I really enjoyed this book, would definitely recommend for fans of Women of the Otherworld series or the TV series Supernatural. An entertaining read and I loved the relationship between Tala and Aiva. The idea of the nine circles of hell being in charge of the criminal underground was intriguing. I look forward to reading more in this series.

The appendix with information on all the demons was fantastic

So when I went into this I was really excited as I love fantasy and the way the book was presented made it sound amazing. Unfortunately it completely fell off the mark. First my biggest issue with the book was it was almost like a discount Mortal Instruments. Nighthunters are basically shadowhunters, one of them has runes tattooed on her, normal people are Mundanes, and their name is Morgenstern. I mean seriously. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and kept reading. Usually I can read a few books in a day however this one took me about a week and I still never finished it. I lost interest and thought the concept was good but overdone.

I received a copy of The Ninth Circle, Book 1: Fire via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Now I'm fairly new to NetGalley and I was just browsing through some books when I came across The Ninth Circle and honestly I asked for it mostly because of the cover. But then I read the synopsis and I was instantly intrigued. I have never read a book written by C.A. Harland so I was interested if this book would be a good match for me.

Oh, it was. So, The Ninth Circle is based in Ireland (which I'm dying to see personally!!) and it's about Tala Morgenstern and her sister Aiva Morgenstern. So Tala and Avia have to work together to find their sister Hartley, who disappeared when she was on the trail of her long-lost father. Oh, and they are demon freaking hunters. See now it's totally reasonable that I thought of Cassandra Clare while I was reading this.

Sidenote: The name Morgenstern makes me think of Valentine from the The Mortal Instruments series.

So the two sisters track down Hartley's whereabouts throughout the circles of hell, I mean Dublin's criminal network. Now I'm not going to spoil all of the circles and what is waiting for them there but picture it has a YA version of Dante's Inferno with a twist because there's a shitload of demons and such. For example, the sisters will meet harpies, hellhounds, sirens, etc.

Honestly, I liked this book. It had bits and pieces from the story line that made me think of shows, like: Shadowhunters or Supernatural (which I just actually started watching too!--HELLLLO DEAN <3). Or it made me think of books, like Dante's Inferno obviously, The Mortal Instruments, and for some reason I can't think of the other book that comes to my mind--I think it might be by Jodi Picoult, but I have no idea! It's like on the tip of my tongue.

In the end, I liked both Tala and Aiva. I honestly couldn't pick a favorite sister, they are equally amazing in my eyes. I have nothing to complain about them. Plus the POV's were highly entertaining.

I seriously cannot wait for the next book. If you're a supernatural fan, a YA fan, a YA supernatural fan, or you just like books and need one to past the time: I suggest you read this book immediately!

A little more on the juvenile side of Young Adult Paranormal/Fantasy, as far as the writing style goes, The Ninth Circle is a stab at an interesting retelling of Dante Alighieri's Inferno from The Divine Comedy. Dante's Circles of Hell are alive with the Circles of types of demons and supernatural hellish creatures of myth and legend, and the hierarchy (Circle) to which they belong or reside.

The lead characters, two of three sisters, both feel a little flat and most of the dialogue feels forced, like...jam-your-fist-into-the-other-hand-for-emphasis forced. All of that begins though with an odd and disjointed opening that throws the reader into the deep end, without the benefit of full introductions. It was strange: like being plopped into the middle of a series, as though you'd unwittingly opened the third book of a series, not realizing there were two full books that came before it.

While the action was a little over the top and a bit too pervasive, it allowed the story to maintain some modicum of much needed momentum. While I didn't dislike this one, I won't be revisiting it for the future books in the series.

Rating: 4.25/5 Stars
 I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. I was excited to read The Ninth Circle after reading some of the reviews that compared the early chapters to the television show Supernatural. I'm a huge fan of the show and I'm not one to penalise a book for being similar to something that already exists. I mean, there's a resurgence of fairy-tale retellings for a reason and they're the definition of rehashed material. Anyway, I'll start with what I really liked, move on to the difficulties I had with the novel itself.

