Demon Born

Demonverse #5

by Margie McDonnell Welsh

The human world has been thrown into chaos and turned upside down. God has mind-wiped and reset his most evil son, removing Lucifer from Hell. But Lucifer's plans to destroy God's creations didn't end with him. Over 3 billion people have died from his L1 virus, and the rest are going to war to obtain what few vaccines remain. The only answer is more vaccine, but the antibodies to make it are in Hell. The Demon Lord and his Djinn allies are trying to fill the void, but Hell has a way of corrupting angels who live there. Maxiel may be forced to choose between saving himself and saving mankind, between his love for Sahara and his duty to God.

Meanwhile Sahara and her band of Nephilim children and allies are fighting to survive in an increasingly dangerous world, and their best chance at survival may be the newly recreated angel who was once Lucifer, looking for absolution. The question is, can she trust him....or any of them?

The dividing line between Light and Dark used to be so clear. The answers aren't so simple anymore.

315 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 3, 2023

About the author

I've always wondered where to start an author's biography. In truth I have been writing my entire life.

I’ll start with my professional writing career, which began at the age of twenty-four when literary agents Donald MacCampbell and his partner Maureen Moran found a home for my first romance novel and the next five.

Beloved Pirate - written under pen name Margie Michaels - (Second Chance at Love) Jove Publications 1981

Mirage - written under pen name Margie Michaels - (Second Chance at Love) Jove Publications 1982

Untamed Desire - written under pen name Margie Michaels - (Harlequin Temptation) Harlequin 1984

Banish The Dragons - Margie McDonnell - (Loveswept) Bantam Books 1987

Conflict of Interest - Margie McDonnell - (Loveswept) Bantam Books 1988

The Land of Enchantment - Margie McDonnell (Loveswept) Bantam Books 1988

The romance writing lasted a decade and it was an amazing time in my life. But as they say, life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans. Life happened, my plans were disrupted, and I left romance behind.

I spent the next two decades taking care of my four children (AKA my beloved demon spawn, the inspiration for the DEMON series), and my writing projects consisted of Star Trek fan fiction and fundraising stories for The Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada. Star Trek writing was fun. Writing for the foundation was rewarding. Eventually though I came back to my first love, novels, and though I’d outgrown light romance, urban fantasy and its dark secrets called to me.

With the help of my second husband and soulmate, I began to work toward that dream. A covid-19 diagnosis, and subsequent lockdowns, gave me lots of time and inspiration to work, resulting in the three urban fantasy novels in my new DEMON series:

DEMON SPAWN (Available on Amazon December 2020)

DEMON LORD (Available on Amazon December 2020)

A PLAGUE OF DEMONS (Available on Amazon January 2021)

DEMON FIRE (Available on Amazon in Fall 2021)

With any luck, our real plague will be over soon, but my demons, angels, Fallen angels, scrabblies, Nephilim and the humans populating my DEMONVERSE will still have stories to tell. I shall be happy to share their adventures with you.

In the meantime, if you'd care to learn more, please visit the DEMONVERSE facebook page and either of my two websites at:

facebook fansite for the Demonverse: -

https://www.facebook.com/margiemcdonn...

Websites:

https://mmwdemonverse.wixsite.com/online  

and

https://www.demonverse.xyz

Reviews

[Mary E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth the wait for Demon Born, book 5 in this series. Each book in this series has been 5 stars. The author has an uncanny ability to bring each of her characters to life with humor and compassion. This is a story of good versus evil, of faith and hope, of the choices made, and of being willing to fight and sacrifice for those we love. Though this book is not a cliffhanger (thank goodness), it opens up many opportunities for Margie Welsh to develop and follow several characters. I look forward to reading more about The Gardener, the Caretaker, Alexa, and more.

[Frieda Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Demon Born

A fitting ending for this story! Or IS IT the ending? IDK! There are plenty of un-ended story branches left to explore! It leaves me wondering... 🤔 what's next?
This is a fantasy book series whose genre is part romance, part thriller, part mystery, part religion, part action, & part whatever you WANT it to be! Don't miss it. If you haven't read the first 4, do that first! This is a series which requires to be read in order, IMHO, for ease of understanding & keeping up with the plot & all the characters!
Although I don't share much of the theology in these stories (I'm a Born Again Christian), I do enjoy reading them, I realize the story itself is fantasy. I only say this so that unbelievers & new Christans who are still weak in the Faith are not misinformed & end up believing things other than Biblical Truth!

[Dekaydreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series overall, and I enjoyed this final book. Dropped one star because the battle scenes got to be a little more than I could take, but other than that, the author crafts a mean tale. Fantastic world creating, great characters, and Scrabblies!!!

