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Bargain with the Demon King: A Novella
“So… when do I get the pitchfork? I feel underdressed for eternal damnation.”
I might be breakable, but I'm his to break.
When the man she loves is dying, Adraya doesn’t hesitate—she summons a demon and trades her soul to save him.
But the one who answers isn’t just any demon. He’s Azzaron, ruler of the twilight realm, collector of souls, and the most arrogant creature she’s ever met. Now she’s bound to his obsidian fortress, surrounded by screams and shadows.
Except he doesn’t take her soul. He hesitates—for the first time in eternity.
Her light shouldn’t survive in his darkness. Her laughter shouldn’t echo through his hell.
But it does.
And the Demon King can’t seem to look away.
A standalone dark fantasy romance where hope defies hell, desire is damnation, and even demon kings can fall.
Author’s This book was revised and updated on January 5, 2026 to address early feedback and improve clarity and continuity.
I might be breakable, but I'm his to break.
When the man she loves is dying, Adraya doesn’t hesitate—she summons a demon and trades her soul to save him.
But the one who answers isn’t just any demon. He’s Azzaron, ruler of the twilight realm, collector of souls, and the most arrogant creature she’s ever met. Now she’s bound to his obsidian fortress, surrounded by screams and shadows.
Except he doesn’t take her soul. He hesitates—for the first time in eternity.
Her light shouldn’t survive in his darkness. Her laughter shouldn’t echo through his hell.
But it does.
And the Demon King can’t seem to look away.
A standalone dark fantasy romance where hope defies hell, desire is damnation, and even demon kings can fall.
Author’s This book was revised and updated on January 5, 2026 to address early feedback and improve clarity and continuity.
171 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 14, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
May 10, 2026
This is actually the worst book I’ve ever read. It is entirely AI generated - ChatGPT went to work on this. There’s so many mistakes, plot holes, and straight up stupid shit in this book. It’s so lame to think someone’s making money from publishing AI slop on Kindle unlimited lol ban AI from the arts!!!
May 25, 2026
Uhhhh….this is 100% seems (to me, personally) like an AI generated novel.
The author released 10 books from April to December 2025 (all on KU). There are comments/reviews for her other books with readers expressing their suspicions of AI (as well as noting the exact same inconsistencies across her different novels). The entirety of the author’s TikTok account is AI-generated content promoting her books.
If the author is comfortable enough using AI to create content for TikTok, it’s not a far stretch to assume she uses AI for her stories as well.
The author released 10 books from April to December 2025 (all on KU). There are comments/reviews for her other books with readers expressing their suspicions of AI (as well as noting the exact same inconsistencies across her different novels). The entirety of the author’s TikTok account is AI-generated content promoting her books.
If the author is comfortable enough using AI to create content for TikTok, it’s not a far stretch to assume she uses AI for her stories as well.
July 31, 2026
Such a Fun and Beautiful Read
This book was fantastic with such a great mix of light-hearted commentary even in the heartbreaking moments. This is my second read from this author and I'll definitely be going back to find more!
This book was fantastic with such a great mix of light-hearted commentary even in the heartbreaking moments. This is my second read from this author and I'll definitely be going back to find more!
March 22, 2026
Fun read
The writing was touching, I enjoyed the sentiment and I liked the characters. I don't know if there was an issue with the editing or just the writing, but there were a few pages that took me out of the fantasy. It is in a scene right after a riding scene (or maybe my perception was wrong) , where she was riding an animal and it was so natural that it was done without thought. Then not a few pages later she's never ridden before and is taught to ride and then gains confidence. I personally think this should have been caught in the final review, I hope the author can talk to the editor and let them know.
The writing was touching, I enjoyed the sentiment and I liked the characters. I don't know if there was an issue with the editing or just the writing, but there were a few pages that took me out of the fantasy. It is in a scene right after a riding scene (or maybe my perception was wrong) , where she was riding an animal and it was so natural that it was done without thought. Then not a few pages later she's never ridden before and is taught to ride and then gains confidence. I personally think this should have been caught in the final review, I hope the author can talk to the editor and let them know.
