A Heart for Valentine's Day

by Lexi Esme

A woman's desperate deal with a demon leads her down a dangerous path of illicit desires and deadly consequences.

ADORA

When I'm told that my sister's terminal heart condition has left her with only a few short weeks left to live, I'm willing to do anything to save her - even if it means making a deal with a demon. Aviel is powerful and beguiling, with a magnetism that simultaneously frightens and compels me. His offer is simple - he would grant my sister the procedure that would save her life, but I would owe a debt, one that could cost me far more than I ever imagined - my freedom, my future, and my soul.

More and more, Aviel becomes an ever-present force in my life, winding his way into my heart and mind - no matter how much I resist. I can't seem to stay away from him, and his presence in my life has become almost comforting. But, as my world slowly unravels, I recognize that Aviel may not be the hero he appears to be. There's something about him, something that suggests he's not just in this for the business. And now, as I find myself sinking deeper into his grasp, I'm starting to wonder whether I made a mistake. I fear that my deal with the devil will have far-reaching consequences beyond what I could have ever imagined.

AVIEL

Humans are so predictable. They'll do anything for their own selfish ends, even if it means making a deal with a demon like me. Adora is no exception. She's willing to risk everything for her dying sister, and I'm more than happy to take advantage of her desperation. But there's something different about her, something that I can't resist - her devotion, her fire, her ability to challenge me, and now she's starting to get under my skin. But our connection runs deeper, and her fiery spirit sets off an indescribable craving within me. I can't get her out of my head, and I don't want to.

I can feel myself getting too attached, too involved. And that's a problem. I can't afford to let my impulses interfere with business. Adora is just a means to an end - a way to satisfy my own desires. But as the stakes get higher, I find myself questioning whether Adora is really just a pawn in my game. The line between fascination and obsession is growing thin, and I'm teetering dangerously close to the edge. I can feel my grip on the situation slipping, and I know I won't be able to let her go.

Trigger warnings: dark themes, terminal illness, dubcon, manipulation, death,

This is a stand-alone and is intended for Adult audiences, Within this book, you'll find a steamy, complicated paranormal romance story, with an inkling of darkness with a guaranteed HEA. But, during this season of love, let's not forget that love, even if forbidden, can sometimes be the most powerful force of all.

Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Monster Romance, Fantasy, Vampires, Fantasy Romance

208 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 28, 2023

Reviews

[Asha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars!! This was SO entertaining and I ate it up. Like don't get me wrong the mmc Aviel really was the worst especially the way he manipulated Adora (the fmc) but he still had me giggling and I mean he did get her dying sister a heart when she needed it!! And also I mean the author did mention the content warnings beforehand.

This was a quick read and I was just eating up their interactions and him tryna be like what I'm feeling rn isn't me falling in love it's just like....indigestion or something...

Also Adora being like I know this guy isn't human and an asshole but like I still wanna make out with him 🥲 like it's alright gurl I support u and he's got money so you still won in the end.

The spicy scenes were also good! I'm always willing to take more of course but I'm satisfied with the ones given. There were a few grammar errors but not enough to pull you out of the story.

I'm really enjoying seeing this authors growth as a writer!

[Poppy || Monster Lover · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I really like Aviel and Adora and their spice was good. Adora’s journey was pretty dark and emotional, but that just made me invest in her more. Aviel was very villainous and his attraction to Adora changed him. However, the aftermath of the grovel was very lackluster. What he did merited more than one conversation to resolve it.

Spice: 2/5

Triggers: violence, gore, terminal illness, transplant surgery, grief, mentions of parent death, dubcon, death, mild body horror

[Lia ☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

You belong to me now. I'll show you what it is to be mine. Tell me you're ready for me.

Story: 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Romance & Spice: 4 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Tropes:
😈 Demon romance
🧎🏽‍♀️ "Damzel" in distress
🔒 Hidden true identity
🌗 Opposite attract



Lexi Esme's books are so short and smutty and she still manages a strong storyline for her books. It's amazing.

