting sun, not towards it. In summary, this is a lightweight chick lit seriesa quick, if forgettable, read.

1 comment:

  1. I guess the main issue with this series is that the main character is so naive, There really isn't any character growth with her, Jackie is always fighting her need to feed and insists on feeding on her Masters. I personally find it annoying because her Masters play a back and fourth ping-pong game with her because they both want to claim her or are putting themselfs in danger FOR HER SAKE!. And then in the next second she can totally flip the switch and be pissed with them because they negeclted to tell her something or because they didn't do something she wanted to the ever so perfect "T". And most of the time they neglected to tell her things because she really couldn't handle it, she really played the dumb role when it comes to the supernatural and had someone guid her everytime.

    There is one thing mentioned in the book that is completely true...Jackie is completely ignorant, yes at some point it looks like she'll finally fend for herself and learned to survive...but she quickly lost that in the next book.

    Noah is a very controling serim, and honestly I hoped throughtout the whole serious that Jacke would be smart and not end up with him. To me, I don't understand why they claim to love each other...they really almost never had any touching moments where it was a heart-to-heart deal, they mainly screwed and did something nice for one another. I just didn't see a love connection there.

    Zane, I can say that I rooted for him all along, even as I read the short stories of him, he was the character that you couldn't help but fall in love with. And his character seems soo lonesome that you almost hope that Jackie is smart and goes with him, and there is no reason for her not to be with him. And considering that he was the only Master that didn't shoot orders at her every 5-seconds should count for something since Noah shouted for commands to her then anything.

    Remy, is one of my favorite characters, she made being a succubi so carefree, she was very smart, and she was very practical with her needs.

    I guess all in all the one thing I can say is that Jackie lacked being practical and her character never really grew.

    ReplyDelete