October 15, 2025
This was ok, but it could have been amazing. the story was intriguing but certain parts fell flat / were boring and it didn't have enough smut for how long it was.
personally I liked the heroine's original sweet and optimistic personality more and wished she reached that baseline again..... I get why she changed after a betrayal but it just felt too campy and dramatic? like she goes from a true romantic and sweet soul (who the demon king fell in love with) and then bam, she's a wise cracking, gets beat up and smiles, saucy, aggressive, sarcastic dark heroine? like it just felt really sudden and we didn't get enough sexual tension or bonding to merit the ending scene IMO.
Lastly, while I liked the first half of the book, the latter half felt a bit rushed and stagnant at the same time and I didn't feel the payoff for the characters being together. it really dragged in some parts and the repetitive descriptions got a bit old after a while
personally I liked the heroine's original sweet and optimistic personality more and wished she reached that baseline again..... I get why she changed after a betrayal but it just felt too campy and dramatic? like she goes from a true romantic and sweet soul (who the demon king fell in love with) and then bam, she's a wise cracking, gets beat up and smiles, saucy, aggressive, sarcastic dark heroine? like it just felt really sudden and we didn't get enough sexual tension or bonding to merit the ending scene IMO.
Lastly, while I liked the first half of the book, the latter half felt a bit rushed and stagnant at the same time and I didn't feel the payoff for the characters being together. it really dragged in some parts and the repetitive descriptions got a bit old after a while
October 12, 2025
NOT BAD FOR A NEW AUTHOR. SOLID 3.5 STARS!
Personally, this wasn't steamy enough, especially with the good tension flowing between the MCs. Also, I was sad when the heroine adopted a cruel, mean streak after getting a rude awakening about the man she sold her soul for. The main reasons WHY AZZARON fell in love with ADRAYA was because of her naivete and optimism to see the good in everything and everyone. The fact that she broke and become mean...just didn't sit too well with me even if I kind of UNDERSTAND why the author chose to write that path.
Ironically, Azzaron who has seen the worst of humanity and obviously lost faith in them for 17,000 years shouldn't even fall in love with one he so despises, thus the reason why I stand firm on the heroine remaining sweet.
AZZARON is a jaded Demon King who has seen the unsalvageable cruelty and selfishness of humanity. He mainly offers a bargain to desperate humans in exchange for their souls. Naturally, our heroine was one of those "fools" who summoned him and sold her soul to him. Azzaron already knew Chad wasn't worth Adraya's soul, however who was he to deny a new soul to keep? Azzaron's character development was 50-50, I could see the changes or awakening in his heart when he was becoming to be TOUCHED by Adraya's actions. I say 50 because deep down, perhaps there's always been a part of him that knows how to love, only never to have experienced. Actions speak louder than words, and this Demon King has proven his emotions through plenty of things he did FOR Adraya, and not in words. I like that - A LOT.
ADRAYA is what I do admire in a heroine. The first half, she is a starry-eyed romantic optimist who attempts to befriend Azzaron and get him to see the good in life or things. I liked that sweet girl who existed, not the spiteful woman she will become later on. While I understood that the author wanted to toughen Adraya, to assimilate her role into Azzaron's Queen, I still felt sad.
OVERALL the romance developed a little too quickly for my taste, and didn't have enough passionate chemistry. I'm not asking for erotica, but if you're going to add smut in the sensual scenes, at least make it vividly HOT and INTENSE. Otherwise, the soft, cherished moments between Adraya and Azzaron were cute.
Personally, this wasn't steamy enough, especially with the good tension flowing between the MCs. Also, I was sad when the heroine adopted a cruel, mean streak after getting a rude awakening about the man she sold her soul for. The main reasons WHY AZZARON fell in love with ADRAYA was because of her naivete and optimism to see the good in everything and everyone. The fact that she broke and become mean...just didn't sit too well with me even if I kind of UNDERSTAND why the author chose to write that path.