 Firstly, it was so nice to read a novel that doesn't dance around flouncy prose. The Ninth Circle is very fast paced in terms of how quickly I was able to move through each chapter. The novel's plot was very episodic in nature, each chapter moved much like the progression of a television episode - numerous subplots introducing the world of The Ninth Circle whilst making small developments in the central plot before a finale in the final few chapters. I liked how Harland worked in references to Irish Paganism and its ancient deity - the Wiccan in me really hopes we see more of this in the later novels.
 Each chapter felt like its own novelette and I liked how the novel developed overall. Although, I know the deviation from a traditional linear narrative might put other readers off. I thought it worked for what Harland was trying to do and I think the flow of the narrative really paired well with the fast paced nature of her writing style. 
 I loved both of our main characters and I think that Harland did an excellent job of switching between their perspectives so efficiently.  Their personalities were imperfect and complex and it was really interesting to see how the triad of sisters interacted in the final half of the novel. I think that, for a first novel in the series Harland has done a fair job of introducing a good number of side characters that I really hope she revisits in later novels. I hope at least, that their involvement in this first novel continues in the ensuing sequels. 
 I liked the world building, but I still have a lot of questions that pertain to our protagonists mother, their relationship to her and her plans for them as a trio. I'm a sucker for history and context, so I'd just have liked to know a bit more about the history of the sisters that specifically relates to what their mother had planned for them.

 As this was a proof copy, I won't be taking the grammatical and basic editorial problems into consideration for my final rating but its still important to highlight that they're there - the reading experience was very jarring. I thrice experienced sentences being cut and spliced together to the point that the last half of the sentence was actually meant to be the beginning of it. Either way, its something to keep an eye out for. 
 My biggest issue with this novel kind of ties in with one of the point I made at the beginning of this review. The Ninth Circle is incredibly fast paced, to the point that at certain times I had to skip back two or three pages just to re-place myself. The opening for example was very disjointed because of the way that both sisters are introduced - they are both robbed but besides a name change it was very easy to miss the change in character perspective. There were also a couple of plot inconsistencies in the beginning in terms of which sister was the oldest which is a minor detail but enough to jar me away from the plot slightly.  I also know that a lot of people have given poorer reviews because of The Ninth Circle's relationship to Supernatural but honestly I think that besides the first few opening scenes Harland has really put the work in to make the demon-hunting genre her own and I have a lot of respect for how shes clearly attempted to distance herself from the two famous demon-hunting brothers. Will I continue on with the series? Definitely and I can't wait to see what comes next.

The Ninth Circle was set in Ireland and was third person narrative alternates from Aiva, Tala, and few important events through different character’s perspectives. It was informative, descriptive, adventurous book about the 3 sisters, their life as Nighthunter, family drama and secrets woven in the world where demons of the hell roam among humans.
It was hard not to think about Shadowhunter Chronicles or similar kind of books while reading this. I could see little glimpse of Shadowhunter world and yet was very different than that.

Characters- Aiva/Ivy- She was middle sister, not best in fight but was brainy one. Good at planning and researching. I liked her idealistic nature and her gift was cool. She was stubborn at some point had a weakness of accepting her mistake, for not listening her sisters.
Tala- She was amazing elder sister and hero for her sisters. Best in fighting with tremendous strength. Witty and high tempered. She was combo of Jace and Izabella of Mortal Instrument. She was blind in sister love which was her both weakness and also strength. One thing I didn’t like about her was, she will kill or betray others to save her sisters.
Hartley- Baby sister. She was not present in most of the book as she was missing and that’s why I couldn’t make out much about her. Complex and unexpected one.
All three sisters had a gifts which was discovered as the book progressed. Oh, did I tell they had different fathers? They were not blood sisters and still their love for each other was adorable. Characters developed a little, specifically Aiva, as book progressed. This was just a one part of the series and it was like reading detailed introduction of them and there might be more in the next books.

