Review: Georgina Kincaid #2: Succubus on Top

Title: Georgina Kincaid #2: Succubus on Top

Author: Richelle Mead

Date of Publication: January 1, 2008

Formats Available: Paperback, E-book

Buy This Book: Amazon

Synopsis: Love hurts, and no one knows it better than Georgina Kincaid. If she so much as kisses Seth Mortensen, the shy, sexy writer she's been dating, she'll drain his life force. Admittedly, the shape shifting and immortality perks of a succubus are terrific, but it's completely unfair that a she-demon whose purpose is seduction can't get down with the one mortal who accepts her for who she is. . .
It's not just her personal life that's in chaos. Doug, Georgina's co-worker at a local bookstore, has been exhibiting bizarre behavior, and Georgina suspects something far more demonic than double espressos. She could use an assist from Bastien, an irresistibly charming incubus and her best immortal friend, but he's giving Georgina some highly distracting come-hither vibes. Georgina is going to have to work solo on this one--and fast, because soon, Doug's life won't be the only one on the line. . .

My Review:

More often than not I find myself constantly singing Richelle Mead's praises, and more often than not I find myself absolutely adoring her books. However, Succubus on Top had the fantastic writing and intriguing plot that I've come to expect from Mead but the romance felt a little, off, for lack of a better word. Having read a vast majority of Mead's books this one just didn't quite feel right to me, something about Georgina's personality felt a little off and I just didn't find myself respecting her as much as I had in the first novel.

Even though Georgina is a succubus Mead painted her as a classy and respectable woman throughout the first novel. However, in Succubus on Top Georgina felt a little more shady, I still liked her to an extent but some of the things she did just took me back a little. The romance especially was what got me,  I still absolutely loved Seth (though there were some things that just made me want to shake some sense into him) but this time around the romance felt a little more skanky than heartfelt. I just didn't sense the connection between Seth and Georgina that I felt in the first novel and there were times when I felt frustrated by Seth and his lack of ability to stand up to Georgina when he needed to.

The romance may have frustrated me but I really did love the plot, the side story about Bastien trying to seduce the local overly religious and homophobic radio host made me laugh, even though I wasn't a huge fan of Bastien. Something about Bastein brought out the worst in Georgina and I wasn't really a fan of some of the things he encouraged her to do. Bastein had the potential to be a really great character but he just had this weird personality streak that made me not like him, no matter how much I enjoyed the plot line surrounding him.

Likewise the plot regarding Doug and his band was also interesting. I would have liked more information on the immortals involved in the drug scheme but in the end the story came to a pretty interesting conclusion. Richelle Mead is an absolutely fantastic writer and she always has a way of making even uninteresting events fascinating, even though I wasn't a fan of the romance the rest of the novel was so well written it was impossible for me not to enjoy this novel. Besides the one moment when Georgina's previous personality showed through during the Scrabble scene would have made up for the entire novel being garbage (which it wasn't).

At the end of the day I think Mead is more suited for YA novels but, while I didn't like Succubus on Top nearly as much as Succubus Blues but I have faith in the rest of the series. With absolutely fantastic writing and fun characters I would definitely recommend the Georgina Kincaid series even though this one wasn't my favorite.

3/5