Ironically, Azzaron who has seen the worst of humanity and obviously lost faith in them for 17,000 years shouldn't even fall in love with one he so despises, thus the reason why I stand firm on the heroine remaining sweet.
AZZARON is a jaded Demon King who has seen the unsalvageable cruelty and selfishness of humanity. He mainly offers a bargain to desperate humans in exchange for their souls. Naturally, our heroine was one of those "fools" who summoned him and sold her soul to him. Azzaron already knew Chad wasn't worth Adraya's soul, however who was he to deny a new soul to keep? Azzaron's character development was 50-50, I could see the changes or awakening in his heart when he was becoming to be TOUCHED by Adraya's actions. I say 50 because deep down, perhaps there's always been a part of him that knows how to love, only never to have experienced. Actions speak louder than words, and this Demon King has proven his emotions through plenty of things he did FOR Adraya, and not in words. I like that - A LOT.
ADRAYA is what I do admire in a heroine. The first half, she is a starry-eyed romantic optimist who attempts to befriend Azzaron and get him to see the good in life or things. I liked that sweet girl who existed, not the spiteful woman she will become later on. While I understood that the author wanted to toughen Adraya, to assimilate her role into Azzaron's Queen, I still felt sad.
OVERALL the romance developed a little too quickly for my taste, and didn't have enough passionate chemistry. I'm not asking for erotica, but if you're going to add smut in the sensual scenes, at least make it vividly HOT and INTENSE. Otherwise, the soft, cherished moments between Adraya and Azzaron were cute.
June 1, 2026
This will be a DNF at 40% of the book for me. The writing seems, in my personal opinion, entirely AI generated. It bears all the hallmarks of ChatGPT specifically: the redundant sets of 3s everywhere ("this thing is sharp, dark, dangerous"), the "Not this, but that", the similes devoid of meaning ("smells like moonlight and danger" - what exactly does that mean?), the many many continuity errors (ex. describes glowing fruits at a banquet, then surprised to see glowing fruits "for the first time" at a market later), the tendency to describe with "something dark", "something sharp" instead of clear allegories. And finally: the characters do not feel real. There's little to no explanation as to why the demon king cares about the FL specifically (she was hopeful when making a bargain - okay, but in thousands of deals, she was the only one who truly believed that her sacrifice meant something?) The insta-love is also much too quick. The suspension of disbelief needed in unreal. The passage of time is also very ambiguous. In any case, I would recommend to skip this one and go with a book written by a human instead.
December 22, 2025
I loved the premise, I loved the characters but there were some serious flaws in this book. There are dream sequences that are indistinguishable from reality (even from the reader) and there are times were the plot repeats with a slight variation. And not in a deliberate way. It’s almost like the author wrote a chapter and walked away from the book for awhile and then picked up with the last scene she remembered. It was weird. Like we got two slightly different “i will burn the world down for what you’ve done to her” back to back. Covering the same event and the same people. Honestly, it made me wonder if this was an AI novel…
May 29, 2026
I'm a little over 50 pages in, and I honestly don't understand how this book has the ratings it does. It feels like a real person didn't write it. The writing is incredibly shallow, and it has all the hallmarks of AI-generated content.
I haven't done any research, so I can't say for certain that this is just a Chat GPT generated short read slapped together and published. But if it wasn't written by AI, the lack of emotion, depth, and authenticity is even more concerning.
I'm going to DNF this one, which is rare for me especially this early. I usually force myself to get at least 70% of the way through a book before giving up. Not this time.
I hated it.
I haven't done any research, so I can't say for certain that this is just a Chat GPT generated short read slapped together and published. But if it wasn't written by AI, the lack of emotion, depth, and authenticity is even more concerning.
I'm going to DNF this one, which is rare for me especially this early. I usually force myself to get at least 70% of the way through a book before giving up. Not this time.