I've mentioned before and will restate now: I am agnostic leaning towards atheism, and my current preferred genre is mm romance - so if you can win me over with a strongly belief-oriented fantasy, I give kudos!

[David Gosnell]

If you've followed Sahara, her demon brood, the scrabblies, love interests, and her efforts to save the world from Lucifer's evil plan, this is your reminder to buy this book. A fun read as always, with new/old villains, an inscrutable gardener, and some new faces. To say any more would be to spoiler. Not going to happen in this review.

[Beatrix · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Hell’s Game of Thrones there is no second place. The winner takes all.

Demon Born, by Margie McDonnel Welsh, was more just than a sequel, it was a triumphal celebration of all that had gone before.

The author of the Demonverse series makes these demonic stories seem like a wonderful balance between earth shattering conflicts and mundane reality.
“I would just let God sort him out.” She decided at one point, and she made that sound like simple common sense.

I found myself laughing, right at the start, when a local hoodlum thinks he is being ever so clever. He soon learns that it isn’t wise to take liberties with the wife of a demon-lord.

Quickly, though, events turn ever more nasty. Satan may have been disempowered, but his evil deeds have left legacies, which have consequences both in Hell and on Earth.

“There are no good sides, or bad ones either. There are only light and dark choices.”

This is so much more than just a fight between good and evil. Even devils, it seems, fall to bickering with one another and must struggle with their own internal conflicts. We have clever interplay between conscious and unconscious thoughts, between determinism and freewill, which is just as it should be when the greatest of powers compete for supremacy.

The leading character, Sahara, is in herself a remarkable creation. She is a Nephilim, timeless and immortal, and yet she is also one of us, a goodly soul in the normal world of ordinary women and men. All that makes for an interesting life;

“I studied the dragon. I had learned to read dragon expressions. Living with the two of them under my skin had given me a leg up on that.”

Remarkable imagination has gone into the book, with conflicts taking on unusual forms, even interfering with the flow of time itself. In one of the many action sequences the indomitable protagonist, Sahara, must battle with Lucifer, hand to hand and face to face.

“I looked into the devil’s eyes, seeing my death mirrored there….. his once handsome face melted in a flow of molten fury.”

It doesn’t get more thrilling than that.

I would strongly advise readers to work through the whole Demonverse stories in the correct order, in order to understand and enjoy each book to the maximum. The good news is that they keep getting better and better.

[Ethel Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 5th and final book in the original series created in the Demonverse. It does not disappoint! It is well written. The characters I've come to love are just as firey now as they were in the first book, Demon Spawn.

I wrote reviews for the first 4 books, but this review is the hardest one for me to write. The book is wonderful. The characters are well written and the situations follow the earlier story lines. The review should write itself, but I am struggling with it. Partly because there is so much I can't write about because if I do I'm afraid I'll give too much away and ruin the surprising twists and turns.

In the course of reading the first 4 books I became immersed in the lives of The Gardener, Doc Alex, the Dark Lord, Sahara, Slate, Asmodeus, Lilly, and the hordes of scrabblies, Djinn, Fallen Angels, etc., to the point that each book deepened the relationships. It's like meeting distant cousins and getting to know them through shared experiences, or the retelling of their individual stories. This book brings an end to my getting to know them in depth over a coffee, tea, hot chocolate, wine or beer. It means I must resign myself, as we all get on with our lives, to knowing them this far and no further.

While we've been gobbling up what's been happening with the major characters, lives have been building in the levels below that hierarchy. Babies have been born. Parental bonds, good and bad, have been fleshed out. This reader's tears have been shed. There have been laugh out loud moments, and there's been sleep lost to "just one more chapter", "just one more page", etc.

I plan to reread all five books in this series, before the new books by Margie McDonnell Welsh are released, so I am ready for the new characters and situations unfolding while our backs were turned. If you are undecided about this series, I envy you. YOU don't have to wait for each book to be released! YOU have access to all five, and I hope you give yourself a "treat" as we enjoy the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and, head toward Hallowe'en. We all deserve down time and this series can provide that.

[Sorina Ungureanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a world that looks frighteningly close to our own, but is ruled by angels and demons, Demon Born became a powerful and deeply romantic finale.
If I’m honest, the red thread that kept me emotionally invested through all five books of the Demonverse was not the apocalypse, not the wars, not even the fate of humanity — it was the unusual, complicated love story between Sahara and Maxiel.
Yes, I know.
Alex should probably have been the first choice.
But who can really resist a bad boy angel?
What I loved about this series is how fantastical it feels, and yet how close it stays to our own reality. This is a universe of angels and demons, but also a world shaped by war, disease, hunger, fear, and power — things we recognize all too well. The fantasy never escapes humanity; it reflects it.
In this final volume, everything is pushed to the limit. Sahara is pregnant, Maxiel has become the ruler of Hell, and their love is tested in ways that feel almost cruel. And still, at the center of all this chaos, there is this fragile, stubborn bond that refuses to break.
The theme that moved me most is choice. The idea that no one is born good or evil, and that even the darkest soul might deserve — or need — a second chance. The storyline with Lucifer as Nicolo is disturbing, heartbreaking, and beautifully written.
An emotional, intense, and deeply romantic conclusion.
A wonderful series.
One I’m truly glad I followed until the very end.

