Hell's most incompetent demon meets Earth's most hopeless romantic.
All Ethan wanted was someone who could help him find love—or at least someone to pop his cherry. A spell from an odd book he found at the library promised him a wish from Cupid. Sure, some of the ingredients weren't easy to get, but he could improvise. Was there really that much difference between dried laurel leaves and coriander?
He never meant to summon a demon.
Malphas hasn't been to Earth in a hundred years, not since he accidentally created a massively successful support group for gamblers and saved hundreds of souls from damnation. As punishment, he's stuck in Hell's archives filing dusty prophecies because his boss is convinced he's incapable of being properly evil.
When Ethan's summoning yanks him topside, he sees his chance to prove himself. He'll make a deal with the human—and collect that blindingly bright soul.
All he has to do is to help Ethan get together with his crush.
What could possibly go wrong?
Low angst, high comedy m/m romance. HEA guaranteed, no break-ups, no cheating.
Cute but kinda predictable? I know going into this it was going to be a mushy silly little thing and it was. I really enjoyed Mal and Ethan. But some of the plot at the end just had me rolling my eyes *cough* Noah.
I expected sweet and schmoopy but after seeing so many people rate this series highly I decided to give it a try anyway. It started out pretty interesting and cute, but the last 40% seemed rushed, cliché and meh. I was looking forward to reading the next book in the series, but after the ending of this one, I think I'll pass. There was a bit of a missed opportunity for depth here and it fell short.
I was on the fence with this book once I hit 75%. The beginning was cute and Ethan was a sweetie pie. He was a shy nerdy romance lover who wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box. Mal was very sweet and lived in constant denial about what depths of depravity he could plumb. Which is pretty obviously none from the get go. The major plot resolution just seemed off though.
I found this to be very cutesy but also too sweet & too cheesy at times. I did overall enjoy it, a very quick read for when you need a little dose of cheesiness I guess. Book 2 sounds cute as well.
But also at times it bothered me how simplistic the writing is. Like written at a sixth grade reading level. I love a good easy read, but even this was a bit much for me.
I actually read the sequel first and liked it better—the humor helped. This one was still cute, but that ending was a little too extra? (But it was in the sequel also) At least the random library connection makes a little more sense now after reading this one. :)
4.5 stars This was an amazing read, funny ad sweet, I really enjoyed it. The characters are great, they are a couple of adorable cute mess and so perfect for each other. I liked very much how the story evolved, their challenges and, especially, how their dilemma was resolved. My only complain was the epilogue, I needed to know more about how Mal handled his new life. I loved Noah and I hope to read the second book soon.
If you are in a reading slump, this is a book that will get you out of it.
It has banter and snark and I found myself highlighting sections because they made me laugh out loud. A hopeless romantic that doesn’t want to be seen, a demon who tries his best to be evil, but, well, fails?
This is a quick read and I am so excited that it is only the first book in a series.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I do not have the vocabulary I need to be able to properly describe this book. What I thought I was getting was a silly little demon/human romance between a bumbling demon and a sweet human. What I got was two MCs I want to hold close and make sure they never run out of soft blankets or warm soup. Yes, there was humor and fun and a demon that seems to love all things human…but there was also some angst that just made my heart hurt.
So, Ethan makes a deal with a demon to sell his soul in payment for losing his virginity to a man he's in love with. But, the more time they spend together, the more Ethan realizes he’s falling for the demon. Mal, the demon, is on thin ice with his boss. If he fails to secure Ethan’s shining, pure soul (a hot commodity in hell), he will be severely punished. And of course Mal finds Ethan is irresistible. For a decent bit of this book, I found myself getting a little overemotional about their whole situation. They’re just so soft.
I’ve previously read Only Fangs by the author and also loved it. I will definitely keep an eye out for anything else she releases!
Picked because it looked fun. It was sweet. A little gruesome with the what if and could've gone dark. Nasty way to treat a soul. Didn't like Kyle from the get go. Felt like something was up with Noah, so not really surprised there. Ethan was mostly indecisive except when it came to Mal. Mal was a cinnamon roll. Looking forward to Charlie's story, so much aww in the preview and blurb.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Ethan and Mal were so precious, so awkward and adorable! A light yet extremely fun read Usually, I look for high stakes, high action, high emotions but this was just such a feel-good book my heart is warm
lol this was ridiculous. I did think it was funny but for being low stakes the stakes felt pretty high just underdeveloped. The second book seems more interesting so maybe I will like that one more.
