Review: Doomsday Can Wait by Lori Handeland

This book is the second in Handeland's Phoenix Chronicles series. I read the first a couple of months ago. It was provided to me through LibraryThing, and I liked it enough to give it a four and a half Whatever rating AND enough to look for the next two books in the series. This particular book was purchased from Barnes and Noble by me, with my own money and/or a gift card.

In the second novel in the series, Liz Phoenix is beginning to understand her supernatural powers and to master them. In the previous book, she was battling her on-again, off-again boyfriend's father, who was a full-fledged vampire, out to destroy the good in the universe and take over the world. In this book, she's battling a DIFFERENT on-again, off-again boyfriend's MOTHER, who is a woman made of smoke, out to destroy the good in the universe and take over the world. Okay, so Sawyer isn't really her boyfriend, but he's close. The Woman of Smoke is gathering the forces of darkness and evil and it seems they will prevail. When Liz realizes what she has to do to combat them, it raises ethical and moral issues for her. Will she do what she has to in order to save the world? Or are there some things that shouldn't be contemplated, even for the greater good?

Despite the similarity in plotlines, I did enjoy this book, almost as much as I enjoyed the last one. It was a little harder to get into than the previous book, but once I was involved in it, I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed being back with Liz, Jimmy, Sawyer, and Summer. I enjoyed learning more about the dark forces, new demons, and learning, along with Liz, how to fight them. I think Handeland does a good job in building her world. Liz's voice is realistic and she has just enough sassiness to satisfy me without sounding whiny.

I'd give this book four out of five Whatevers. It took a little longer to get into it, but I enjoyed it immensely once I got hooked. Again, this series is good for fans of paranormal romance. This book didn't have as much sex and swearing as I recall in the last one, but there still was some, if you're squeamish.