Everyone knows demons are evil. They’re vicious monsters hungry for your blood, body and soul.
All I knew was that I couldn’t survive another day on the run. Betrayed by my coven, I teetered on the edge of ruin, caught in the crosshairs of the genocidal cult who murdered my family.
But I had a crazy plan to save my life. Too bad it would probably cost me my soul. Out of time and out of options, I’m forced to summon a wicked demon for protection—a sin-soaked king with a devilish smirk and hunger in his glowing eyes. Salvation and damnation entwine as we strike a deal. But the path to freedom is paved with desire and darkness.
Can I defeat the evil hunting me? Or will the monster I summoned devour me first?
Take Me to Hell is a full-length, fast-burn standalone romance, with fangs, tail action and a possessive demon who won't let his witch escape his clawed clutches. Intended for mature readers.
Sakura Black is a British author who spends her days pretending to be a sensible adult. Most of the time, she gets to write steamy fantasy and paranormal romance, often dreaming up wild stories about frightfully sweet monsters and the women they’re lucky enough to fall horns over tail for.
If I could have scored more for the rating, so help me god I would have. 10/10 If you want spice... then this is the book for you, especially if you want a demon and witch dynamic.
"Yes, little mouse. You're mine to pleasure. Mine to take. To own." "Your sweet cunt is already weeping for my cock, for my seed." "Shh, little mouse. This pussy was made for my cock. You will take it, and you'll fucking love it."
I had to DNF at this at 25%. It’s a book of convenience happenstances. I thought I’d like it with the FC being 25. That’s already older than 99% of books in this genre by 6 years. Yay! But then unbelievable shit started happening and I just had to stop. The way the FCs so called “friend” acted, how the gross guy acted that her “friend” had a crush on, the way that whole chapter played out was so absurd and unbelievable that I don’t think I’ve ever cringed as much as I had ever before. Powers that only come out when not needed (except to force the outsider-ness of the FC of course), then going away when it was needed to help the FC. Lol I mean come on, if the age group was 10 years younger I’d buy it. But no friend is going to believe a sleazy ass dude over you. Unless you’re 13 and discovering hormones. Not 25. Hard stop, no thanks. 🙂↔️
Also this fucking cover. HAHAHA I just need to take a moment to acknowledge the shotty photoshop skills of who I’m assuming the author did to save money. Looks like a screen shot of a porno 😭 I’m guessing self published? Literally a disease to all books.
Exiled by her coven and forced to be on the run constantly from Hunters, what's a witch to do? Answer: Summon a demon and make a pact. Blood for protection. What she expects some vile creature. What she gets a demonic king who has a better proposition. Pleasure for protection and the chance to be free from the Hunters forever. Everything's fine until lines blur and suddenly he wants more than just her blood or pleasure. Can she trust him with her heart? This was a delight to read and had me at the edge of my seat.
3.5 Stars This book is about two different beings, not only finding love, but finding out that they are not so different as they thought. Zoella is a witch/mage who finds herself orphaned at 14 yrs old, after being captured by hunters. She is traumatized after her family was killed in front of her. Although she escapes back to her coven, she is ostracized by the other witches and stays to herself. Rex is a demon who is ostracized by most other demons because he is a hybrid. Like Zo, he becomes an orphan when he is abandoned by his mother. The two meet and form an alliance when Zo is forced to call upon a demon to protect her from the hunters, after she is thrown out of her coven. They decide to hunt the hunters to free the captured demons and mages as well as to get the tracking stone they use to hunt Zo. Rex is funny, sexy and caring, He puts his feelings for Zo out on the line, no holding back. Zo is constantly holding back because of her past experiences. This story could have been more fast paced and engrossing if the FMC could just get out of her own head. There were too many times that the action was slowed by her reverie or sulking. At times, the book got repetitive. Things were repeated several times throughout the book. The story is told from Zo’s perspective only. It would have been nice to get Rex’s perspective. I like that the book ended in hell. The reader was provided a peak at what it looked like and the variety of hybrid demons that existed in Rex’s kingdom. I loved the epilogue. If you like supernatural romance, magic, adventure and violence, then this is the story for you.
I received a free ARC copy from the author for my honest opinion.