[Ovidiu Damian · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Daakit.”
That was literally the first word that came to my mind when I closed Demon Born. Margie did it again.
I don’t usually finish a long series feeling both exhausted and grateful, but this book left me exactly like that. Tired in a good way. The kind of tired you get after an emotional marathon.
This is not an easy story. A third of humanity is gone, the world is starving, and the people we care about are forced to make impossible choices. What stayed with me most, though, wasn’t the war or the apocalypse — it was the question at the heart of the book: can someone truly change if given a second chance?
Seeing Lucifer as Nicolo, a child who doesn’t remember his crimes, was deeply unsettling. I kept asking myself what I would do in Sahara’s place. Could I forgive? Could I trust? Honestly, I’m not sure.
That’s what I appreciated most here: this book made me think, not just read.
Lucifer/Nicolo is one of those characters that stays with you after you close the book. Complicated, tragic, and strangely human.
A strong, emotional ending to a series I’m glad I followed until the end.
On to An Echo of Angels.

[Susan Baranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book concludes the story arc of the five book series. It clarified many things I found confusing in book 4, so that was good. The author maintains her sly sense of humor in this book, though the "devil may care" lightness of book one has given way to the grim realities of The Devil. Still one must keep one's sense of humor, so we do find a few sniggers and groaners shopping the way. I hope some day these can be released publicly as audio books read by a narrator who can manage the voices of the main characters and knows how to pronounce all the wonderful, rich words in the author's deep lexicon properly. For now, the text versions make great gifts for all the book lovers on your list. The author has hinted she is writing again - I hope we can get to see the next generation grow up! This could be the conclusion, but I hope it's not The End.

52BookClub 2025 Reading Challenge
Prompt # 37: Genre chosen for you by someone else
(the author herself choose Urban Fantasy for me by encouraging me to start the series; I had to finish it on her advice)

[Kirsty Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you thought this book was going to be slow with the Demon Lord in hell and Sahara on Earth you are far from the truth. This book has rapid pace. Time is speedier in hell than elsewhere. Humans are at the point of no return and Hell isn't far off. We find out what happens to the hardrive of demons, and we meet new friends - welcome to the compound Hemlock! And what is worse than Lucifer = an angel with multiple personality disorder. Sahara's pregnancy ends with a big surprise, and it isn't like Lilly and Daniels daughters surprise either.
The end of the epilogue brings hope of stories staring Alexa as the heroine, and I hope that Alexa will include her neice Bella in the carnage that occurs cause we know Sahara and Lily will have passed on those genes to their daughters. And Nahil will be the equivalent of a grey haired raven with a drink problem once she has them to care for - Slate will have been the easy baby to guard!!

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

And now I don't know what to do with my life. I haven't been this depressed over the ending of a series since I read The Apocalypse Prophecy by DW Sheneman. It was so good. I don't want the characters to leave. I want it to keep going. I want the gardener to get over thrown because he's a jerk who I believe is secretly in the closet 🤣. I even want Lucifer back. He was an epic villain. I want the scrabblies back!!! Give me my scrabblies!!! Even that weirdo angel who turns into a dog and eats dog food! Just damn it give me more. I will now be in a reading slump 😭
Apparently angel and demon books are my jam and my life is temporarily ruined until I get more.

[L.D. McRae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faith and a Wish! One of the strongest FMC’s I’ve ever encountered. As the appointed Caretaker and His key, Sahara had the weight of the world on her shoulders, yet she never gave up even when the odds were stacked against her. Faith kept her fighting for all that she held close to her heart and wishes filled her head for the things she couldn’t change. I did not want to see the ultimate evil return and my stomach churned… waiting, hoping, terrified, wanting my own wish so I could save them from doom. I couldn’t put it down and ended up staying up late to finish. Bravo, Ms. Welsh. The final book in this series is a masterpiece!

[Cindy Gauthier · Rating 5 out of 5]

So sorry to finish the series

As sad as I am to have finished this series. I'm so looking forward to Margie's next one.

It's been ages since I have read through any book almost non-stop, but I just had to find out the ending, so I managed to start, and finish this one in one night. If you call 4:30am "night" which is when I finished it after starting it around 8pm.