Stuti's blog for depleting ships

3.5[Note: A half star for the fabulous cover. It's so colorful and pleasing. I wants more of it, I does.]I manage to do many impossible things. Suck at Twister, love glitter and detest sparkles at the same time, sometimes force myself to listen to a bit of Taylor Swift when I have nothing better to do, resist going back to [b:Mockingjay|7260188|Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)|Suzanne Collins|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358275419s/7260188.jpg|8812783], have a dream about a dinosaur which is a car and its tongue is the headlights and it also happens to be a yoga guru.But never did I think I wouldn't be able to enjoy a book with rock 'n' roll, drugs, rockstars, sex, demons, deals gone wrong and a music journalist.Moreover, written by [a:Karina Halle|4785031|Karina Halle|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1333997846p2/4785031.jpg].The problem with [b:The Devil's Metal|15784613|The Devil's Metal (Devils, #1)|Karina Halle|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344317634s/15784613.jpg|21502500] is that its being pitched in a completely false fashion. From the blurb, you expect an edgy novel with lots of action, but its more of a road trip and as much as I love road trips[a love born of a lifetime of watching Doctor Who and Supernatural], I have yet to find a book that makes road trips enjoyable and not damned boring. But this is about a small-town journalist finding her place in the world of glamor.It's actually pretty cool, but then there's a loooooooooooooooooooooong stretch of boring.Journalists journalise, monsters don't monsterize, musicians musicfy and groupies groupify.See what's missing?Monsters that monsterize.It's only in the last couple chapters that the paranormal side of the book comes into play and even then it feels rushed and compliant. People get off really easy. Most of the book is spent in striving to be ignorant and mooning after Sage.Speaking of which, Sage never felt like a real character to me. I think he was kept mysterious and enigmatic for a bit too long and all I can piece of him is his absolute, irresistible sexiness and youthful stupidity of a time long gone. Is there another side to him? Is there more to him? If there was, I'm sad to say I didn't find it.In contrast, the relationship between Sage and Dawn was satisfying enough. The gradual development and the tension is delectable. The general atmosphere of '70's rock 'n' roll is perfectly executed and oh so damn cool. There are several music references and withbeing ensconced in pot smoke, the highs of music and the lows of glamor, stuffiness of tour buses and the mayhem of backstages and greenrooms, it's all so fucking real. But then another stretch of booooooooooooooooring. Everything interesting starts way too late in the book.What's also perfectly nailed is the depravity in glamor. It made me think, what is it about stardom, about music, that makes so gratuitous and wanton? What debases them to such low levels? Makes them revel in such fashion as to destroy themselves? It also reminded me how much I wouldn't like to meet Paul Banks. Nope, absolutely not.It bugs me that there are no strong female leads other than Dawn. Would it have been a bit too much to add a woman who was nice and capable? See, it goes this way-Females kill and females die. In the end, Halle leaves you with a cliffhanger that upsets me so because now I just have to read the next book to find what happens next because, before I forget to mention, Dawn was an awesome character and the cliffhanger ties the noose around her neck!Cross-posted on Books behind Dam{n}s