Thank youfor the ARC read, I voluntarily give this book an honest review. Oh Rex and Alpha are hilarious with their bickering, Oh Zoella, so should've let Rex get the bunny suit! That would have been a terrorizing image to the hunters. Zoella would be in coven along with her best friend turned on her, As a outcast thanks to the distasteful Fenton. weeks on the run lead to a desperate attempt of conjuring a blood demon, what she got was far more than she intended. Some where amoung the hunt Zoella's is being pulled out from that world of loneliness she had burrowed for herself. What happens once the contract is fulfilled. Thinking of returning to Quartz. Okay all the trouble Zoella is going through, Nope, just to go back to the same place that thrown her out because she is missing the normalcy of protections yet Lyndsey was blinded by lies.
I liked the set up and the characters. The writing was good with a nice balance of spice and story. Some parts felt underdeveloped and I would appreciated a bit more world building but Rex and Zo were characters I enjoyed following.
I read this book thinking it would be a nice way to pass the time, expecting a simple and predictable romance. But it was so much more! The characters are amazing and engulf you in the story. You never get bored, and you can't put the book down. I loved every page!
Fast-paced book with steamy sex scenes. Really interesting dynamic of demon and witch. Pretty easy read with not many grammer issues or weird sentences.
I'll be totally honest, I could not finish this. I got to about 2/3 of the way through before giving up. I found the writing to be very simple and the character development of the MMC almost null. I'll be honest, I skipped a lot to try and find the parts with substance and found myself skipping tens of pages. The chemistry between the two was good I just gave up when the ML was suddenly in love with the FL.
3.5 stars 🌶️🌶️🌶️ a tiktok find… was intense 😳 but definitely enjoyable. Gotta love the summoning a demon in desperate times trope. I love their relationship, man is a green flag and super loyal and obsessed with her I love it.
A trigger warning for attempted SA. I would love it if they stopped putting that in spicy books 😒
This book was fun. I literally loved everything about Rex. Plus it was great to have a MMC with a tail and the author puts it to really good use. I always wanted to keep reading this because it was hot, exciting, and even being fictional, Rex just had a way of pulling you into his joy.
I will say that the first around 20% really annoyed me though because the characters are 25 but they act like they're 15 year olds. They're so immature and literally everyone there thinks the leader's son is the golden child despite him being a man child male whore. And Zoella's best friend's obsession with this guy just screams childishness. It just really grated on me how every single person there believed whatever he said without even questioning it.
Zoella is all alone in a coven that treats her like an outcast despite her never doing anything wrong. She lost her family to the hunters in a horrible way and was witness to it all. She craves the protection and safety of the coven more than anything because of that trauma. And finally the night has come when she'll get it. Until she refuses to bend over for the leader's son and accidentally sets their grimoire on fire. The entire coven taking his word over hers, she finds herself banished the very night she thought she would finally find safety. But safety is the farthest thing from her grasp now that the hunters are hot on her trail. After many weeks on the run from them, always barely managing to escape, Zoella has reached her end. She knows she can't keep going so she does something she knows is wrong....she summons a demon.
Like I said, I absolutely loved Rex. This demon was fantastic. He is violent, destructive, forceful and overbearing. But he's also incredibly sweet, smart, and definitely knows how to get pleasure from Zoella as his payment. He answers her summons and they make two contracts. The first: he will protect her from her enemies in exchange for her pleasure. The second: he will free her from her enemies in exchange for daily feedings of her blood.
These two really worked for me. Rex encouraged Zoella to be herself and embrace her magic. He worked with her to learn to control it and he pushed her to be better because he knew she could be. Zoella accepted Rex for the murderous demon he was even when she was appalled by the carnage he would leave in their wake. These two fall fast, and they fall hard, but Zoella can't bare to trust someone and have her heart broken again.
In the short time that they are together there is a lot of dead bodies that pile up. Both demon and hunter. Rex takes protecting Zoella seriously and he gets injured quite a bit doing it. Does it bother him? Definitely not. He delights in the fight and heals quickly after. Of course he heals even quicker after getting his payment. All these bodies are for a reason though. They're trying to find the hunter's headquarters for that city and nobody seems to want to talk. But they eventually catch a slight break that gives them a lead. A lead that has a pretty neat surprise in store for Zoella as well as a not surprising mage traitor.
We get a very fun night after that, unfortunately, Zoella's mistrust of pretty much anything good has Rex leaving her. I was really frustrated with this part of the book. I do understand where Zoella is coming from considering everything that has happened in her life and all that she has recently learned. But I just hated how she was doing everything she was in order to get back in with the coven that abandoned her and treated her horribly instead of taking a chance on something that makes her feel so happy and strong. And even when she realized what a mistake she was making, she then ends up making assumptions about Rex and her place in his life without even knowing anything. Although, I did love how Rex responded to her attitude (of course).
