Review - The Codex: An Angel's Guide To Seducing A Human by Joe Duck

Title: The Codex: An Angel's Guide To Seducing A Human by Joe Duck

Author: Joe Duck

Rating: 4/5 stars

Synopsis:

When an ancient book capable of summoning a demon is stolen from heaven, Narius, a young and not so bright angel of knowledge, is cast down and ordered to destroy it.

If he fails, he can never return to his blissful life as a lazy library guard.

Fortunately, to aid him in his quest, Narius is accompanied by the Codex, a theoretically holy book, who sprouts terrible courtship advice like a cheap fortune cookie.

Upon arrival to the world below his, Narius is tricked into helping Emily, a greedy sorceress in a bit of a pickle, trying to deal with a hungry dragon.

Together, the human and the angel must overcome enchanted apples, evil elves and the impoverished dragon or risk watching their world burn.

I received a free ebook copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

My thoughts:

When Joe Duck contacted me to ask whether I would consider reading his book I read the synopsis and thought this is something I would enjoy. I’m glad I said yes. The Codex is a fantasy filled with funny lines and scenes that could appear in a not-too-serious fairy tale. Many times I found it hard to stifle a laugh and my family members gave me questioning looks because they didn’t understand what I was chuckling at.

Narius, the young angel of knowledge – who himself has serious difficulties in absorbing knowledge – meets Emily, the greedy guild member, who has to dispose of a dragon to be able to pay the guild’s debts. They soon become companions for Emily agrees to help Narius in his mission to satisfy her own material needs.

Narius has a book called the Codex, that gives him dubious relationship advice. In the beginning I found this ’character’ annoying and thought I couldn’t abide it much longer, since its every line contained some vulgarity, but later I absolutely got used to it and after a few chapters I wasn’t bothered by it at all, it transformed into a source of hilarity.

Narius is a lovely fool and Emily is the perfect mate for him; a bit harsh, but utterly down to earth. Every adventure they went through together was exciting. They met many strange creatures: a talking dragon, elves, giant bloodthirsty birds etc. Towards its climax, the story became a little more serious and quite a lot of blood has flown, but it fitted the atmosphere that had been created by that time.

The romance was cute, mostly because of Narius’ ignorance and shyness and the ending left me satisfied. I would recommend this book to those fantasy and paranormal lovers who would like to pick up something light and entertaining (and don’t mind coming across dark and gory parts occasionally).

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