The story is well thought out and well written. It's also well embedded in the real world while putting a demon in it. Even the said demon is realistic. If you do a demon love interest, he needs to be demonic even with his "good" intention and not only with outsiders. Here it's perfectly depicted: he is a demon, and even if his end game is sweet, he does things his way, he doesn't know any other. 🙌

Adora is incredible and Aviel kind of mesmerizing. I love them both. 💙

The pace of the story is fast but in a good way. You feel the tension, the fear, the attraction between them but there's also lighter moment that'll make you smile or just understand the world and protagonist better. My only remark with this book is the fact that when everything comes crashing down, the redemption part feels really, reaaaaally rushed. I mean, I don't think even Jesus forgive this fast. 😭

The spice and the romance cannot be rated separately for this book and it's a solid 4 stars. The spice is that good because the tension between Adora and Aviel is that obvious, and the romance exists because of all the ways they crave each other 😍.

Still, for hardened smut readers: the actual smut scenes are almost vanilla in theory. The level of spice depends on the fact of how much you feel the intensity of their attraction for each other or not. From my point of view, it's pretty spicy, even without the extravaganza 😉🔥

[Justred · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

This cover is beyond beautiful and is what tempted me to crack open and delve deeper inside this world. Adora was great at first when she was knocked down she’d get back up. However, every single time she got into trouble she ran to the loan shark ML for help. Every. Single. Time. By 74% I was over the tiresome loop with ML and FL.

[Michelle Edmonds · Rating 5 out of 5]

hard to get through in the best way possible

I love all of Lexi books so far, but this one here makes me question my own thoughts. Finding attraction in his behavior that reminds me of Joe from “You” and the first home visit will definitely have me in repeat deep thought! And the added humor from the different J names were all perfect. Definitely can’t wait for the next book.

[My Metal Monster · Rating 2 out of 5]

I DNF, this was so depressing and made me angry about not having Universal Healthcare.

[Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

That man was obsessed!! How very delicious. Personally think he should have done a lot more grovelling but I suppose he made up for it by being sexy.

[Sonya F · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 ⭐️

Let me tell you this is Hot 🥵 the tension is everything. Aviel is a king A-hole turned cinnamon roll and has lots of funny cunning one liners that made me chuckle.

[Carlislethesucker uwu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of this author and read this book since I loved her Thread of Fate book!

I do have to say this one was good, but it kinda had some plot skipping/fast forwarding in between, which I felt the author could have explored and expanded on. I like the main character a lot and her dynamic with the love interest.

However, his sudden attitude from 1 chapter about being mildly interested in her to being very into her was kind of jarring, but overall, I enjoyed the read.

I also really like the dynamic of the main character and her sister as it's very natural.

[Teverlyn Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eerie but Mesmerizing

This book can easily fall under the horror category along with paranormal romance. Aviel was a force to be reckoned with. I liked all of the characters. The storyline was interesting and unique. Would make a great audiobook with good narrator(s).

[Joy Kimelle Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little dark but sweet end

Don’t let really dark beginnings stop you Aviel does have some redeeming qualities. Adora is too sweet to be true. Together they become a workable pair. I hope sister gets a story too!

[Midnight · Rating 4 out of 5]

First things first, I couldn't put this book down; it had me hanging on the edge of my seat! From page one, my heart was already in the trenches! Adora, the female main character, couldn’t seem to catch a break when all she wanted to do was help her sister, Alecia. Adora and Alecia shared one of the most sincere sibling relationships; their care for one another brought me to tears. Yet despite the tears, I found their banter hilarious! Adora was both sweet and brave, and I admired her perseverance—and Alecia was 'straight up no chaser,' funny, and good spirited despite her situation.

Quick disclaimer: While this is a Dark Romance, I got more into Fantasy Romances last year, and at first, I was a little hesitant to read this story because I don’t usually read overly dark themes. I prefer my monster "book baes" to be sweet and a little misguided with good hearts. That said, I do enjoy a bit of unaliving of the bad guys aka ( antagonist characters).

However, the male main character, Aviel, was on an unhinged, different level right from the start! When I say I didn’t like him, I truly didn’t like him! Even as I write this, I'm still side-eyeing him for some of the things he did and how he behaved. That said, he eventually grew on me and had many redeeming qualities. One thing is for sure: the attraction and chemistry between Aviel and Adora cannot be denied. The steamy scenes between them were scorching; I understand why Adora was drawn to him. The man was undeniably hot.

Adora and Aviel's relationship journey was complicated, steamy, scary, and sometimes sweet. That said, Aviel could have found a better way to express his feelings to Adora and keep her in his life; the mind games he played were messed up. This was especially frustrating since he and Adora grew closer, and we got to see his more caring and attentive side. I wish we could have seen more of that earlier in the story. However, when we finally did, it was emotional and gripping!

