zonenmaan's review
3.0
Dutch review: https://zonenmaan.net/devils-deal-infernal-contracts-1-tessa-hastjarjanto/
thereadingchemist's review
3.0
Written in a tone similar to Lauren Kate’s Fallen series and Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush series, the prologue of Devil’s Deal immediately drew me in with the mystery surrounding two angels that make a bet with the Devil. At this point, we have no idea we know that falling in love with a mortal is part of the deal, but the intricacies are something that would be worked out later.
Nora is a typical 16 year old girl who is always in tow with her three best friends: Felicia, Emily, and Josy. Nora is the straight-laced kind of teenager that would rather get lost in romance books in the library rather than get into the kind of trouble her peers thrive on. Nora’s life long goal is to visit Italy and take in all of its romance and art.
What seems like out of the blue, Danny and Ben join Nora’s school. All of the girls are immediately captivated by Danny’s good looks and charms…including Felicia who has staked her claim on him. Felicia is determined to have Danny as hers even if that means ostracizing Nora from their best friend circle. Ben is the mysterious, brooding type only talks to Nora and ignores everyone else. They clearly harbor a lot of secrets, which Nora is determined to uncover.
I think that the prologue sets the story up to be jam packed with supernatural action and that’s not how the story actually unfolds. So what I enjoyed about this story is that Nora is self-assured and confident, and she doesn’t let the drama involving Felicia unhinge her. Felicia was petty and her obsession with Danny was exhausting. I also enjoyed watching Ben slowly open up to reveal himself to Nora, whereas Danny left a trail of tears with the girls that he lead on. The best part of the book comes in the last 20% or so when we finally understand the deal that was made and the consequences associated with it.
What I had a hard time with in this book was the petty teenage drama. I understand that some drama was necessary for the plot, but it went on a bit too long. This definitely affected he pacing of the plot. This is probably also me being incredibly impatient and wanting to get to some angel battles.
Overall, I think this is a good opener for this series. I think book two will definitely heat up in terms of supernatural action, which I look forward to.
Thank you to Dave at The Write Reads for the tour invitation and the author for providing a book for review. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.
Nora is a typical 16 year old girl who is always in tow with her three best friends: Felicia, Emily, and Josy. Nora is the straight-laced kind of teenager that would rather get lost in romance books in the library rather than get into the kind of trouble her peers thrive on. Nora’s life long goal is to visit Italy and take in all of its romance and art.
What seems like out of the blue, Danny and Ben join Nora’s school. All of the girls are immediately captivated by Danny’s good looks and charms…including Felicia who has staked her claim on him. Felicia is determined to have Danny as hers even if that means ostracizing Nora from their best friend circle. Ben is the mysterious, brooding type only talks to Nora and ignores everyone else. They clearly harbor a lot of secrets, which Nora is determined to uncover.
I think that the prologue sets the story up to be jam packed with supernatural action and that’s not how the story actually unfolds. So what I enjoyed about this story is that Nora is self-assured and confident, and she doesn’t let the drama involving Felicia unhinge her. Felicia was petty and her obsession with Danny was exhausting. I also enjoyed watching Ben slowly open up to reveal himself to Nora, whereas Danny left a trail of tears with the girls that he lead on. The best part of the book comes in the last 20% or so when we finally understand the deal that was made and the consequences associated with it.
What I had a hard time with in this book was the petty teenage drama. I understand that some drama was necessary for the plot, but it went on a bit too long. This definitely affected he pacing of the plot. This is probably also me being incredibly impatient and wanting to get to some angel battles.
Overall, I think this is a good opener for this series. I think book two will definitely heat up in terms of supernatural action, which I look forward to.
Thank you to Dave at The Write Reads for the tour invitation and the author for providing a book for review. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.
ezzydesu's review against another edition
3.0
''When two angels break their deal with the devil, he comes for the one thing they’re trying to protect.''
I have received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.
This review was meant to be part of a blog tour, but due to personal circumstances I had to postpone it. But, hey! Better late than never, right? Especially as I quite enjoyed reading this book and big thumbs up as this is another good indie fantasy! But this book made me realise what difference there is between self published and traditional published books. I have several plus points and some negative ones I want to discuss in this review.
The first thing I want to mention is that it's just super fun to read a book based in your own country. There aren't many English books set in the Netherlands, especially fantasy. When I am reading books set in America, it just feels so weird that all teens are hopping into their car. Here you just take your bike everywhere and even small distances can take you about thirty minutes. Just this small detail makes me able to relate more to the story.
