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Today on my blog I have The Celibate Succubus on my blog today. On my post there is a spotlight, review, guest post, and giveaway.
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“Team Packer” is a covert Catholic strike
team against supernatural evil with a secret weapon in its arsenal: 16-year-old
Delilah Vincentio—the world’s only Christian succubus. Trained by demons to
despise humanity and lead them into sin, her unprecedented capacity for mercy
caused her to renounce her place in Hell—and gain an angelic referral to Team
Packer.
Delilah is assigned to infiltrate the
Order of the Lightbringer, a Satanic cult that plans to make Pittsburgh
But while Delilah may be reformed from
her beguiling ways, she’s still very much a demon—and she hasn’t learned how to
play well with others. In fact, trying to fit in and keep a low profile at high
school may prove to be a tougher battle than bringing down the Order of the
Lightbringer.
Review:
Delilah is a succubus who’s born in Hell and whose job is to tempt as many men as possible to bring their souls to Hell. While on a mission things don’t go as planned and she meets an angel who asks her what she wants. Her response ends up saving her and giving her life a better purpose. She gets involved with a secret Catholic organization called Team Packer that brings fights against the Demons of Hell.
I really enjoyed the concept of this book. I thought it was very fresh and original. It had me thinking about whether or not people are born good or evil. And even though Team Packer centers on the Catholic faith other religions are part of it also and showed that they also had power to fight against the demons. It was just a refreshing pace to have so many different types of people fighting for one goal rather than being at odds with one another.
Delilah is one of those characters that you can’t help but love even though she is a demon. She is an old soul for being only sixteen years old. But being born in Hell and going through the torture she endeared her spirit isn’t broken. I was really amazed by her transformation during this book.
There is quite a bit of action and at times I was on the edge of my seat. This is a sign of how much I am enjoying the book and connecting to the characters as I start to worry and wonder if they will make it out okay. Oh and the fact that Delilah has wings and can fly has me jealous not to mention her wings come in handy many times during her undercover work. I would defiantly recommend this book to people who are looking for a fresh and unique take in the paranormal genre. 4/5 Bloody Fangs
Author Bio:
Barton Paul Levenson’s novels include Max
& Me, Year of the Human, Ella the Vampire, I Will and Parole. Mr.
Levenson’s short fiction has appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy
Magazine, ChiZine, Cricket, Cicada, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and
many other publications. An original member of the Pittsburgh Worldwright’s
writing workshop created by Mary Soon Lee, Barton has published more than 60
short stories, poems, and essays. He is also a two-time winner of the Parsec Short
Story Contest.
Levenson holds a degree in physics and
writes prolifically about everything
from fictional works to radiative-convective models of planetary
atmospheres. He has also learned to speak French, Spanish, Russian, German,
New Testament Greek, and Japanese
(though, he confesses, not well enough to converse with native speakers). Mr.
Levenson is married to genre poet Elizabeth Penrose and lives in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania
Stalker Links:
Guest Post:
Five Facts About my Book that Might Surprise You
Barton Paul Levenson
1. The main thing that induced me to write about a succubus was the character Kurono Kurumu from Akihisa Ikeda's manga, Rosario + Vampire. My Delilah, however, is nothing like Akihisa-san's lovestruck succubus. I assume Akihisa-san is Buddhist and/or Shinto in his beliefs; to him, a succubus is merely a sex-driven "dream demon." To a Christian like me, of course, demons are somewhat more dangerous. It's your soul they're after, not just your bod!
2. To write about a succubus, essentially a legend from the high middle ages in Europe, I had to assume a Roman Catholic point of view, and my converted succubus, Delilah, works out of a convent in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. As I've also been published twice in anthologies of Catholic SF, people sometimes assume I must be Catholic myself. Actually, I'm a Presbyterian elder. (That's the title of the position. I'm not an old guy, I'm young and handsome. Sort of.)
3. I don't really believe in succubae or incubi, any more than I believe in vampires, werewolves, ghosts, or the aliens I make up for my SF novels. I do, however, believe in God, the Devil, and pretty much the whole Christian view of the supernatural. My rather toned-down "Celibate Succubus" is a very mild version of what I think real demons must be like. To quote Delilah herself, "When you think of the mentality of a demon, don't think of some high, noble mastermind with brilliant evil plans. Don't think Hannibal Lector. Think school bully. Think emotionally disturbed child kicking a puppy to death, or setting a kitten on fire and laughing until he cries. That's the demon mentality. Nothing high or darkly noble or even intelligent about it. Just nastiness. Brutality. Pain. Hatred. And fear. Constant, constant fear."
4. One reader of the manuscript said, "Do you hang out with teenage girls all day?" Well, no, I don't. I'm channeling my own memories of life in high school. I do know a few teen girls, but in this age of stranger-danger and serial killers, an older guy like me hanging out with 16-year-old kids is not a wise idea. Apparently I got the slang right anyway. Research pays off!
5. I've never been in a convent, though I've been to mass a few times. Got all my descriptions from books, the internet, and quizzing my Catholic friends.
I hope you like the book! I'm getting good reviews so far, which makes me very happy.
Thank you for stopping by my blog today. I would also like to say Thank You to Barton for letting me review your book and for the guest post. I would also like to say Thank You to Bewitching Tours for letting me participate in this tour. Don't forget to enter the giveaway below.
~Sabrina
Sounds like a great read!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chance to win!