Beyond The Veil

Beyond The Veil
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of NetGalley

Charlie Henderson is living a lie. Her real name is Muse and her attempt at a normal life is about to go up in smoke. 
 
When a half-demon assassin walks into her life, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, Muse must return to the one man she hoped never to see again and ask for help. The Prince of Greed isn’t known for his charity. The price is high and the cost could tear her apart.
 
Trapped between the malevolent intentions of a Prince of Hell, an assassin with ulterior motives and her bloodthirsty demon-kin, Muse must embrace the lure of chaos at her core; the demon inside her, in order to survive.

Aaaannnd so the NetGalley back log continues. Bloody Kindle. I will admit I struggled to get through this one, but that may be because I was trying to read with a fuzzy/headachey head and a huge helping of over tiredness but the latter is my usual state right now so who knows. The book did however, brighten up this gloomy June day. 

I enjoyed the world of the book, it was an interesting take with humans being aware of demons and so on. But there was a little twist in that they weren't aware of quite how powerful they are. I found it very amusing that said demons attempt to blend in by taking a human form, it made for some funny mental images. This isn't the first time I've read a book about a half demon who can switch between the two, however this one wasn't quite on the same level as it. I'm very eager to learn more about the demons own realm, and would have loved for more of it to be included in this book because there were some inconsistencies and I had some confusion a couple of times. 

Muse for me seemed like a puppet. Things had to be explained to her by the blokes, and every decision was made for her and it was infuriating to read about. She was bumbling along, being easily fooled and just doing what she was told. Now I haven't read the prequel, but I'm led to believe that this is a total change from the character in the prequel, so while I've only read this and found her to be annoyingly puppet like, I can only imagine what it's like for the readers of the prequel. 

Stefan took some time for me to like. Like a lot of time, but eventually I did. Akil, however, well lets not go there shall we. Either way, wether you loved a character or hated them, they helped bring the vivid world to life and suck you in to the story. 

There was a lot of action, don't get me wrong, and the book was all go from the start, but there was the occasional part of the book where I found my attention wandering slightly. The romance I didn't buy. There was a love triangle and insta love and I was rolling my eyes a couple of times and I was kinda disappointed by this element. The whole thing with Akil made me feel like I'd jumped in to the middle of the series not the beginning, and like the whole "who would you choose" thing, like why would I choose the controlling dude she inexplicably keeps going back to whenever she needs help? Like what. 

My other issue with the book was character motivation. Stefan and Akil.....still not entirely sure what motivated them, which made the whole book a bit odd and seem like some things were done for the sake of action or whatever, but then at the same time, I kinda have to chalk it up to it being the first book and there being some sort of deep, dark reveal in the next book. I should also warn readers that this book is fairly dark, but like...I read Game of Thrones so I wasn't too bothered.