Daughter of The Blood (Black Jewels Series #1) Book

I think this book gave me brain herpes. A good read, but horrible. The characters are caricatures. The world is nigh-incomprehensible (who includes a list of jewel ranks and titles (broken down by gender), but not a freaking map? especially when this place apparently uses interdimensional travel?!) I wish I could feel sympathetic to the characters- but they all remind me of a too-perfect job interview: "my only flaw is that I love my work... too much." The plot is well-paced, and makes good use of cliffhangers- but there's just too much else wrong with it to make me want to read the next one.

...and who names their characters Saetan (very obviously meant as an analogue to Satan, the devil, what-have-you) and Daemon- but doesn't bring along any of the associated mythology or world-pieces? Yes, supposedly Saetan rules in Hell, but Hell here is context-free (as there's no religion-system here), and Saetan is rather depicted as a bumbling daddy-figure who likes to give his "daughter of the soul" whatever she wants. Sure, that's kind of Satanic, in a sense, but not quite the sense the author wants, I think.