The Devil's Kin: A BWWM/MMMF Paranormal Boy Love

by Smauggy Universe

Dorian, half-demon/half-mortal, finds himself struggling to navigate being the prince of the underworld while maintaining his relationship with his demon-slayer lover, Ryder. As if things couldn't get more complicated, enter Layla, the smart-mouthed environmentalist who works his last nerves. Reverse harem with homoerotic content among 3 bisexual men. MMMF

1101 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 18, 2024

Reviews

[Lanae · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book was entirely too long. the plot had no real direction which made it difficult to remain engaged. for all the information given about the characters - i wasn’t emotionally compelled by them. also the characters constantly getting high to have sex was a strange plot choice

[Yasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This behemoth of a book is about an emotional train wreck of a half demon half human named Dorien who's the spawn and heir of Lucifer and his hot mess of a life along with his complicated future poly love life involving his golden retriever demon slayer boyfriend, Ryder, his ex shapeshifter lover, Kai, and Layla, an environmentalist he clashes with often but also wants to hate fuck.

This story was a ride. A long, long ass ride. An 1101 page ride. The pros of this book is that while it is long(too damn long) the story flows really well. Things move quickly and the chapters aren't long. The characters are also very interesting and likeable(Dorian sometimes). All of that combined makes it easy to fly through the story. It's also very entertaining. The comedy was on point.

Coming back to the characters, Ryder is the love of my life. He is easily the best character in the book, the heart of the story and worth reading this tome for. The reader girlies can fawn over bad boys all they want, give me a cinnamon roll himbo who's loyal with a heart of gold and a lot of love to give anyday. I LOVED Ryder and LIKED(again Dorian, sometimes) the others.

I really enjoyed the relationships between everyone. The chemistry between everybody was pretty good. Unfortunately, there were cons to the book that made what was almost a 4 star read end with a 3.

For starters, this book was too damn long. Again, 1101 pages. There is no good reason for any book to be this long. Especially a reverse harem one. I know Smauggy loves penning a lengthy tale but I really need her to learn how to sum up the story in 400-500 pages. There was nothing happening in this book that made sense for it to be as long as a dictionary. She could've shaved off a lot and summed the book up in less pages.

Secondly, the story fell apart for me in the last 500 pages. I flew through the first half of the story but the back half was a struggle for me. After Layla was revealed to be a god, the story started to become boring and drag imo. I really didn't care for anything that happened. When she lost her powers and had pseudo amnesia is really when the story lost me. The ending was also lackluster. I know it's setting up for the next story but it was still blah to read.

Thirdly, the pop culture references. I've been reading Smauggy for awhile now so I'm aware she loves to throw them in her books but it's gotten old. Real old. I know this is fiction and these characters aren't real but that doesn't mean the characters can't have dialogue like real people. Nobody is bringing up pop culture references in general conversation like that in real life. Nobody! Dorian and Ryder always throwing out some random references to either GOT, The Avengers, LOTR and other fandoms was annoying after a point. She overdid it by a lot with the puns. To the point it became cringey.

Lastly, the MM portion of the book. I felt as though it could've been written better. Specifically speaking the sex. I think Smauggy did a good job writing the guys relationship and their dynamic with each other. I really enjoyed that. However, she fell short when it came to the sex. For whatever reason, the sex scenes were always quick. Most of the penetrative scenes we never got from the beginning but either in the middle or the end. We got more scenes of the guys kissing, groping, hand jobs and some oral than actual penetrative sex. I wish she would've written that better. Again imo.

The book as a whole wasn't bad but it could've been better and definitely shorter. Way shorter. I like Smauggy. I've been following her since she was on Wattpad. I love that she's a black woman who writes reverse harems about black women finding love with multiple men. I love that she experiments with different sub genres but I don't know how much longer I'll be reading from her if these books keep being ridiculously long when they dont have to be and shouldn't be. This is her longest book to date. There's no reason these stories should be dragged out this long. I'm not intimidated by long books but this was ridiculous.

[Sevyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but long affff

This is the second Smauggy book I’ve read and I am just absolutely in love with the way she writes. Her characters are diverse and the comedy is always on point! My issue with this one is that it could have ended a few different times and it still would have had the same impact but it didn’t and I found myself skimming ahead to see if I necessarily needed to read that chapter. The answer was no, however I still ended up getting sucked in 😅 anyways I live how the story connects to the last one and sets the tone for the next one. The characters in this book were probably my faves so far even though initially Dorian got on my last nerve I actually ended up really liking him. Layla was just perfect minus her lost memories for a sec there (which gave me 50 First Date vibes and I HATE that movie-sorry not sorry. Ryder of course was just so damn lovable and such a little himbo that you wanted to keep safe and warm. But oddly Kai was my favorite and I’m kinda sad that he and Layla didn’t get more intimate time. He always seemed like an after thought with her. His story intrigued me the most and it was the one least delved in to. Anyways even though this book was a literal bible, I can’t wait to read the next one. I’m sure it won’t disappoint!

