30 Jun 2015

The Codex: An Angel's Guide to Seducing a Human by Joe Duck

The Codex: An Angel's Guide to Seducing a Human by Joe Duck

Goodreads Synopsis

When an ancient book capable of summoning a demon is stolen from heaven, Narius, a young and not so bright angel of knowledge, is cast down and ordered to destroy it.

If he fails, he can never return to his blissful life as a lazy library guard.

Fortunately, to aid him in his quest, Narius is accompanied by the Codex, a theoretically holy book, who sprouts terrible courtship advice like a cheap fortune cookie.

Upon arrival to the world below his, Narius is tricked into helping Emily, a greedy sorceress in a bit of a pickle, trying to deal with a hungry dragon.

Together, the human and the angel must overcome enchanted apples, evil elves and the impoverished dragon or risk watching their world burn.



Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

It almost felt like this was two story ideas merged into one. It seemed like at first that the plot revolved solely around finding and purifying the Grimoire but then abruptly changed half way through to include something else that was actually better thought out than the first part. 

The vulgar speak from the Codex about wanting Narius to have sex with Emily were very off putting. It teetered on the edge of disgusting to me because of how not subtle it was and how clear it was that Narius had no idea what the Codex was talking about. 

There was this one section that talked about "two weeks prior" from Narius' perspective and I think it would have helped to have this part first. It would have given the reader some understanding about how perverse the Codex actually was. Because it was quite jarring and left a bad taste in my mouth.

I did like the overarching plot though: Grimoire must be destroyed before the demon is let out from it's prison. I thought it was intriguing and really expanded the angel mythology that I already am versed in. I enjoyed the alternating points of view between Narius and Emily and they both sounded like distinct characters in their own heads. I think they were both well developed characters that had interesting back stories.

I wanted the second half to be better developed and I feel like this could have happened if there wasn't that distinction between the first half and the second. I feel like Narius' day when he wasn't himself (which is my way of getting around a semi-spoiler) should have happened sooner in order for the plot to really start moving along and being more developed.

Overall: 3/5. I liked this one, but I felt it was sort of choppy and all over the place at some points and there was a lot of vulgar speak about sex.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting! I cherish each and every comment. If you leave me a link to your blog, I will do my best to comment back!