Tina's Reading Books

Oh, I liked this one. 

It a novella set in the world of her Chalion series.  In this one a young man named Pen is on his way to his wedding and, through a series of unfortunate events, finds himself possessed of a Demon.

If you are familiar with this world & its religious mythology and especially Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster Bujold ,  then you immediately get the potential problem.

Demons are under the domain of the fifth God, the Bastard.  If they escape from his realm into the real world, they need to possess something.  Anything.  From the demon's perspective the smarter or higher thinking the organism the better.  However the marriage of possessor and possessed always comes down to a battle of wills.  You either are ridden by your demon or you ride your demon. 

If the person is in control, then they potentially have a lot of power.  Especially if their demon has possessed other people before them.  They get whatever knowledge, traits & abilities all those other people had.  However if thedemon is in control, then that is a problem and the demon must be returned back to The Bastard.  The demons  hate this.

Usually only a very strong and powerful dedicat of a religious order may ride a demon (or if you are anointed a Saint by the god himself).  And Pen is most certainly not that.  He is a young man who has only known his own small village life and is looking forward to marrying a buxom merchant's daughter.

But get a demon he does and the fun part of the story is sitting back and watching the sparks fly between him, his demon, and the people who think they know best. But Pen and his demon might have something to say about that.