This story was unlike any Valentine's-themed story I’ve read before, but the execution perfectly fit the genre and plot.

Although this story is fiction, it offers a lot to think about regarding the ill behaviors of some humans, as well as the great lengths many will go to for someone they love.

All in all, I found this story to be interesting and entertaining! I'm looking forward to reading more works by the author, Lexi Esme.

Also, I would list Trigger Warnings, but I figured that with these types of stories, one should already know to be on the lookout. For me, there was a scene(s) involving centipedes, a snake, and tattoos (individually) that I didn't care for. However, they don't take away from this being a solid story.

[Laverne Brewster · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 Stars. (BW/WM). I read Kindle Unlimited Edition of this 206 page e-book.

Setting: Current time unnamed place.

Trope: Deal with a paranormal. Insta-attraction.

Characters:
1. Adora Coleman, heroine, is an environmental scientist with a philanthropic heart. She is trying to develop a property to house the working poor and to borrow enough money to pay for her older sister's heart plant surgery.
2. Aviel, hero, is a demon who is defying his father, satan, by residing on Earth with its hated human inhabitants. Aviel is supports a loansharking business and reaps the souls of dishonest money hungry humans.
3. Alecia is Adora's terminally ill sister.
4. Helen and Tayo are Adora's friends and neighbors.
6. John is Aviel's choph
7. Nancy is Aviel's secretary who sets up his appointments with human clients.
8. Lilith once human is now a crimson snake that Aviel allows to live because she was wronged by her lover.

The story is interesting and well written and despite Aviel's scheming ways, he too is a likable character and helps to pull the reader into rooting for his and Adora's relationship and HEA.

[books2loversss · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, just barely rounding up

Aviel ruined this one for me, which is a bummer because I liked Adora and Alecia and their sibling dynamic a lot. He just sucked. Pun intended but sadly still not in a fun way.

Few quicker turnoffs exist for me than an MMC systematically destroying his boo thing’s life so he can keep her to himself. The possessiveness is not the issue. I have read and enjoyed many a mafia kidnapping, possessive unaliver-style dark romance. But this? Getting Adora fired from her dream job, drowning her in debt, sending people to threaten the sister she clearly will sacrifice everything for? Was she not desperate enough the first time? It quickly became unnecessary for him to achieve the goal of keeping her around, not to mention the fact that it actively hurt her.

Don’t even get me started on him not knowing his assistant’s name. Or having no good qualities. Or how quickly Adora forgave him. Or the odd lack of down and dirty scenes in a book marketed as paranormal erotic romance. The spice level was way lower than I expected.

For Adora and Alecia’s sake, I can’t quite give this a 2, but Aviel is tempting me to.

[Sevyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh this was a good little read

I had high hopes going in to this one, and it did not disappoint! Lexi writes in a very captivating way that I can’t be bothered to put my kindle down until I’ve finished the damn book.

This story was no different. The story of the unconditional love Adora had for her sister was so touching. She went through unbelievable lengths to do what needed to be done to try and save her life. And on the other side of that she met Aviel. Who you kinda want to hate, but can’t. And the fact that he kept calling his assistant every J name in the world aside from his actual name, had me cracking up every single time. There was a point in time that he called him three different names on one page 😂 But I digress, he did some pretty deplorable stuff. But thankfully he had someone in his life who truly understood the meaning of love.


If you come across this book and you’re -for whatever weird reason unsure if you should read it or not. Just do it. You won’t regret it!

[Honey · Rating 5 out of 5]

she did it again!

If you don’t know Lexi Esme you better get a book and get to know her! So far I have all of her books and I’m never disappointed. She has a way with words and will have you loving each story she brings to life.

Adora and her sister is going through a rough time and she is desperate to find help. When she is met with every dead end she comes in contact with a mysterious, dangerous, predator for what she needs.

Aveil doesn’t know how to love and doesn’t know how to feel so he thinks. But when he meets Adora he finds that he would do anything to have her including some off handed things.

Character description is very eloquent it’s like you can’t a picture of them in your mind.

This story is not underwhelming or overwhelming it’s very detailed and just right.

Can’t wait for the next book.