The ending was good. Zoella realizes her stupid mistake too late and makes a dangerous decision in order to fix things. It all works out in the end, but not without a lot of pain all around. The very end was a happy one with Rex finally getting what he wanted all along. I do think the extra epilogue that you get if you subscribe to the author's emails should have been included in the book because it was definitely a much more exciting way to end it.
I'm jumping right into the next book because I have an ARC of the third. And I am full of high expectations.
"After all, good little witches don't play with demons."
This was actually surprisingly good!
A quick afternoon read, the story of demon Rexar and witch Zoella, this was my first book from SB I have read and I was very nicely surprised.
Not knowing anything about the author, I realised straight away this was written somewhere in the British isles, simply for the choice of words and colloquialisms, and also the overall cheeky tone. The story is light-hearted and full of humour, and totally dripping with sarcasm. And it's so much fun!
"Lead the way, O Wise Hellspawn."
The dynamic between Rex and Zo is brilliant. Both characters have been written very well and feel real, and where the large powerful (and oh so smug) demon does his best to throw a teasing comment as often as physically possible, the little feisty witch always rises to the challenge and hits back. The banter is ever-present in their interactions, testing the boundaries at every opportunity, pushing each other further still. It's what makes this book and it's hilarious.
"I know you damsels in distress love a show of violent prowess." I rolled my eyes with a huff of laughter, flipping him my middle finger.'
Most of this book I was reading with the same grin I could so easily imagine on Rex's face, and I actually laughed out loud several times at the cheekiness. Such a feel-good read it was exhilarating.
The story itself takes off quickly and it's packed with action not really slowing down until the epilogue. Written well it flows seamlessly and with just the right amount of details. Even the side characters are pretty good, the bad guys perhaps a bit stereotypical but they fit in well adding in even more humour to the frantic pace of events.
"The demon was a bad influence. Who'd have thunk it? I mentally rolled my eyes at myself."
And the heat doesn't lag behind! It's off-the-charts searing hot and there's plenty of it. And really, what else would you expect when it comes to a demon from hell! Rex is possessive and a bit domineering but always protective and oh so sweet.
"You are my fire in the world of darkness. Burn us both, my vicious witch."
Despite the topic - the heroine's harrowing past and her current rather dire situation - the book is not really that dark. I wouldn't call it a dark romance, especially not as far as the relationship between the two MCs goes. But this is a demon from hell unleashed on earth so do expect a lot of violence, blood and gore. If you can't stomach people torn in half spilling their entrails everywhere, then perhaps this isn't the one for you.
"The familiar sound broke through my spiral, strangely comforting. If the biggest predator I knew was laughing, then all his enemies were about to die. Just another weeknight slaughter. Everything would be ok." "Rex and Evie grinned maniacally at each other. My heart warmed at the wholesome sight."
This book is also written from a single point of view. I am so used to dual POV in this genre these days that I was a bit worried I was going to miss the insight into Rex's thoughts. But the worry was unjustified. This was so well written I didn't miss it at all, somehow I still knew exactly what was going through his head.
"What did it say about me that I'd been secretly enjoying the company of a demon that even other demons were afraid of?"
Oh, and I cannot forget about Alpha - my favourite hellhound puppy! ..And definitely a better conversationalist than a lot of actual people!
"Alpha and his hell-mutt family had formed a huge puppy pile in front of the door, creating a sea of black fur, accented with the occasional splash of purples, blues, and reds. Some of which was probably blood."
This was a brilliant read, quick and funny, perfect for a Sunday afternoon. Great to get you out of a reading slump or if you're looking for something light and kinda fluffy. I am now looking forward to the second book in the series, curious where the author decides to take this. And perhaps hoping for a cameo to see how Rex and Zo are doing together in hell.
"Take me to hell." Rex licked his vicious fangs: "I thought you'd never ask."
