Gideon

April 9, 2007
In Frank 's seductively crafted universe (introduced in last year's Jacob: The Nightwalkers
), demons aren't the clawed horrors of myth (unless they're possessed by the book's villainous necromancers); they're handsome, proud, sensuous and decidedly ambivalent about the world of mortals. Demons have a thousands-year-old rule forbidding them from coupling with humans, who aren't made to survive sex with the charismatic Nightwalkers; male protagonist Gideon, an ancient healer demon (who, naturally, doesn't look a day over 35), has spent eight years in self-imposed exile after attempting to break that law. Recently returned, guilt-wracked Gideon is finally drawn to the true object of his desire: the even-more-forbidden Magdelegna, young sister of hot-tempered demon king Noah. Though Magdelegna's kin raise hell over the May-December romance (at 250 years old, Magdelegna is barely an adult), the pair's breathtaking sex scenes raise more. Regrettably, the complex characterization that humanizes Frank's paranormal characters (including an urbane vampire, a sensual yet celibate lycanthrope queen and a couple of neo-Druids) doesn't extend to the necromancers, who remain faceless, one-dimensional foes throughout. The plot's central conflict between good and evil is therefore lacking the psychological depth, vivid detail and personal chemistry that make its sensitive, scorching romantic components so compelling.