Elise and James pose as a normal couple with a haunted house in order to catch a demon that has possessed a charlatan exorcist. And apparently Elise doesn't bake...ever. Cookies anyone?

I picked up this short story, which is related to the Descent series, without having read any of the other books. I have a couple of them on my Kindle but just haven't gotten around to reading them yet. I was looking for a Valentine's Day read and saw this one. I really liked the cover and decided to give it a whirl. I actually liked the story even though I wasn't familiar with the world or characters of this series. I didn't feel lost at all. There were a couple of references in the book that I did wonder about and probably would have appreciated more if I read the other books first, but I didn't feel I was missing anything major. The story flowed well, kept me guessing, and made want to read more of this world.

What I learned from this companion short story considering I'm not familiar with this series:

- Elise is kick-ass and James is...well, not. That doesn't mean he is meek. He is the "witchy partner" in this duo and provides the magic to Elise's demon-hunting muscle. I'm sure there is more to it than that but hey, it was just a short story. I need more time to get to know this pair a little better.
- No romance here, move along folks (but there is *something* going on between those two).
- Elise seems to have some emotional demons of her own she is dealing with.
- The Valentine's Day connection to this story is pretty loose, but I expected that.
- I should expect some gory, bloody moments in the books for this series.
- I have no idea what the book blurb means about James's butt needing to be slapped and how this story did that. I guess that is one of the things that went over my head because I haven't read the other books yet.
- Don't accept home-baked goods from Elise (though now I'm jonesing for the recipe for Nutella cookies).
- I want to read more of this series or at least the author's other series, which is probably more my style, but I'm definitely giving this one a shot.

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Word Count: approx. 9,000
Kindle locations: 465 (story text ends at 95%)
ePub length: 27 pgs (story text ends on pg 26)
Print length: 30 pgs (Amazon estimate)
No Table of Contents

Side Note: I love the cover art on Reine's books....that is all. ( )