What I liked-
Books directly started with main characters –Tala and Aiva’s life after Hartley goes missing with action scenes. It felt like I was suddenly whisked to a world where I didn’t know what was going on. I must say it started very well, my brain was flooded with lot of questions and slowly everything was answered and then I was introduced to these sisters and interesting world.
The main theme of the book- The Circles and family drama. Brilliant world building. I just love reading about supernaturals, demons, creatures and all of them was there in this book. Let me tell you what circles were.-
The Circles were run by demons who came from hell on Earth and functioned their demonic activity through circles starting from thieves, clubs, brothel, and casinos to gangs and terrorists. There were levels from one (lower, not that dangerous but informative) to nine (higher and most dangerous). In each chapter introduced one or two circles, the type of demons who run them and how they worked. There were various kind of demons in the book- sirens, fair folk, succubus, Kasha, Selkie, name it you have it and little about them as well.
Some readers may feel that was much info dumping but for me it was amazing. And best thing was, those info about demons and circles did not contain lot of pages of the book. They were in bits or just few lines, narrated in between actions or research by sisters or during their conversations. In short the Circles were perfectly written, I never felt like I was missing something or left unexplained.
I liked the pictures on the beginning of each chapters. All action scenes and descriptions of places and demons were beautifully narrated. I could visualize scene clearly.
I liked reading about family, how their mother died and why Aiva separated from their sisters after their mother’s death, and also more about their mother, what she planned and why she told few things like always stick together and wear necklace she gave to them. Discovering who was Harley’s father and Tala’s, was surprising. Aiva might know about hers in next books of the series.
Author created great suspense in the book. Like characters I could not guess what might have happened to Hartley or where she was. The mystery was solved step by step and there were little clue on how to find her and those clue lead them through each Circles with lot of danger and action. I couldn’t guess anything certainly even after climax. Twist and turns in the book were amazing. Climax and end of the book totally unexpected and taken me by surprise and at the same time was so typical.
There were lot of things and info in this first book only. I wonder what will be in next books of the series!!

Why not full stars- I felt like, their mother’s plan was little confusing and not properly explained. It was like wrapped in hurry to reach the end. The way story was in the end it could have 2 or 3 ending including what author decided. And I was not happy with ending author preferred. The ends I thought might be a surprise in the next books- of course there isn’t any hint of that- but as for this one, it was just okay.

Overall, fast paced, interesting world building and suspense with family drama. Those who liked Shadow hunter chronicles and similar kind of books, would like this book. This book is for supernatural fans.

Very well written story, the author created a world I was able to imagine and slip into eagerly, I am looking forward to reading everything else I can find also written by them.

Entertaining and fast paced. For those who like Supernatural this will be a good read - it's like the female version of the Winchester Brothers. This did remind me a little bit too much of other similar genre reads so I felt it lacked a bit in the originality factor. 3/5 stars.

Thanks to netgalley for this free copy!

I have mixed feelings about this book.
The setting was cool (Ireland!!!), the plot was okay, the characters.... more or less okay.
I had totally forgotten about this book until I read a few reviews comparing it to Supernatural. So I was pretty excited to read it!
Unfortunately, at the beginning, I thought it was way too similar to Supernatural... and the fact the main characters are women didn't make it more interesting. I usually love stories involving siblings but I felt there wasn't enough material to get attached to the Morgenstern sisters.
The book still is entertaining and a quick read. But it felt more like a tv show episode (I found the writing very "cinematographic") than an actual book.
I do wonder if my feelings for this book would be different if I wasn't a Supernatural fan~

This is just not my cup of tea, however my mom would love it. Supernatural isn't really my thing. It probably has a good story line, a little bit of elementary writing style though, I couldn't get passed the first 20 pages.

Fans of Supernatural, attention! Do you love demon hunting stories? Do you love siblings who fight for each other? Do you like Dante's Inferno and how he structured Hell into circles? If your answers are "YES!" then this book is for you! I liked it a lot, both because its magical world was very enchanting and because I grew to love the protagonists.

