The Demon Librarian

I think I may have had some kind of epiphany where this series is concerned. The first one I found to be a very strange cocktail of elements. It had all the ingredients of a really innovative new series with new types of supernatural warriors and a really unique world- but then when I started reading it, it was written like some kind of comedy farce that was bordering on ridiculous. And I just totally didn't get it. Now, having read book two, I think the problem lay with me trying to take it way too seriously. I mean, it has warriors that do cross stitching or knitting whenever they are feeling overwhelmed at their memories of abuse and torture. Abuse and torture aimed solely at making them better (in the witch-bitch torturer's view), more sensitive men. At what point did I think I was supposed to take this stuff seriously? I mean, they literally, in the middle of a fight, will whip out some charcoal and a notepad and start doing some sketching, just to ease the tension.....Doh!This time, however, going into it knowing what to expect, I found I enjoyed it a whole lot more. I read a tag-line somewhere describing it as "A Paranormal Romance Adventure Comedy". Going in armed with that knowledge made the experience entirely different.Naturally, it's still not going to be everybody's cup of tea. Some people will probably not appreciate the humour even when expecting it, because it is a little on the silly side. But what it most definitely is, is ENTERTAINING. I thoroughly enjoyed reading both books.It's a bit like, have you ever watched Dancing with the Stars? You know when there's the couple that maybe aren't the best dancers, and they lack any kind of technical skill, but their wacky routine is still the one you enjoy most on the night because it was simply the most entertaining? Even if they are mad as a box of frogs? Well, these books are kind of like that. Make sense?I can't in all honesty give this one more than three stars even though I found the quality of the writing had improved significantly over the first one. The first book drove me slightly nuts with all the brackets (that's, brackets!) and the Hello? Sarcasm much? thing. This was much better in that area...but not enough so to make it a four star book.I am, bizarrely enough, really looking forward to the next one- Hold Me If You Can, out early January.Originally Reviewed for Urban Fantasy Book Reviewshttp://urbanfantasybookreviews.blogspot.com/