Bea Reviews The Demon Equilibrium by Cathy Pegau

Publisher: Bywater Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: Nov. 2nd, 2021

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Blurb from goodreads:

When the demonic Horde threatens to unleash Hell on Earth, two women must summon every bit of their shared power to save the world.

Grace Carter, a “source” of magic, has spent the last nine months searching for Maggie Mulvaney, her “catalyst.” The joy of reuniting with her partner—and her lover—is thwarted by her worst fear: Maggie doesn’t remember Grace or their life together. Grace blames the Order of Saint Teresa, the centuries-old organization that trained them to be the strongest demon-hunting duo in generations. But why has the Order done this?

As Maggie and Grace begin to piece their lives back together, they discover that their memories have been masked by someone within the Order. Should the Horde succeed in their plan, those who have committed their lives to slaying worldly demons will be relegated to little more than minions as humans are completely enslaved.

Now, Grace and Maggie must sacrifice everything, possibly even their lives, as they battle to save humanity.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed "The Demon Equilibrium".  It has an intriguing concept, strong world building, and contains adventure, magic, and romance. I hope we will get more stories in this world.

Demons roam the world, preying on humans. A special branch of the Roman Catholic church, the Order of Saint Theresa, raises and trains magical humans to hunt and kill the demons. Maggie and Grace are both a hunting pair and a romantic pair. The romance is forbidden, the hunting encouraged, But then things go wrong and they are separated. 

The story flips back and forth between the present and the past, with the story lines running parallel to each other until times catches up. Maggie is missing much of her memory and Pegau handled this delicately and with tenderness. Watching Grace and Maggie re-discover each other and seeing Grace deal with Maggie's memory loss was both sweet and heart-wrenching.  Interspersed with the romance is the mystery of why and how Maggie and Grace were separated and who is the villain of the story. There were twists that near the end that really surprised me and perfectly suited the story.

"The Demon Equilibrium" was an enjoyable story that was easy to read and made me smile, laugh, and worry. I worried if Maggie and Grace would get their HEA, and would they succeed in their demon mission. I rooted for them succeed. I do hope we will get more, more about Maggie and Grace and more in this world.

Read a post by the author, Cathy Pegau, on why she writes speculative romance,