I was doing SOOO good at not requesting too many ARCs and getting overwhelmed and reading them at the very last minute..and here we are. Here's Silvana Falcon's "Hell's Most Incompetent Demon."
["Hell's most incompetent demon meets Earth's most hopeless romantic.
All Ethan wanted was someone who could help him find love—or at least someone to pop his cherry. A spell from an odd book he found at the library promised him a wish from Cupid. Sure, some of the ingredients weren't easy to get, but he could improvise. Was there really that much difference between dried laurel leaves and coriander?
He never meant to summon a demon.
Malphas hasn't been to Earth in a hundred years, not since he accidentally created a massively successful support group for gamblers and saved hundreds of souls from damnation. As punishment, he's stuck in Hell's archives filing dusty prophecies because his boss is convinced he's incapable of being properly evil.
When Ethan's summoning yanks him topside, he sees his chance to prove himself. He'll make a deal with the human—and collect that blindingly bright soul.
All he has to do is to help Ethan get together with his crush.
What could possibly go wrong?"]
This book was adorable!! It felt like pure crack, but it was just soooo cute! These two were smitten but ignored it (Ethan already had a crust. And Mal wasn't meant for such a pure soul, a soul he planned to take). The only major angst (between them--there was some outside-influence-angst) was the will-they-won't-they (or, since its a romance with a HEA, the best kind, the when-will-they).
I loved how soft Mal was for Ethan--and humans in general. He was a demon sure, but he loved humanity and helping people (and sugary coffee and The Great British Bake-Off). And I love how soft Ethan was for Mal--and romance books. He just wanted to be happy and read his favorite tropes and find his own HEA.
Quote of the Day, which happen in the very first chapter, on the very first page (Ethan): "Did Ethan feel a tiny bit self-conscious about reading a smut-scene at work? He had in the beginning. Then he'd found this perfect spot to hid away during his lunch break, between the religious section and the occult part of the library."
do i feel bad for giving 2🌟 to a book that’s objectively well-written and could’ve easily earned 4🌟? absolutely not. do you want to know why? cause it’s yet another case of authors swooning over “great rusian literature” to the point where they can’t resist name-dropping half of the books all westerns are obsessed with, and then, of course, giving the main character the surname volkov.
could that main character with the surname volkov belong to literally any other slavic country? (you know destruction of smaller nations and the imposition of an occupation culture which also included the destruction of national unique surnames and their replacement with rusified ones) yeah, totally. but tbh after mentioning of "anna karenina" and "war and piss", it’s crystal clear where this inspiration is coming from. so i guess it's not the case.
Short, easy read. I wish the book had spent more time building the relationship between the two mcs. I really enjoyed the concept, and the reveal at the end was well done. Just didn't hit for me with how underdeveloped the two mains were.
DNF 21% I was bored. it was bland. nothing kept my attention. mc and demon from the start were chill dudes and sat to watch Netflix and grab a coffee together. mc's friend believed mc about demon in first 5 minutes of conversation. mc himself wasnt really surprised that demons exist. he was like "oh, no. anyway." no tension, no getting used to each other, no emotions. nothing. this book is giving nothing (to me at least)
Cute and sweet, if predictable. The meta elements were charming, as was the demon. I was somehow never invested and found everything resolved far too easily.
I did actually really enjoy a lot of this book, and it had me smiling often. But I had two big things I really didn't like that made this a 3.25 ⭐ in the end:
- Heaps of Other Man drama! Half of this book is MC1 trying to have a relationship with someone who isn't MC2. And THEN there is yet another guy briefly in the mix later for plot reasons. Throw in a slow burn between our two MCs with lots of, "Oh we can't," and it just wasn't my jam.
- Big focus on the concept of virginity, losing that and what it's defined as. I'm personally not a fan of that trope anyway and the definition the MCs settled on (penetration, which was valid for plot reasons but still) was very cishet.
So yeah. I really liked both MCs and I found most of this book cute and funny, but it ended up not being the high star rating I thought it was going to be in the first chapters. The sneak peek of book 2 has me interested so I might read that still!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.