You can find a more detailed review on my blog: https://teacupinthebooknook.tumblr.com/post/165191517181/45-the-ninth-circle-by-ca-harland

If you're a fan of the Supernatural series, you will absolutely love this book! It pulls you in and before you know it, you're immersed in a world of demons, magic, and sisters with an unbreakable bond who will do anything to save each other. A great urban fantasy with strong female leads. Highly recommend!

I'm sorry but I did not read this entire book and I will not write a review. I cannot post this feedback without assigning a star rating so I chose 1 star.

I struggled to get on with the set up of this book and subsequently it is still half finished. I will pick it back up again but am not in the right mind set right now.

Here's the thing, I couldn't get interested in reading this book. Maybe it's my mood, maybe it's stress about life stuff. But I just couldn't be bothered with this book. The plot, the characters, everything just fell a little flat for me.

It wasn't a "bad" book, per-say. I just couldn't get into the story. It felt like a book I have read a hundred times before. The book was a bit like Supernatural, but with three sisters instead of two brothers. The sisters are Shadowhunters, I mean "Nighthunters". Who hunt misbehaving supernatural creatures, Fae, and Demons. But for the most part, the book is a little less about that and more about Tala and Aiva trying to find their baby sister.

There was a mass of info-dumping that kind of slowed things down a little, a slew of uninspired characters that made things a little boring.

This was an ambitious book, but a lot of it wasn't very original. I am pleased that the romance was very minimal and that there was more focus on other things. There was a decent amount of violence, which doesn't exactly "bother" me, but I think it's harder to write convincing battle, or violent, scenes than it is to write "romantic" scenes.

The main issue with this book was that I felt it took far too long to really get into the "meat" of the story. When they finally get to that first circle of hell, things really started to pick up, but that was with in the last few chapters.

This wasn't a bad book, I just had a hard time getting interested because it just wasn't very original.

As we follow the Morgenstern sisters through their exciting adventure we meet so many exciting mythical creatures, from Demons and Sirens to the Furies. 

The Nine Circles of Hell are based off of Dante's Inferno version of hell. I love Dante so I love how Harland used it as the basis for her novels mythology.

I loved Aiva as a character because she reminds me so much of myself. Aiva is logical and thinks knowledge is the key in the fight against demons. We see Tala being the opposite of Aiva as Tala thinks a knife and a good throwing hand is all she needs. The three sisters have an interesting dynamic, and each one represents something fundamentally different from the other. 

I loved how all the other characters who appeared in the book, even for a short period of time, are all characters I got attached to and hope to see again in the sequel. The fight scenes were so well written. They were explained vividly and created a tangible image. I loved Harland's style of writing. The ending was amazing. It was shocking how quickly the story progressed, I can't wait to see what Harland has in store for the second book.

The story follows Aiva & Tala as they race to find their missing sister, Hartley after she has been abducted by demons.
Luckily the sisters have trained their whole lives to be demon hunters.
Apparently, this book shows a lot of similarities to Supernatural… I have never watched Supernatural.
The story was brilliantly fast paced with some great fight scenes, kick ass females, and most importantly no ridiculous instalove.
I like the whole circle of hell premise and the way the human and underworld weave together.
The writing did start to drift and falter in the second half but the fast pace held the book together.
Anyone who is looking for a brutal action packed supernatural read with likable strong female leads would love this book. I will definitely be reading the rest in the series.

If you like fantasy, demons, crime, all kind of strange things this is a book for you. I m looking forward for the next part.

I simply could not get into this novel. I cant explain it, which is rare for me. I do not publish negative reviews.

I didn't end up finishing this. I'm sorry, but when I requested this, I thought it was a standalone. When I got halfway through and realized this is actually a twelve-book serial, I decided to give up. I can't make it through 12 books right now. My own mistake.

What I read of this book was... fine. I like the vague Supernatural vibe. I like the characters of the two sisters, and there are a few really good action scenes. But the overall plot is honestly kind of confusing and not great.