Friday, March 10, 2017

*Review* O Unholy Nights by Ginna Moran


Genre: YA Paranormal
Published: December 13, 2016
Pages: 186

Synopsis

This is a Christmas-themed short story collection featuring the stories: Deck the Halls with Demon Guts, Demonic Wonderland, and Angel Kisses and Christmas Wishes. It is highly recommended to read the first book in the Demon Within series before diving into this anthology.

Deck the Halls with Demon Guts

The holidays are Hell for fifteen-year-old Cami Anders since she’s on the run from a demon out for her soul. After moving to a California mountain town, Cami’s holiday season turns from boring to terrifying when she stumbles upon a half-dead boy on the side of the road with his own demonic problems.

Unable to leave the boy to his fate, Cami convinces her guardian and former demon hunter, Alana O’Neil, to help him. What was supposed to be an uneventful, peaceful night turns into one with danger, demons, and an unexpected visitor. Can Cami manage to find Christmas cheer, or will she discover there is no such thing as a Christmas miracle?

Demonic Wonderland

Fighting a demon on Christmas Eve instead of celebrating the holiday season is nothing new for seventeen-year-old Evan Whiteshaw. After rescuing a human girl from a fate bound for Hell, Evan and his partner, David, call upon an angelic friend to handle the situation. With the arrival of Dylan comes news that they’d been hoping to hear for more than a year.

There’s nothing in the world that Evan wants more than to help his partner find his runaway wife, who also happens to be protecting a demon-hunted girl he could never get off his mind. With no better way to spend Christmas, Evan follows David on a wild goose chase in hopes of reuniting their family. What he finds isn’t what he imagined, and he discovers that he’s not the only one in need of a Christmas miracle.

Angel Kisses and Christmas Wishes

Returning home to her small desert town for the holidays wasn’t exactly how sixteen-year-old Cadence Dubois imagined spending her Christmas. But when her father is called away on Hunter’s Alliance business, she refuses to let her grandmother—the woman who raised her—spend the holidays alone. 

When she arrives, an unexpected visitor charms his way into Cadence’s world with the flash of ethereal wings and an irresistible smile—but Cadence knows better than to fall for a nephilim. She doesn’t want anything to get in the way of her destiny of becoming a demon hunter, and a night with a half-angel could do just that. 

Before Cadence gets wrapped up in angelic wings, an unwelcome demon threatens to ruin Christmas. When all her years of training suddenly seem useless amid a demon encounter, Cadence must decide if demon hunting is really her destiny or if she has another calling.

Review


I was hired to proofread this book. The only aspects of the story that I influenced in any way were the spelling and grammar. If you feel that my connection to the book makes my review untrustworthy, so be it, but this is my honest review. 

While I love a good cheesy feel good Christmas story as much as the next person (as long as the next person isn't my mother who is absolutely obsessed with cheesy Christmas stories), I also really love a nice, gory holiday tale. There really aren't enough Christmas stories that focus on the twisted side of things. Thankfully O Unholy Nights does. 

It's hard for me to pick a favorite story from this anthology, but I think "Deck the Halls with Demon Guts" just slightly edges out the other two, and all because of one tiny little detail in the story that made me squeal like a tweenager. It's not even something that would feel particularly significant in general, but it's sort of like Cami's first contact with her future love, and because I'd already read the first three books in the Demon Within series by the time I read this, it made me think about all the future memories they would have together. It brought a bit of cheese into the gore that goes along with demon hunting. And while the author recommends that you read Tainted before reading this book, I would almost recommend that you read this one story before you read Tainted (because it feels like this story takes place before Tainted, or at least in the middle of it. Although I may not be remembering the details of each book particularly clearly at this point. On second thought, you should probably not listen to me on this at all, because the author knows best, right?) 

"Demonic Wonderland" made me feel sad, but it also made me like Evan just a little bit more than I already did. He demonstrates a level of maturity that I find admirable, particularly in a teenager. 

Unlike the first two stories, "Angel Kisses and Christmas Wishes" felt a bit disconnected from the storyline at play here. This is largely because Cadence and Cami don't even come close to meeting yet in it, and their connection to one another doesn't come into play in this story. At the same time, I would have been sad to not get a Cadence Christmas story, and this is an anthology so the stories aren't required to actually be connected. 

Overall I give O Unholy Nights 4.5 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

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About the Author

Ginna Moran is a writer living in Austin, Texas but originally from Southern California. She started writing poetry as a teenager in a spiral notebook that she still has tucked away on her desk today. Her love of writing grew after she graduated high school and she completed her first unpublished manuscript at age eighteen.

When she realized her love of writing was her life's passion, she studied literature at Mira Costa College in Northern San Diego. Besides writing novels, she was senior editor, content manager, and image coordinator for Crescent House Publishing Inc. for four years.

Aside from Ginna's professional life, she enjoys binge watching television shows, playing pretend with her daughter, and cuddling with her dogs. Some of her favorite things include chocolate, anything that glitters, cheesy jokes, and organizing her bookshelf.

Ginna Moran loves to hear from readers so visit her online at www.GinnaMoran.com. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.

Ginna Moran is currently hard at work on her next novel.
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