ARC Review--Black Dog by Caitlin Kittredge

The first installment in a fabulous dark urban fantasy series—think Kill Bill with demons and gangsters instead of martial arts—from the award-winning author of the Iron Codex trilogy and Vertigo comic Coffin Hill

Ava has spent the last hundred years as a hellhound, the indentured servant of a reaper who hunts errant souls and sends them to Hell. When a human necromancer convinces her to steal her reaper’s scythe, Ava incurs the wrath of the demon Lilith, her reaper’s boss.

As punishment for her transgression, Lilith orders Ava to track down the last soul in her reaper’s ledger...or die trying.

But after a hundred years of servitude, it’s time for payback. And Hell hath no fury like an avenging Ava... 

I received this ARC from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.


Caitlin Kittredge's Black Dog was a pretty unique read! Never have I read a book that stars a hellhound, wherein she's the main character! But yet, I found myself struggling to follow along with some of the plot details, which could be due to the fact that I started this on a Friday and didn't read it again until Monday...time lapse and all that may have caused me to lose track of what's going on with the story and when things get revealed I felt totally lost.

Ava has been a hellhound for nearly 100 years, working for her reaper. So basically she goes after the people her reaper made deals with and collects their souls, very Supernatural-esque, except the hellhound can be both human and dog.

It's not until after Ava kills her reaper that things get rolling, she and Leo--the guy who wants her to kill his father for him--team up and are sort of on the run. Killing your reaper is bound to make someone very unhappy and that someone happens to be Lilith. She then gives Ava a new task to locate a man named Clint who was in her reaper's books as needing to be collected. If Ava collects Clint, all will be well...mostly.

That task turns out to be harder than planned and Clint turns out to be something a bit more than your average human making deals with a demon. Now it's the three of them on the run from Lilith and her big master plan that will likely require/result in their deaths. No pressure or anything!

This read was pretty intense, because for awhile we're in the dark on who is who and what their game plan is. We get Ava figured out pretty quick, Leo to follow and Clint remains the biggest mystery of all! And yet, I still can't help but feel I lost something between the pages for when I read a line towards the end I was totally thrown through a loop! Happens sometimes with some reads.

That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy this one. I liked it for the most part though. It was exciting and pretty action packed with a tense kind of feeling coupled with the danger that lurks after these characters. There wasn't much for romance either though. I was starting to think nothing romantic would happen between Ava and one of the men she was traveling with. I mean come on, a girl and two guys and there seems to be tense moments with each guy...something should happen right? Well, it does! Around 80-something%. It was worth the wait, though I wished I didn't have to wait nearly as long as we did! 

The ending leaves you with lots of surprises and maybe a few questions. I know I was kind of scratching my head a bit wondering what all just happened! I mean I read it, but I once again felt like I lost hold of something at one point. Overall, it was an enjoyable read! Quite different from our usual cast of paranormal characters, take that as you will. I for one never tire of the vampire read, but still loved reading about something new too!


Overall Rating 2.5/5 stars--an okay read with some definite potential. 


Black Dog releases October 28, 2014