Syahira's Literary Obsession

Foretold is the final installment of the Demontrapper YA urban fantasy series about Riley Blackthorne who in the previous book had stopped the end of the world by sacrificing her soul to a fallen angel, Ori. Before the battle, Riley had shared a moment with Denver Beck, a senior demontrapper with whom she had been in love for years. After the crisis had averted, Beck became cold to her and tried to push her away because of the personal baggage he had with his past, leaving Riley heartbroken. In the start of this book, Beck received a call from his hometown with an ill news about his mother dying. Refusing to let Beck be alone in this trip, Riley decided to tag along and realized Beck have been hiding a bigger secret about his past.The story gained its momentum from the start with Beck’s story. Beck have been reluctant to tell Riley about why the folks in the small town of Sadersville have been defensive and antagonistic as soon as they recognized Beck’s truck. After being interrogated by her, Beck began to talk about his troubled childhood with an alcoholic mother and that when he`s a teenager, he was accused of murdering two boys.The other half of the book came where we were left off in the previous book with Ori survived his ordeal from the cemetery. Although he had Riley`s soul in his grasp, their contract had been clear that the soul can`t be traded and this brought the wrath from the devil. So, he was given a task by Lucifer to kill Sartel, the leader of the rebel archangel. Ori decided to train Riley to fight against the demon as a slayer.However, as much as I like with the final battle, I do find its somehow flawed although the relationship between Beck and Riley were resolved unlike the previous books. I do hope Jana continued the series in the future because there are still unresolved issues with Beck’s father, the other bargain with heaven and stuff. For a young adult novel, I do anticipate an adult urban fantasy sequel, maybe with another character like the Demonland`s Blaze who I had taken some shine to. The series haven’t been well-received by a lot of the young adult readers but I had taken a liking with the story and enjoyed it since the first book. I guess the story does similar to CW’s Supernatural and some parts of Buff the Vampire Slayer.Its an easy read, it doesn’t go overboard with the romance element nor it does give instant gratification like common YA romance books does, and it doesn’t skimped on portraying the gritty nature of the occupation it entails. Some reviewers raised an issue about Riley’s treatment by the men in this story but its just a point of the story showing how a girl struggling in a field dominated by men. Trapping demons in this book is a serious job and Riley are desperate as an orphan with debts around her. For a YA series it does give a mature portrayal on teenagers trying to survive in an unforgiving and adult world. Beck himself is still a young adult himself and even then he is flawed in so many levels.So far, the book is quite up to par to Keri Arthur’s Dark Angel series and to me, its the best angel YA series that I’ve read. If you’re expecting Cynthia Hand’s Unearthly or Becca Fitzpatrick’s Hush Hush, you’ll definitely hate this book, but if you valued an on-going plot that span four books without unnecessary fillers , kick ass action, and drama that rivalled The Vampire Diaries’s weekly cliffhangers, you’ll definitely enjoy this book like I did.