New rating scale effective 3/21/2025 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4⭐️: top tier. - Great story /characters but something was missing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4 🌶️: lots of scenes, Neapolitan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3🔪: Intermediate: Noticeable violence or dark themes. Contains some graphic scenes and potential triggers. ~avg 3.67 out of 5, round for 4
I thoroughly enjoyed this book way more than i honestly expected. i love the "little mouse" nickname althought i dont think it ever went into detail about how she got the nickname, except a little squeak she made... but i thought she did that after the nickname for the first time. .. any way thats not really important.
the bad guy from the beginning "fenton" (spell check, i listed to the audio so idk), he was just a sleezeball from the start and i had expectations of him being involved, but i didnt expect the "coven leader" to be involved.
and whats with this supposed best friend who sold her out for her crush. and was acting jealous and "wishy-washy" from the start. idk just something about that didn't set right... your supposed best friend is usually more understanding and open to at least listening to your side of the story... i guess towards the end it comes out that she was never really a friend, just took pity on the orphan girl.... but then tries to attack her behind her back, and then pleads for mercy when she is caught trying to attack from behind... like the most cagey, two faced, sleeze-ball of a humanoid there ever was. she is worse than the Fenton IMO.
not particularly fond of the "your my mate" after only a few days.... so i completely appreciated the FMC resistance and questioning "what happens if we don't work out, then what happens".
Rexar ‘Rex’ and Zoella ‘Zo’ are from different yet the same world battling one common enemy - hunters. Zoella being a mage at the ripe age of 25, excited to become a full member of her coven has her dreams ripped away from her. From the graphic, violent loss of her family when she was younger to now being thrown out of her coven, hunters would surely find her and kill her. Zoella calls forth a demon from Hell, tall with charcoal skin, firey red to orange hair and horns that shined black as night. While Zo is just trying to stay alive, she may have just made a terrible mistake. Does binding herself to Rex in the hope of staying alive truely keep her safe, or set her up for glorious disaster?
4.5/5 🌶️ - I have read spicier books, but the level of detail written and air of danger constantly flooding around the main characters kept the reader enganged and the spicy scenes delicious to read. *I would have liked for the end, to have Rexar ‘capture’ Zoella after their ceremony. I find it off putting to ask the reader to now subscribe to a newsletter to get the spicy content that goes along with it for their final scene.*
I would definitely recommend this book to others, but with extreme predjudice. There are many triggers in here of graphic violence, murder, gore, assault, kidnapping, torture and more. I don’t think the author’s forward fully expressed the emotions that come flooding to the reader with some kf the scenes written.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was a first author read for me and I loved it. It was exactly the mood I wanted.
Sweet witch, cast out by her coven for a misunderstanding and let to fend for herself, poor FMC Zoella’s harsh reality of being constantly chased by hunters wanting to end her, her only option left is to summon a demon to help her.
Our MMC Rex is a demonic as he looks, a pleasure and blood demon, he makes a deal with the witch to protect her and hunt her enemies. As it happens her enemies are also his. What started as a deal of luck starts turning into fate the more these two get to know each other. Is it really surprising when the ‘pleasure’ demon makes good on his word, why would you ever want to give up that when he is also surprisingly sweet underneath too.
Loved this book, the banter was great, the spice was hot but not just all spice. The plot was good even if a tiny predictable at times.
I really loved watching the journey of these two and I was all in for routing for Rex. Who knew it was so easy to be won over by a demon!
The only reason this isn’t 5 stars as I felt towards the end there were a couple of phrases being repeated a little too often to tell the story but I’m being picky!
Great read and I would enjoy reading the next in this series.
This was a rollercoaster ride! An exciting action-packed tale stuffed full of humour, violence, magic, sexual tension, found family and true unconditional love. Zoella, a witch expelled from her coven and on the run from the genocidal hunters, summons a demon as a last resort, and makes a deal with him for protection and revenge. Rex turns out to be the perfect partner in her last-ditch attempt to escape the hunters, and then turns out to be a perfect partner for something longer-term.... The plot was full of twists and excitement, but my favourite moments were in the snarky exchanges between Rex & Zo, and seeing how he accepted her as she was, and then how she grew into accepting him in the very same way. Both main protagonists had been outcasts, rejects, from their own people, and seeing them come together (despite some rocky moments along the way) was completely enthralling. This was the first novel of Sakura's that I have read but it definitely won't be the last - especially as I am hoping for Eve & Killian's story, and maybe Sin and his hunter's? Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review - you have gained yourself a new fan!
