Review: The Stone Demon by Karen Mahoney

We here at YAF & WS were lucky enough to preview the newest book in the Iron Witch Series, The Stone Demon.  While we were waiting on spring 2013, we got lucky!

After being tricked into opening the doorway to the Demon Realm by Aliette, the Wood Queen, Donna Underwood is faced with a terrible ultimatum from the newly released demon hordes. They demand that the alchemists deliver the Philosopher's Stone, or their reaper storm will plunge the world into a devastating modern-day Dark Age.

Donna is sent to London, England, where she must complete her alchemist's training and learn how to recreate the Stone. But time is running out. Between facing the vengeful demon king, Demian, and collecting the Stone's elements, Donna realizes she must give her own life in order to succeed. And this time, even braving death may not be enough to save the world (GoodReads).

I was very excited to get my hands on this copy and just plowed through- here, without any spoilers, is the review:

Originality: 4. We did travel to a variety of fairy/demon worlds, but consider the difficulty of these travels in previous books, it all seemed to easy here.  It is hard to stay original in the third book of a trilogy, and while there were some tricks, most of this world stayed the same.
Absurdity: 8. Demon terrorists? Check.  Escalators in hell? Check.  Dragons? Check.  High levels of absurdity throughout.
Level of Paranormal Romance: 6.  So, though my love for Xan is still strong, things just did'nt feel the same.  True, still insta-love but the distance issue definitely made him less dreamy- something about unresponsive long-distance boyfriends just rings too true to life.  And I still cant help but think that Donna was flirting with the devil, figuratively and literally.  And the ending? pish posh womp womp, we all wanted more Xan lust.
Level of Harry Potter-ness: 4. Donna is still stomping around as a bit of a pain, and I wish that she was fully embracing her strength and powers, which she does try to do, but her moody-teenager angst at times get the best of her.

Overall, glad to have some closure on the world of the Ironwood and LOTS of lingering questions were answered (thank goodness).    

FTC Full Disclosure: I received a review copy from Flux publishing. Happy reading followed. (We do not accept or receive compensation for reviews at YAF and WS.)