Kiss & Hell by Dakota Cassidy

Pages: 339

Backcover:

She's never seen a sexier ghost.

Delaney Markham doesn't just see dead people, she hears them, too. And FYI, communicating with tortured souls all day can really wreak havoc on love life. After all, no wants to date the crazy chick that talks to herself. Sans boyfriend, Delaneymakes the best of her gift by holding the occasional seance to make ends meet--that is, until one incredibly annoying ghost just won't go away.

When he materializes wearing nothing more than Delaney's pink bathrobe, she knows something's up. Besides being sinfully hot--in a college professor sort of way--all signs point to Clyde Atwell being much more than an ordinary spirit. In fact, he's a newbie demon whose first assignment is to take Delaney back down to hell with hem. Yeah, like that's gonna happen on the first date. If Delaney's old nemisis Lucifer thinks she's going down without one hell of a fight, he's got another think coming...

Review:

This is my first Dakota Cassidy novel, and I'm ecstatic to say, "Thank fucking God, because it is freaking awesome." Excuse my French. Kiss & Hell is definitely going into My Favorite Pile--for so many reasons. Now that I look back, I realize that the first half of the novel's setting is in Delaney's East Village, New York home. Plus her store, where she makes her seances for hard-earned cash. Somebody's got to feed those six tongue-lolling mouths. Clyde stumbles upon Delaney right in the middle of a very crucial money-crisis seance. This beginning their humorous, heartfelt, frustratingly dramatic frenzy of a relationship.

A month. All they have to perform the impossible. A month where "Clyve" Atwell is to make Delaney fall in love with the idea of getting all her desires come true by him before making her off herself with the revelation of his unlife in Hell. Of course, that was what was supposed to happen--before Clyde with a d came along and switched assignments. Now they have a month to convince Hell it's really Clyve making Delaney fall in love, not Clyde. And figure out why Clyde ever became a demon, when he and every probable detail of his supposed life clearly states otherwise. Doesn't it? Or is the investigation going to rub a little close to someone's *cough* Delaney's *cough* past? And that doesn't even include Marcella--might as well call her the she-devil, Kellan--Delaney's brother also being mentioned in the Underworld. The cause for Lucifer's untimely reappearence in Delaney's medium life being that hopeless, terrifying night fifteen years ago. Usually, the jumping-to-conclusions, and the keeping-secret-schemes-to-oneself is what frustrates me to no end. It was indead the same case here, but, frankly, I've learned that is waht keeps you going, reading. What really baffled me was Delaney's strong-willed, good-humor nature, albeit at some unappropriate times--like talking about your bf's explosion to smitherings--throughout the whole book. You can tell she uses it to sort of mask some under-the-surface feelings, but that's just who she is, how she's been reduced to after so long in isolation. Another thing I admire about Delaney/Dakota is her sense of music and TV show references--which pretty much got me singing that I also love Andrea Bocelli and Michael Buble (blame my mother), and will look into "Ghost Whisperer" with J-Love.

Author Info: All I know about Dakota Cassidy is she thinks I'm direct (and she has joined the penny-sized club) and that she likes my comebacks, and I have the tweets to prove it. Neener, neener, neener.

Grade: B+/A-

LiLi