Jenna Black - The Devil's Playground

Morgan Kingsley, a kick-ass exorcist, can deal with Lugh, the supersexy demon living inside her, but does he have to moan softly during her intimate moments with her mortal lover? Understandably, Brian is reluctant to share the pleasures of Morgan’s flesh with a gorgeous rogue from the Demon Realm.
But personal matters will have to wait when the opportunistic owner of the Seven Deadlies demon club in Philadelphia enlists Morgan’s help in heading off a crisis: It seems that demons have started showing up at the hot spot in alarming numbers and in the unwilling bodies of rough trade club-goers. Morgan is sure that Dougal, Lugh’s sworn enemy, is behind this, but why? To find out, Morgan must summon every ounce of power at her command—or risk becoming just another casualty in an all-out demon war.

Comment: This is the last book in the Morgan Kingsley series. It's the conclusion to this demon exorcist who saw herself as a host to the demon king and went on an adventure to help him defeat his brother and to secure the throne for that would aid humans to keep their lives, as the demon king was human friendly. During this time Morgan saw and confronted her fears and went from demon hater to friend with some and it was a lesson that no one is the same, no matter the species.
This series has five installments all narrated by Morgan.

In this fifth novel, Morgan and her friends start to develop a plan to remove Dougal, the throne usurper from the demon realm so they can trap him in the mortal one. This way they will be able to help Lugh, the true king, to have his power back. At the same time, everyone has to deal with their own lives and the little things that put them on the dangerous path, because to trap Dougal is a job that could cost too much...

I have to say, being quite the fan of this series in particular, I did have some expectations about the end, about how things should be delivered, considering this is the wrap up of all the things that happened to Morgan and those around her because of the demon succession problems. Throughout the five books Morgan not only had to find the will to accept being a demon host but she also had to deal with emotions, life issues and human interactions while hosting. Not an easy job, even more so because she was anti-demon before. But she learned to accept Lugh and to live with him and his influence on her life and dreams. It wasn't easy but she learned a lesson.

Therefore I was hoping for an amazing and explosive end, with perhaps a HEA in there as well.
It wasn't exactly like that...
The good guys win, there's a happy enough ending but I was a bit disappointed by how simplistic everything was...I wonder if the author actually wanted to keep up and perhaps write more but decided not to at the last minute or wasn't eager to do so or something, because the way I see it, the end was rushed, a bit disjointed and not completely finished! I was hoping for some closure on Morgan and Lugh's situation, something more definitive about their relationship or perhaps some clue abut what would happen in the future, bearing in mind Brian's presence there, but everything was left open ended. Even the solution found to deal with Dougal didn't made many decisive changes in the story and I wasn't very agreeable with the way things were done after. It was understandable but not the thing I'd have chosen to solve things. All in all, not the most brilliant conclusion.

This book was good for Morgan's personal development, but of course, even in this we finish the book with the feeling something else is going to happen after this latest adventure is done. I was very annoyed with this.
I thin this book is more worth for the experience, for the path it took and by how emotional some parts were. I still turned pages quite eagerly and until the last pages I thought the end would be more embellished somehow. Well, if I weren't such a fan of the overall storyline and Morgan's personality, I probably would be even more disappointed, but all things considered I'm just glad none of the characters did something stupid or died, so....

This isn't the end I'd have chosen and I did want to see something "more", you know, but at least it offered some sort of end to the readers. I really just wished it could have been better. Nevertheless, all the beloved characters showed up and had a role to play.
Grade: 7/10