Review: The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegan

The Mephisto Covenant

by Trinity Faegan

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Release Date: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Egmont
Source: NetGalley + Egmont
Purchase: Book Depo. | Amazon | Kindle
About the Book:

Sasha is desperate to find out who murdered her father. When getting the answer means pledging her soul to Eryx, she unlocks a secret that puts her in grave danger—Sasha is Anabo, a daughter of Eve, and Eryx’s biggest threat.

A son of Hell, immortal, and bound to Earth forever, Jax looks for redemption in the Mephisto Covenant—God’s promise he will find peace in the love of an Anabo. After a thousand years, he’s finally found the girl he’s been searching for: Sasha.

With the threat of Eryx looming, Jax has to keep Sasha safe and win her over. But can he? Will Sasha love him and give up her mortal life?

The Mephisto Covenant, while it's not one of My Favorites of the Year, it's definitely a solid read, including great mythology, a strong plot, and sweet, devilish characters that make me hope there will be more books for the rest of the Mephisto boys! Are there a few aspects that seemed slightly derivative? I guess. Too many issues that dogged me because they hampered the pacing of the plot? Yes. Did the romance feel rushed? At times, yes. But, it's the overall package that appealed to me and basically led me to finishing the book. It's entertaining, at points scary and eerie, and insanely engrossing! I blanked out all throughout my morning classes (kindles make it easier to sneak a few reads in, believe it or not)!

Despite the fact that Sasha is Anabo--in other words, totally pure of soul, not drawn into temptation--I did not ONCE see her as bland. I enjoyed her narration. She may not feel the darker emotions that we ordinary people do, but that never made her uninteresting. In fact, she struck me as oddly intriguing and admirable because of her inclination to always do good, it being in her relative makeup not being an issue. She's gorgeous, liked by most people, generally content, and a basically good kid. And she's humble about it, so she didn't annoy me to that extent. Being a goody-goody actually made her endearing to me. Surprisingly, what grated my nerves is her struggle over Jax. Probably because there is such a huge portion of the book devoted to her back-and-forth, indecisive thoughts aimed at Jax. I can't stand when it takes the MC FOREVER to decide. I might not give her that long because the book will end up back in my TBR, and might not get picked back up again. It's realistic, I suppose, because I could understand her logic, but I have no patience for that constant inner-turmoil crap.

The romance could've been set up as the ULTIMATE FORBIDDEN kind. Son of hell meets the daughter of Eve--or the human equivalent of an angel. But that's actually one of the focal points of the book. Jax NEEDS (and is allowed) to fall in love with an Anabo, like the other Mephisto, in order to... Well, I won't say, since that would be spoilery :P. But the pacing suffers because of Sasha's unwillingness to fall into it with Jax. Frankly, instead of reading about Sasha worrying over her choices, I'd rather have witnessed hot kissing, people falling victim to Eryx's tricks, meeting Eryx himself sooner, hanging with the Mephisto bros, etc. Anything but that agonizing internal monologuing going on. The plus side comes when Jax and Sasha really do starting gravitating toward a relationship; the chemistry between them is awesome. (Younger YA readers should be aware that there's a very sensual scene toward the end of the book...)

I think the plot is unique and imaginative, however at times choppy. I struggled through some of the descriptions and the inconsistent flips between Jax and Sasha's POVs, as it tended to get confusing. There's a lot of tension, an ominous threat looming close, but I do wish there were more fighting scenes. It would've been nice to have met the villain in person sooner, just because when I finally did, I thought he was wickedly bad-ass and deliciously evil. The sadness is there, too, what with everything that happened with Sasha's father before the book started, that happens with Sasha's mother and remaining family, some friends. It's sad to see how easily some of the characters get tempted to the dark side... and watching them pay the consequences.

Faegan's wording and pacing suffered some, but the writing as a whole is vivid and humorous. The characters popped and are easily accessible; it was easy to make a connection with most of them, thereby easy to feel sympathy or pain for them. And while I was happy with the book's ending, I did feel like it was a little too abrupt. I needed better transition and a bit more filling in.

The entirety of the The Mephisto Covenant acts as a striking, consuming read and, in spite of the bumpy ride, I ate up this book and read it fairly quickly, and enjoyed all that I found inside it's pages!

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He was bad news, she was sure of it. 

Why, then, did she stay right here, staring at him and thinking he was absolutely irresistible? Why did her mind keep replaying lying in the snow, his warm body against hers? Maybe because it had been her first kiss. Watching him turn to look at her again, she wondered if it really had been as amazing as she remembered.

Only one way to find out. Closing the distance between them, she bent her neck to look up at him. "Will you kiss me again?"

"If you'll let me."

She reached up, slid his shades from his face, and dropped them to the snowy ground.

He rested his hands against her shoulders and looked as though he was at war with himself before he pulled her toward him, bending his head until his mouth was close to hers. "Remember, you asked," he whispered...