Earth to Hell: Journey to Wudang: Book One by Kylie Chan (Sep 25, 2012)

If you liked the first trilogy, this one is in much the same vein. If you're an urban fantasy fan but haven't read the first trilogy I recommend you go back and do that before reading this one. 

I really must tell you that it is going to bed impossible to read this book if you have not read the first three books.  In fact, I would strongly suggest a re-read to brush up on stuff. I haven’t read the series in about a year and even I was at sea for much of the book.

We rejoin the series after 8 years have passed, Emma is nearly 40 and still pretty much as useless in a fight as she was at first unless she is bringing out her Snake side. You see, she needs to meet challenges for Simone’s hand and she isn’t doing a very good job of it.  John is still gone, although there are times when he will come back briefly – either in dreams, or a sort of mirage – and help Emma try to get the Demon out of her so she won’t become a Snake Mother.   Leo is still in Hell after all these years, but there is something eveil going on and there are duplicate Leo’s all around.

There are huge nests of Snake Mothers and Demons and hatchlings to be found and Emma needs help.  A lot of it.  So whom does she go to for help? The Demon King.  Oh yes!

Again there is action but not enough  to over 500 pages.  There is so much redundancy that I’m surprised that the authors editor would have allowed this book to pass. Simone has become a typical teenager and can be whiny and very annoying.  Sometimes you just want to see Emma step up to the plate and do something about Simone’s attitude but she doesn’t.  The rich and detailed Chinese mythology, history  and details makes for a fascinating read on its own.

The books do hold my interest in at least finding out what will happen when John gets back so that I keep reading and some of the action is worth the time it takes to read these.  The next in the series is "Hell to Heaven: Journey to Wudang Book 2" and will ber released on October 30th.