The Demoness of Waking Dreams (The Company of Angels #2) by Stephanie Chong

Ex-cop Brandon Clarkson is an angel with an edge. His tough exterior is the perfect camouflage for his job—hunting down the most dangerous criminals on earth. A self-reliant and demanding lone wolf, Brandon is the perfect angel to track and capture demoness Luciana Rossetti. Beneath the surface of Luciana's cool, green-eyed beauty lurks the heart of a malevolent killer. In the winding streets of Venice, she lures Brandon into her dark world of pleasure. 

They are perfectly matched. Angel and demon. Man and woman. But only one can win the battle of wills, of strength and of desire.

 This is the second book in this series. Where Demons Fear To Tread is the first book. Luciana is the demoness we meet in the first book. One who seems evil to the core. Her perchant for poisons makes her as dangerous as any arch-demon not just for mortals, but for the immortals walking the earth. She has developed a poison that could even harm them. This is why she was targeted and became a top priority for capture. Unfortunately, it seems that some angels want more than her capture. Luckily for her, the one sent for her, Brandon, is an honorable angel and is unwilling to hurt her regardless of what he is told.

So, I thought this was an interesting twist. The demoness is the brooding evil one and the angelic redeemer is the sweet (albeit hot) male. Granted the male isn't innocent, but sweet enough to make him angelic. There is an insta-attraction between the two, but no necessarily love. This helped me accept it, but it still was a bit too fast for me, but not enough to detract from my enjoyment of their adventure.

With these types of PNR stories, we often have the evil one wanting to be redeemed and you can see their path clearly even with the hazards. However Luciana has no want of redemption and only revenge. Even though you see some of her veneer cracking I was never convinced of her want to become "good", and this bothered me at first. Then I started to understand that this was intentional. She was struggling but could not let go of her need for revenge. She would not, nor could not change until she found forgiveness for those that wronged her... including herself.

Ah... so you figure she found her forgiveness and then found her HEA? Let me just say that the ending is frustrating as it is perfect. If it was any other way I would not have liked it, but at the same time I wanted something different. Heh... I'll let you chew on that one for a bit. *evil laugh*

I give this book 4 stars. I did have some frustrations with the characters but some were minor and some were intentional. I found this interesting and I want the next book so I can find out what happens next. There is a big thread left open (no cliffie) and I want to know where things are heading. :)

I received this book from Wunderkind PR and no compensation for my review was given.