I started my first encounter with the work of Sakura Black with the spicy Fae Mate Hunt series. This time, however, I would describe the book as a slowburn romance. However, don't think that this will renault in a small number of erotic scenes, because when you make a deal with a demon, you always have to pay a the price 😉. Although usually books with witches in the lead role are not my favorite type of paranormal romance, this time everything fits well into the story. Definitely Rex is one of my favorites in the demon world. A sexy, fierce protector with a great sense of humor and slightly psychotic vibes. He knows what he wants and is not afraid to go for it. Zoella annoyed me at first. In my opinion, she clung too much to the inculcated ideas about how she should behave and how she should feel about the demon she herself summoned. Over time, however, she turned out to be a badass heroine ready to face not only hunters, but also to bring justice to her former coven. I recommend the book to fans of paranormal romances.
This was ok. There was simply plot, some smut and pretty predictable twists. I'm not sure if it is me or the book, but couple times I had to read some sentences again to actually got the point. Other than that this was not complex. If you are looking for demon + witch romance with sex and some (very mild) gore for one evening, why not this one. This was entertaining enough.
What I really want to criticise is 1. Cover you can see here or in first 3 free chapters awailable: It is terrible. Please, really please all authors: Don't use those AI generated shitty pictures with male / female character in cover. Those covers makes your books look just awul crab. Just don't, please. This book has much nicer flower cover in Amazon, but (probably) originally AI-shit is still hanging around. Second critic is for the free 3 chapters: You might get wrong idea: for the beginning it is like ya-book. But it really isn't. I wasn't surprised because I read some rewievs here in Goodreads, but I could be, if I hadn't.
Talk about no rest for the wicked. I did really love this book, and especially when all the generals showed up, I hope they all get their own stories or cameos because they have such character even after such a short interaction.
I must say reading this made me exhausted, but only because with everything happening in such a short amount of time, the FMC barely slept!!! Like she'd been awake for days, then she summoned the Demon, then after that whole fight there was "payment" for the fight, then they were on the run cuz they ruined a hotel room, then they were fighting more hunters, then more "payment"!! Like that was a LOT!!!
It's kind of like being in a haunted house that gets scarier and scarier with no breaks or breathing room. My heart was pumping, and I was exhausted just reading about all the running happening. Ugh!!
I love books so much.
Also, this whole world is huge and full of all different types of magic and things, and I am itching to get more content and stories!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Best thing I've read in weeks. I fricking loved it, it gave me feels and a tear might have even 😢 escape once. Perfect amount of smut and story for a relatively quick read. So we have a troubled witch that's on the run, out of options she summons a demon. Strong protector type that builds our girl up and helps her with both her magic and her mission. In exchange for a bargin of course. ....... No spoilers other than -He also has a fancie peen. But we would still love him either way. I thought the FMC was a little meek in the beginning trying to play the nice girl. But I love how she really came out of her shell and I fricking love rexar for that. I need more book with a MMC like him 😩
But as always, check your TW and remember we are reading fiction about non-humans. So if the TW's are not your cup of tea move on, dont complain about it, theres hundreds of books out there and so few for us monster fudgers.. Enjoy 😉
Absolutely beautiful, I could not put this book down. Our author is extremely talented, I felt so connected to our main characters, so much so that I truly felt each heartbreak and fearful moment in my soul. Each happy moment had me smiling and I actually laughed out loud a few times, our author writes in such a way that you genuinely feel one with the story, the characters, and the scenes.
The story itself is paced beautifully, every scene was given the effort and attention to detail it deserved. Nothing felt out of place or rushed/dragged out. From a readers standpoint I never felt confused or lost; the writing is easily understood and explains in a way that leaves very little to be misunderstood (without being overbearing, of course).
I loved pretty much every second, although (spoilers!!) I will say Lyndsey sucks and I strongly disagree with her being allowed to live at the end. Bitch was fucked up in the head and selfish to no end.
This book irritated the shit out of me, I’m all for a naive FMC but zoella took the biscuit. It’s like she never had an original thought ever, believed prejudice’s she was taught rather than think independently. Not to mention she was rude, and hurtful towards Rex like she’s somehow better than him? Can we also recognise she’s dumb? The literal hunters called her a demon not a witch and she has magic claws and purple fire and somehow she thinks she’s a ‘normal’ witch please?? She yearned for her old coven (that treated her like shit along with her shitty ‘friend’) for most of the book all because they could protect her from hunters - fuck being happy huh? Like the guy she hated and who tried to assault her wouldn’t be ruling it and therefore her one day - god she was dumb.
Also she spent SO MUCH of the damn book in her head, going on and going it was BORINGGGG - I wished we had a POV from Rex because honestly Zoella made me wanna put my head through a brick wall.