[chenadrinkscoffee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book isn't as good as Threads of Fate in my opinion, but it's solid! It was funny, so sexy, and it was fast paced. I really enjoyed reading this and the characters were all so fun and they really come alive on the page. The plot points surround Adora's sister seemed authentic and I was interested in their relationship.

But I was a little confused by the plot surrounding her job and I found Aviel's character development to happen a little too fast--wish there had been more time seeing him change. I also didn't Iike that the three main characters' names all had similar spellings because that can increase confusion. There a few typos and overdrawn sentences as well, but that can be fixed up with some editing.

But in total, I really enjoyed reading this and I can't wait to see what else this author writes!

[jennifer | offmyredcarpet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover art is gorgeous and done by the author, obviously very multi-talented!

This is my second book by this author and while I enjoyed it, I didn’t love it as much as Threads of Fate. It started off great with an FMC who is the type to get back up and make things happen when life knocks you down. But as the story progressed with numerous disasters it started to feel repetitive and I enjoyed it less and less. The tension between the main characters is wonderful though I wish there had been more dialogue between them and less narrative.

[Ace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed

This was a nice quick read. The banter was greater in the beginning portions of the book for me. I wasn't entirely sold on Adora and Aviel, but I loved Adora's sister and friends. It was fraught, but their support and love was amazing to read. The spicy scenes were great, warning they are under coercion. The machinations plot being discovered felt like it happened to suddenly and I wish there was more groveling. So much more, but it ends on a good and very spicy note. 🖤

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

This was my first read by this author and I really enjoyed it. Adora was a wondeful character who had qualities that would normally annoy me in an heroine but were endearing and like-able. Aviel was a demon through and through. I like that he stayed a demon and didn’t become one of those demons who basically became human because he developed feelings for one. Well written and easy to read.

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️
When I tell you the MMC was a toxic menace, he was a menace!!! I liked this book but didn’t love it as much as I did Threads of Fate. I spent most of it in shock that the man would do all he did when the FMC was willing to be with him for no other reason outside of her liking him and who she was with him.

This book definitely reminded me of some men I met along my dating journey and now AVOID bc I need therapy for enough stuff already. 🤣

[CLorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Contract

Adora is desperately trying to save her sister. She seeks out Aviel for help with finances. When she signs the contract, she does not realize that it has a iron clad policy. Will she survive if she defaults? Cute story with heat and a HEA. Aviel was amusing and Adora was adorable and strong. I loved the running joke about Aviel’s assistant’s name!

[Squid · Rating 5 out of 5]

short, steamy and cute!

I’m such a sucker for ‘emotionally unavailable guy prostrates himself for the love of his life’. Aviel is deeply troubling, but absolutely loves Adora and will do anything for her- which, respect. Thousands of years of terror and he’s a cinnamon roll for this woman? YES.

[M.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars - this started out SO strong. And I think it ended pretty strong too. But we didn’t get enough of Aviel’s POV when he was being an idiot to make forgiving him very believable. I also would’ve liked to see more of the bonding and spice in the middle of the book. A lot of things kinda got glossed over that really would’ve made this a 5 star

[Shay Vendasi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keeps you drawn in!

I never read anything dark or physiological and honestly this just throttled me into a whole new genre of books! Lexi did amazing just from beginning to end. I could literally feel the emotions from each character pull off the pages and honestly I’m still trying to wrap my head around certain parts but overall I’d rate this 10 stars if I could!

[Monique D. Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable

It was a nice read. Love the story building and character development. The running joke about the assistant had me giggling when ever it came up. Keep up the good work, I have enjoyed all titles so far.

[Tylia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would totally recommend

This was a super quick and cute read! I loved every bit of it and would highly recommend to anyone. Definitely gonna be reading more from this author because I thoroughly enjoyed their writing style.

[Ayna Flouw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lexi Esme never missed.
I already red her previous novella and loved them all.
Yet the anterior character lack of complexity. And I’m finally glad to find that complexity in aviel’s personality 💗
Ps: the smut ❤️‍🔥/10

[Alesia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

I loved the main couple and how they came together. If only he really had heard her in the beginning, so much could've been avoided but, that's life! Loved the supporting characters as well but I want to know more about that double date.

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

These just keep getting better and better! Lexi Esme must take feedback to heart because each novella she releases is better than the last. I cannot wait to see what she does next because this was fabulous!