The concept of the plot is very interesting. Two immortal angels make a bargain with the devil out of pure boredom and none of it works out the way they wanted to. These angels have an arrogance you can only obtain by living for hundreds or thousands of years. This combines really well with mortal teenage girls and I love it so much. Especially as those two angels are very handsome and mysterious (we all know how that goes in typical YA...). Though this trope is really fun, I feel like it didn't allow the characters to develop as much as I hoped they'd do.
I really love fantasy stories about angels and demons. Most of these are quite contemporary, and even though I am not the biggest fan of contemporary, these kind of stories are an exception because of the supernatural aspects. But this book pushed it a little for me. When you read a book called The Devil's Deal and with a prologue in which two angels strike a bargain with the actual devil, you don't expect the book to be just contemporary teen drama first two thirds.
I was honestly disappointed when I got to the last third and nothing supernatural had happened yet and it felt like the story arc was far from done. But then all the supernatural aspects were squeezed into that last bit with a much higher pace that didn't fit the rest of the book.
The above hooks in with what I meant about the difference between indie authors and traditionally published ones. The latter have a huge team of professionals behind them to help them make the best of the book possible, but indies are usually on their own. To write a book completely on your own requires a lot of talent, and flaws like the pacing or repetition just happen sometimes. You don't have the professionals to filter out those flaws and in some cases that is just too bad. That's about the only thing that could make this book better, and it really makes me look differently at the difference between indie and traditionally published books (in a good way though!)
Despite being a little let down by the pacing of the book, I quite liked Tessa's writing! It was really to the point, helping the plot move forward without too much nonsense as sidetracking and it definitely didn't have '10 pages to describe a tree-syndrome'. There was a nice balance between dialogue and story telling, which made the story read more natural than books that try really hard to be poetry books.
Based on just writing, I would definitely read more of Tessa Hastjarjanto's work. But for the sequel of this book I want to read the synopsis first to see where this story is headed. I am definitely interested and curious, so we'll see!
I would recommend this book as it is an enjoyable read. Not too long, less than 300, and perfect for lovers of low fantasy and contemporary YA. It's a light read with paranormal aspects and who doesn't love the hot exchange students-trope in YA?!
annettebooksofhopeanddreams's review
3.0
Ever since I discovered how awesome independently published books can be, I'm always eager and excited to try new novels from new authors. So, when the author offered me an ARC in exchange for an honest review of this book, I accepted without a doubt. The blurb made it feel like "classic" YA novels and while others might have outgrown them, I still love them to pieces.
And the prologue of this story was very promising. It immediately crafted a certain kind of atmosphere and tension and I couldn't wait to figure out what was truly going on and what would happen once the bet would start to play out. I also really couldn't wait to meet the two characters placing the bet.
The book that followed, however, screamed loads of potential but a lot of work on the execution. One of the hardest things to do in writing is transferring emotions into words to make the reader feel them while reading those words. I never really got the feeling that the author succeeded in that in this book. I had trouble really connecting with the characters and their emotions and I therefore also had trouble really feeling for them. It's hard to pinpoint why.
Because the words and sentences flow nicely and the book is a fast and easy read. There's a lot happening. However, the dialogues at times felt a little forced and unnatural, with a lot of explaining and info-drops being discussed in a way that didn't seem realistic. I also found the pacing of the story a little off. A big part consists of human drama (at least, it seems) and it takes very long before it becomes clear that there's something supernatural into play and then it goes all very quickly. I think I personally would have enjoyed the story more if the supernatural element had played a much bigger and clearer role from the very beginning, but I think that's personally taste.
For an independently published debut novel, it's absolutely not bad. It has it's amusing moments and there's a lot of potential, especially because the last 50 pages had a lot of awesomeness. And the ending sets an interesting premise for the next book!
And the prologue of this story was very promising. It immediately crafted a certain kind of atmosphere and tension and I couldn't wait to figure out what was truly going on and what would happen once the bet would start to play out. I also really couldn't wait to meet the two characters placing the bet.
The book that followed, however, screamed loads of potential but a lot of work on the execution. One of the hardest things to do in writing is transferring emotions into words to make the reader feel them while reading those words. I never really got the feeling that the author succeeded in that in this book. I had trouble really connecting with the characters and their emotions and I therefore also had trouble really feeling for them. It's hard to pinpoint why.
