Review: The Demon Trapper's Daughter

Title: The Demon Trapper's Daughter
Author: Jana Oliver
Date Released: February 1st, 2011
Pages: 340
Rating: 3 out of 5

Description:
Demon Trapper Riley Blackthorne just needs a chance to prove herself—and that’s exactly what Lucifer is counting on…

It’s the year 2018, and with human society seriously disrupted by the economic upheavals of the previous decade, Lucifer has increased the number of demons in all major cities. Atlanta is no exception. Fortunately, humans are protected by Demon Trappers, who work to keep homes and streets safe from the things that go bump in the night. Seventeen-year-old Riley, only daughter of legendary Demon Trapper Paul Blackthorne, has always dreamed of following in her father’s footsteps. When she’s not keeping up with her homework or trying to manage her growing attraction to fellow Trapper apprentice, Simon, Riley’s out saving citizens from Grade One Hellspawn. Business as usual, really, for a demon-trapping teen. When a Grade Five Geo-Fiend crashes Riley’s routine assignment at a library, jeopardizing her life and her chosen livelihood, she realizes that she’s caught in the middle of a battle between Heaven and Hell.

Review:
The Demon Trapper;s Daughter was definitely very intriguing.  Main character Riley Blackthorne lives in Atlanta in the year of 2018 where demons roam the streets and demon trappers, like Riley's dad, catch them.  


Riley is training to be a demon trapper just like her father, even though many of the demon trappers in Atlanta's Trappers' Guild disapprove of a girl apprentice.  Life gets even more complicated when her father is suddenly killed while out trapping demons with Beck, a demon trapper who used to be Riley's father's apprentice, and Riley's childhood crush.  She no longer has any parents to protect her (her mother died several years before) and now she has to face the daunting task of protecting her father's grave from necromancers.  Not only does Riley have to protect her father, but she also has to protect herself from the demon's who want her, and deal with a growing attraction to Simon, another apprentice.

The Demon Trapper's Daughter was very intriguing and different from other novels that I've read.  I don't think that I've ever read a novel that revolved around demons, so it was definitely interesting reading about the different types of demons that Jana Oliver describes in the story.  Keep in mind that the story doesn't completely revolve around demons... It revolves around the life of Riley and her journey to following in her father's footsteps.  There's some romance and school drama that she gets caught up with, too, showing that she can be a somewhat normal person. 

Riley was definitely one tough girl.  She tries to prove herself and that she can do just fine and dandy on her own.  Even when she's almost killed by a demon.  But that doesn't stop her.  She was strong and brave, proving these characteristics when she was assigned to Harper, the mean drunken Demon Trapper, who treats her like a pile of manure.  On the other hand, Beck was a bit of a softy.  He seemed really tough on the outside, but when you got to read about his side of the story, he really cares for Riley even though he puts up this wall.

The story was a bit slow at times and I actually stopped reading it for a while because it just got a bit boring.  It mostly seemed to concentrate on Riley protecting her father's grave, when I really wanted to see some demon trapping action going on.  The end was definitely a thrill, though.  Everything just seemed to be building up to that final moment of the book were all of the action and excitement happens. 

The Demon Trapper's Daughter was a very intriguing story about demons.  While the story moved along slow at times, it had a very cool premise and concept on demons.  The insight into the life of a female Demon Trapper apprentice was really cool, too.  Riley was a really cool character and I loved how she was the t-shirt and jeans type of girl :)  The Demon Trapper's Daughter sort of leaves you on a cliffhanger, and with the want to find out what will happen next in Soul Thief.  I'm pretty sure that Soul Thief will be one heck of a rollercoaster ride because of the ending.

Cover Review:
I really like this cover, and I definitely find it better than the UK one.  I think that they totally catch Riley's personality on the cover, and the Demon Trapper inside of her with the sphere in her hand.  The red really pops out on the cover against the black and white.  One thing about the cover that I don't really like is how it doesn't really seem that futurisitic because of the font.  Overall, it's a really cool and eye-catching cover!

Cleo :)

*Description and cover from goodreads.com
**Review copy purchased for the Kindle.