{Review} Beyond The Veil (The Veil #1) by Pippa DaCosta

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: February 7th, 2015
Finished Date: June 4th, 2015

Publishers: Self Published
Genre: Urban Fantasy 
Source: For Review
Format: eBook

Pages: Unknown
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US

“They say I’m half a demon, but I like to think of myself as half human, especially as the demons want me dead.”

Charlie Henderson is living a lie. Her real name is Muse and her attempt at a normal life is about to go up in smoke. 

When a half-demon assassin walks into her life, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, Muse must return to the one man she hoped never to see again and ask for help. The Prince of Greed isn’t known for his charity. The price is high and the cost could tear her apart.

Trapped between the malevolent intentions of a Prince of Hell, an assassin with ulterior motives and her bloodthirsty demon-kin, Muse must embrace the lure of chaos at her core; the demon inside her, in order to survive.

If your ex is the Prince of Greed, you’d better be ready to raise hell.

The Review: Beyond the Veil is the first book in ‘The Veil’ series and what an introduction it was!
We are introduced to a world where Demons exist and live on Earth is various guises/skins. Demons don’t really value humans but something they deem even worse than that are half-demons which are classed as lower than the low and most are killed at birth. Charlie Henderson just so happens to be a half demon who was once named Muse but for the last five years has successfully lived the ‘human’ life she so craved, leaving everything and everyone she knew in the past including her ex boyfriend Akil who also happens to be one of the Princes of Hell.
It’s only after an assassin pays her a visit and then her place of business explodes that she is forced to ask for help from the one person she said she never wanted to see again – Akil. He welcomes her with open arms but at what cost? Why has he always been there for her? Protecting her, Loving her? He is more than willing to provide her with information on the assassin so she can work out why and who wants her dead…..but should she start looking a little closer to home? With more than one suspect and multiple attempts at her life….just who can she trust?
I really enjoyed this book, I thought it was original, engaging and action packed. I liked Muse’s character, she had a vulnerability to her that appeals and makes you take up her plight. She does go through a change throughout the book and comes into her own quite a bit that sheds the victim image she has for the most part. I really liked the connection she had to Akil, I thought they shared a good chemistry and it was easy to get caught up in their need for each other. Akil seemed like the doting, patient suitor who was happy to wait in the wings for Muse to do her thing and happily brought her back into the fold when she needed him, giving her a home. She gets other male attention from the assassin – but you’ll have to guess at how that plays out.
The storyline was fab! There is a lot of action in the story especially when multiple attempts are made on Muse’s life, when there are things exploding around you, other things chasing you, people trying to rob you of the air you breathe and extinguish your fire…. There are going to be fights aplenty, car chases and decimation. There’s also the fact that Muse has to embrace her demon and learn control throughout the story and through this we find out a lot more about demons, half demons and the veil. The story is also filled with lots of misdirection, twists and turns which truly keep you on your toes whilst never quite working the whole story out but keeping you engrossed throughout. The world building and the characters are really well done, it opens up a really interesting premise with Princes of Hell ruling the sins, the limitations of demons, the Veil and what it’s for, why half demons are hated and how they live in our world but I really wanted to go through the Veil and see the other side. I am satisfied with the ending, it is left open for much more growth but showing great potential and I will look out for the sequel.