The Devil's Metal is something like Almost Famous, had it been written by Stephan King. It is a demonic thrill ride that takes you from the innocence of a small town to the drug induced, sex addled corruption of a group of musicians willing to do almost anything to make it big.Dawn starts off as a young woman looking to break into music journalism and show her ex-boyfriend that she's more than just a small town rodeo queen. When she accepts an offer to chronicle the tour of her favorite band, she gets so much more than she bargained for.Dawn gets a bassist who hates her, a singer who wants to screw her, a Devil worshiping drummer that scares her, a lead guitarist that just wants her gone and a few groupies that seem to want her dead. All she wants is to get her story.The story itself starts out a bit slow but you're able to get a great sense of who Dawn is and what her life is really all about. You have a chance to meet her brother who suffers from his own debilitating issues and her spunky best friend Mel, who makes a wonderful side kick.It all picks up when she hits the road and the ambiguous Sage Knightly enters her life. At first he doesn't give her the time of day except to say he doesn't want her there, but when dark forces show their presence and their deep desire to take down the band and all associated with it, he is the one person Dawn can rely on. The sexual tension between the two grows at a nice simmer, but once the heat is turned up the pot boils over and you get one steaming hot relationship. Halle writes her sex scenes as if she was a man who has a full grasp on what women like. Does that make sense? You don't get NC-17 here, it's full on R and she doesn't soften her words like you may expect from some female authors.The paranormal aspect also grows slowly. It's peppered in from near the beginning but doesn't hit a full assault until much farther along. Again, Halle does not soften these attacks. They are gory, spine-tingling scary moments and I loved every minute of them.The 1970's setting and all the music references leave you with a bit of nostalgia and may just have you pulling out your old Led Zeppelin vinyl. Though, you probably don't still have anything to spin it on! It gives you a nice peak at what life on the road for groupie swarmed musicians may have been like back then. Grittie, dirty, sexy and swimming in liquor.The Devil's Metal is the first book I've read of Karina Halle's but I'll tell you, immediately after finishing I headed to Goodreads to check out all her works and marked a few as to read. What can I say? I'm a fan!My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars ~ it kinda rocked!