Because the words and sentences flow nicely and the book is a fast and easy read. There's a lot happening. However, the dialogues at times felt a little forced and unnatural, with a lot of explaining and info-drops being discussed in a way that didn't seem realistic. I also found the pacing of the story a little off. A big part consists of human drama (at least, it seems) and it takes very long before it becomes clear that there's something supernatural into play and then it goes all very quickly. I think I personally would have enjoyed the story more if the supernatural element had played a much bigger and clearer role from the very beginning, but I think that's personally taste.
For an independently published debut novel, it's absolutely not bad. It has it's amusing moments and there's a lot of potential, especially because the last 50 pages had a lot of awesomeness. And the ending sets an interesting premise for the next book!
the_coycaterpillar_reads's review
3.0
Thanks to Dave at The Write Reads for my spot on the blog tour and Tessa for my copy of the book. I’m pleased to be bringing my review for the blog tour today.
This is the first book in a brand-new series. A series that reminds me so much of The Vampire Diaries, which by the way I loved. The fact that this series is independently published didn’t put me off. In fact, some of my favourite books had initially gone down that path and didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book. The prologue was intriguing, and my brain was instantly conjuring up ideas to what the story could be focussing on. It left a lot up to the imagination, I enjoy that kind of build up much more than just straight up giving me the information.
I’m the first to admit that I’m not a fan of the love triangle trope. I just think it’s a course of action that is avoidable and completely unnecessary. I think I’ll need to wait and see how this development pans out across the series before I pass judgement on how that aspect of it will conclude. Nora, our main character heroine fluctuated in her responses and emotions constantly – she very much seemed an introverted girl wanting to push herself further, to become more extroverted but she was stuck in her ways. Ben and Danny definitely challenged her comfort zone. I liked her. I loved that she was a big reader and interested in Italian art. It made her more relatable to me. She seems extremely wary/self-conscious of boys and men. I’m unsure if something has happened in her past or not as it seems a bit at odds with how girls usually act.
The friends in my opinion were not friends at all. They were shallow, self-conceited and spoiled girls. As they say there is no honour amongst thieves and well the friction between Nora’s group of friends suggested they were friends on a superficial level. They weren’t very likable to me and struggled to make a connection with them.
I toughly enjoyed the ending. It was strong and piqued my interest and enjoyment. I think overall the book had masses of potential, but it was the execution that the author struggled with. I felt that sometimes the emotion and speech of the characters were at odds with the age group. Often, I found that they spoke with such maturity and language that it was hard to believe that they were YA characters. Unfortunately, I had a hard time connecting with the characters and this is so important for me in a book. It’s absolutely not a bad book but would say that the points above made me rate it 3 stars. It’s really awesome when someone makes the plunge to release their work and that should totally be commended.
This is the first book in a brand-new series. A series that reminds me so much of The Vampire Diaries, which by the way I loved. The fact that this series is independently published didn’t put me off. In fact, some of my favourite books had initially gone down that path and didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book. The prologue was intriguing, and my brain was instantly conjuring up ideas to what the story could be focussing on. It left a lot up to the imagination, I enjoy that kind of build up much more than just straight up giving me the information.
I’m the first to admit that I’m not a fan of the love triangle trope. I just think it’s a course of action that is avoidable and completely unnecessary. I think I’ll need to wait and see how this development pans out across the series before I pass judgement on how that aspect of it will conclude. Nora, our main character heroine fluctuated in her responses and emotions constantly – she very much seemed an introverted girl wanting to push herself further, to become more extroverted but she was stuck in her ways. Ben and Danny definitely challenged her comfort zone. I liked her. I loved that she was a big reader and interested in Italian art. It made her more relatable to me. She seems extremely wary/self-conscious of boys and men. I’m unsure if something has happened in her past or not as it seems a bit at odds with how girls usually act.
The friends in my opinion were not friends at all. They were shallow, self-conceited and spoiled girls. As they say there is no honour amongst thieves and well the friction between Nora’s group of friends suggested they were friends on a superficial level. They weren’t very likable to me and struggled to make a connection with them.
I toughly enjoyed the ending. It was strong and piqued my interest and enjoyment. I think overall the book had masses of potential, but it was the execution that the author struggled with. I felt that sometimes the emotion and speech of the characters were at odds with the age group. Often, I found that they spoke with such maturity and language that it was hard to believe that they were YA characters. Unfortunately, I had a hard time connecting with the characters and this is so important for me in a book. It’s absolutely not a bad book but would say that the points above made me rate it 3 stars. It’s really awesome when someone makes the plunge to release their work and that should totally be commended.
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