'Succubus Revealed' Georgina Kincaid #6 by Richelle Mead

From the BLURB:

In Georgina Kincaid, succubus and she-demon, #1 New York Timesbestselling author Richelle Mead has created one of her most enticing characters. But with a shot at love, and maybe even redemption, is the ultimate seductress finally going soft? Like hell she is. . .

Georgina Kincaid has had an eternity to figure out the opposite sex, but sometimes they still surprise her. Take Seth Mortensen. The man has risked his soul to become Georgina's boyfriend. Still, with Lucifer for a boss, Georgina can't just hang up her killer heels and settle down to domestic bliss. In fact, she's being forced to transfer operations. . .to Las Vegas.

The City of Sin is a dream gig for a succubus, but Georgina's allies are suspicious. Why are the powers-that-be so eager to get her away from Seattle—and from Seth? Georgina is one of Hell's most valuable assets, but if there's any way out of the succubus business she plans to take it—no matter how much roadkill she leaves behind. She just hopes the casualties won't include the one man she's risking everything for. . .

Following the events of ‘Succubus Shadows’, our favourite Hellish hand-maiden has finally sorted her love life out. Her boyfriend and crime writer, Seth Mortenson, ended his engagement to another woman and burned a lot of bridges to be with Georgina . . . but theirs won’t be a perfect coupling. They’ll have to ration sex so that Georgina doesn’t completely blacken Seth’s soul, and Georgie still has to regularly go out and sleep with random men. But they’re together, and that’s all that counts.

And Seth’s family need Georgina more than ever, with Seth’s sister-in-law, Andrea, sick with cancer and a menagerie of daughters who need looking after.

Georgina couldn’t be happier – so of course, Hell has to interfere. Just as Georgina and Seth get settled down, a transfer comes through and Georgina is ordered to work in the actual city of sin, Las Vegas.

But why is Hell so ‘hell-bent’ on separating Seth and Georgina? What could be gained from the distance between them?

‘Succubus Revealed’ is the sixth and final instalment in Richelle Mead’s fantastic ‘Georgina Kincaid’ paranormal romance series.

I have been anticipating this book like crazy. Georgina has always been an emotional series to read, and Ms Mead has gone to great pains to build a complicated and damned love life for our girl Georige. Having said that, at the end of ‘Succubus Shadows’ there was a light at the end of the tunnel – Seth (finally!) dumped that nerdy ho-bag Maddie and took his Thetis back. But the book also ended on a gasping cliff-hanger when Seth called Georgina by her ages-old original name, Letha.

I must admit, the cliff-hanger wasn’t quite as cavernous as Mead usually likes . . . and for that reason (and for lack of a better metaphor) I didn’t go into ‘Succubus Revealed’ with a fear of heights. I (and many readers) had pretty much puzzled the mystery of this series a few books back – a mystery concerning reincarnation and Hell’s contradictory contracts. So I went into ‘Revealed’ already knowing what Georgina and Co. spend a good portion of the book trying to figure out. It takes a little of the gasp out of the big reveal, to say the least.

Having said that . . . I think Mead plotted this series beautifully, and there is a very romantic story arc running throughout the books. But because I already knew the cliff-hanger concerning the ‘mystery’ of Georgina and Seth’s pasts, I wanted something else from ‘Revealed’. Namely, I wanted more Seth and Georgina romance.

I still haven’t forgiven Seth’s actions in the third book, ‘Succubus Dreams’. I still have a burning hatred for Maddie. And for these reasons, I wanted ‘Revealed’ to be all about Georgina confronting past hurts and Seth earning his place in Georgina’s heart.

Unfortunately, I don’t feel like we got that in ‘Revealed’. Seth and Georgina don’t have many romantic moments, and it’s hard having to keep thinking back to the first couple of books and remind yourself that they were, once, a rather sweet couple. Frankly, there just hasn’t been much evidence of that lately. I’m still waiting for Seth to do something to out-weigh the past pain he inflicted on Georgina with Maddie.

Instead, ‘Revealed’ is Roman’s book. Roman, the Nephilim (half angel/half demon) who swept Georgina off her feet in book one, but became a murdering menace in subsequent instalments . . . only to swing back to being a viable love-interest for our favourite succubus, and eventually her room-mate. I have always been rooting for Roman, and in this book he does make you pause and wonder why Georgina doesn’t choose him. He does something so romantic and gob-smackingly sweet, I honestly wondered why she was wasting her time with Seth.

Romantic qualms aside, ‘Revealed’ is more of the funny that Mead loves to write in this series. It starts with a vampire fondue party, and culminates in a demon bowling tournament. Priceless.

The shirt was standard bowling style, short-sleeved and button-down. My name was embroidered on the front. Flipping it over, I found THE UNHOLY ROLLERS done in elaborate, flaming letters. I arched an eyebrow.
“Really?” I said. “This is what we’re going with?”

One good thing about ‘Succubus Revealed’ is that it ends wide-open. I don’t think Mead has any plans to continue the series or a spin-off series . . . but there is definite wink-wink possibility for Roman and everybody’s favourite hobo-angel Carter to return. I am totally rooting for a Roman/Carter book series. How freakin awesome would that be!?

Overall though, ‘Succubus Revealed’ wasn’t the send-off I exactly wanted for Georgina. Honestly, after all the emotional turmoil she has gone through for hundreds of years, I wanted a BIG romantic finale, and instead we got wet-rag Seth Mortenson still being his surly self. Meh. Roman and Carter stole the show for me, and a series for them would be a dream come true. But for now, I guess fans are saying goodbye to Mead’s Hellish Seattle and this wonderful series about a succubus with a heart of gold. Au revoir, Thetis!

3/5