Better than Chocolate: Demon's Covenant

My favorite YA book last year was Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon, so I've been eagerly waiting ever since I found out it was part of a trilogy. I seem to have a very different sense of closure than most people, so that I'm often happy with a book when all the reviews say it's just a set-up for the next book, or I finish a book and figure it's the first half of the real thing only to find that's all she wrote. Anyway, I was glad there would be more, and I had just enough time to anticipate the second book, The Demon's Covenant.

The demon books are about family, and how far to go to protect your family, even at a risk to other people. Would you kill someone to save your brother's life? Would you kill a murderer to save his life? The two families making these decisions are a pair of brothers who live by themselves and hide from or hunt the demon-calling magicians, and a sister-brother combination who run afoul of those magicians. They become friends, but loyalties shift because family always comes first. And because they are all teenagers, the conversations are full of snark and sarcasm, just the way I like it. The dialogue doesn't ring quite true, but it's so much fun I don't care. I like how carefully detailed each character is, and how the connections between all four play out. It's the kind of book where I turn back to the first page after reading so I can savor it again, knowing how all the pieces fit together. I hope the third book is as much fun. A-

Hey, this book is second in a series! Go me!