[becs 🌻🌸🌷 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too freaking long and there was basically more smut than actual plot. Eh I keep giving Smauggy a chance but I’m starting to realize I’m not a fan of her work anymore.

Another thing now that I’ve had time to think about it.

There were way too many freaking pop culture references in this. And I found it so hard to believe that a half demon half human would know as much as Dorian. It got really overbearing after a while because I really couldn’t pinpoint what half of the references were. Like I’m pretty sure he even mentioned TikTok at one point and I was like 🤨. No way. And don’t even get me started on the constant referencing of Marvel characters and movies!!! I love me a good comic book series especially DC and Marvel and I am a in fact part of the small community of blerds but like enough is enough lol. If I wanted to read so much about marvel I would’ve read a comic.

[Deborah Wilkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding

The Devils Kin was amazing as a stand-alone but this is right here is outstanding!!
The way it ties the other books by Smauggy together makes sense how the other women in those books draw men to them like honey is to bees!!
I'm excited and can't wait until the next book comes out!

[Jamaine Cripe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sexy, demented but SO GOOD!

A nice, long read with strong characters. Perfectly introducing, easily, my favorite quad ever — Layla, Ryder, Kai and Dorian. Each one is bad-assed, smart-mouthed, and endearing in their own way and I’m here for it. A nice, long read and worth the time and money. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

[Bendt Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!!!

WOW!!! Just WOW!!! Please read this book, you will not be disappointed! Never!!! What will happen next in Smauggy Universe!! I am waiting for the upcoming book! 👏🏽 Amazing!!!

[Juli_xox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t wait for book 3!

[Angelina · Rating 5 out of 5]

So different, but loved it.

I am a Smauggy fan. The characters were different from her other books. I love how she merged the story together again. Can't wait for the next book.

[Alexia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst books I’ve ever come across. Honestly I don’t even truly know where to start. Between the racism and over saturated depictions of “blackness” in the plot and characters, I simply believe the author has internalized issues that she hasn’t resolved through. Whereas the introduction conveys that this is a black girl safe space, reading through the chapters I felt quite the opposite as a black girl and a Latina. I can understand that personal issues can bleed into the work that you do but that does not create an excuse to cultivate blatant racism, stereotyping, and platform for ignorance to prosper.
Moreover, the obvious issues that I have stated with the book are not the only problems I seem to find as a reverse harem trope itself. These characters don’t seem to have a balance between femininity and masculinity, which seems to off any form of chemistry possibly created between the four main characters. The lack of masculine presence and seriousness makes demonstrates a lack of emotional intelligence and maturity. Dorian has so many issues and lacks the ability to healthily communicate them. That hinders a relationship with Ryder, While Ryder is a little dense and dull as a character. It feels like it’s a standstill relationship that uses sex as a cover for any real development. Kai has a lack of maturity too, he feels that his whole personality is just being a demon and doing his job but playing games. Layla has a lack of personality whereas she doesn’t help adding or making herself the glue to keep all the men together. She only talks about 2 interests as if being a person isn’t multidimensional, which creates an off-balance chemistry that doesn’t quite fit. Then one of my main issues is how they communicate. It is made to show that all three men are white and even though this plot shouldn’t be centered around race, considering it’s a supernatural book. it’s brought up in a way that doesn’t make sense how they talk as if they were a sassy black gay couple on divorce court/using a lot of exaggerated blaccent. A lot of the dialogue and the words themselves even the actions portray the stereotype of a ghetto black woman. Especially when it comes to Layla‘s father and her Latin best friend. I can tell by how her best friend was written in this book the author has not been around Latin people or has an ignorant perception of them. I personally found it offensive that the only thing, Jade, a.k.a. the BFF could say in Spanish was Puta and couldn’t even use it right throughout the book considering the word word itself has a female and male version. She was also depicted as short, constantly fighting, and portraying a ghetto superfluous blaccent. That was pushing the toxic Latina stereotypes and “copying black women”. Finally the worst of the book that got me to close it and never pick it back up again despite me not finishing it was the unnecessary racism coming from Layla’s father. To preface it did not add to the plot at all so it leads me to believe that in someway or another this is how the author truly thinks. Here’s a quote from the book: Eddie blinked at Ryder. “Layla! Why in the hell do you keep bringing these random ass white boys in my house?!”
Ryders eyes widened as his tan cheeks flushed pink. “Actually, I’m part indigenous-“
“Boy, did I ask you?!” Eddie snapped. “You look white, thus, you are white. Ain’t no cops pullin’ yo ass over for being ‘part indigenous’.”
Then proceeded to say “You collectin’ white boys like you collectin’ the infinity stones. And that’s why this one is so huge-“
In the book, it gets quickly brushed off as if what was said was not a big deal. I don’t understand why such ignorance and hateful statements were put into the book considering it did not add to the book. Overall, this book was not well written or thought out. It was quite offensive and unnecessary in the ways it represented people from certain communities and cultures. I believe the author should reevaluate themselves and their views before letting it bleed into their work. My best advice as a black woman in this world is to go outside and touch some grass or hopefully get therapy.