I hated it.
December 5, 2025
I absolutely loved the banter between Adraya and Azzaron. I loved the way she was simply herself and with that carried quiet confidence wherever she went, regardless of circumstances.
The feral and consuming attraction they felt for each other even while learning all the good and bad about one another, was destined for an explosive climax. Pun was definitely intended.
It was an enthraling story and one I enjoyed from beginning to end. Highly recommend.
The feral and consuming attraction they felt for each other even while learning all the good and bad about one another, was destined for an explosive climax. Pun was definitely intended.
It was an enthraling story and one I enjoyed from beginning to end. Highly recommend.
February 13, 2026
short, but oh so fun
Leah manages to fit a lot in a relatively short book (less 200 pages). The length of the book does detract from the fun characters that manage to have a genuine feel and growth,both personally and and relationship wise. This is the second book I have read of hers, painted shadows being the first. I am genuinely excited to read more and excited to see what she continues to write.
Leah manages to fit a lot in a relatively short book (less 200 pages). The length of the book does detract from the fun characters that manage to have a genuine feel and growth,both personally and and relationship wise. This is the second book I have read of hers, painted shadows being the first. I am genuinely excited to read more and excited to see what she continues to write.
August 23, 2026
I think this book has been heavily edited since its release. 🤷🏻♀️Either way, it was goofy and gory and funny and exactly what I wanted to read this weekend.
For me, it didn’t appear to read like an AI generated novella. But then again, I’m not an educated writer🤪🤣 But even if it is AI generated, I believe the author got her hand on it too.
MF
Plot was thin as a 100 yo sheet but it’s fine ok
Low spice (80% in one scene)
Humor used as a weapon and defensive mechanism.
HEA
KU
Standalone
For me, it didn’t appear to read like an AI generated novella. But then again, I’m not an educated writer🤪🤣 But even if it is AI generated, I believe the author got her hand on it too.
MF
Plot was thin as a 100 yo sheet but it’s fine ok
Low spice (80% in one scene)
Humor used as a weapon and defensive mechanism.
HEA
KU
Standalone
July 18, 2026
It feels wrong to like someone so bad…
This whole story is a question of morality. Is good bad and bad good? Is wrong to like the bad guy when he does bad things for the right reasons? Is does help that he is hotter the hell or maybe because he is hell itself? Questionable life choices and steamy will they won’t they made this an exceptional read.
This whole story is a question of morality. Is good bad and bad good? Is wrong to like the bad guy when he does bad things for the right reasons? Is does help that he is hotter the hell or maybe because he is hell itself? Questionable life choices and steamy will they won’t they made this an exceptional read.
January 31, 2026
My FYP brought me here so gave it a chance. I was drawn in by the pretty cover and it seemed like a short easy read.
Everyone had a pretty unique name and then we get basic Chad. We don't like Chad. Chad sucks. I hope he gets bitten by more rabbits.
Everyone had a pretty unique name and then we get basic Chad. We don't like Chad. Chad sucks. I hope he gets bitten by more rabbits.
February 6, 2026
This was pretty good and fun. I like it.
Started my reading binge for the night so can’t be mad.
Would I recommend to a friend who didn’t read wattpad? No. Would I recommend to a friend who did? Yes.
Started my reading binge for the night so can’t be mad.
Would I recommend to a friend who didn’t read wattpad? No. Would I recommend to a friend who did? Yes.
February 21, 2026
Great story!
This is my first book by leah ryan and the book while on the shorter side was awesome! Made me laugh a bunch and re-read some of the great lines outloud cause they landed just that good! You should definitely read it!! Can't wait to read more of her works!
This is my first book by leah ryan and the book while on the shorter side was awesome! Made me laugh a bunch and re-read some of the great lines outloud cause they landed just that good! You should definitely read it!! Can't wait to read more of her works!
March 8, 2026
very good quick read
Fantastic in all aspects! I truly wish it was longer and gave more because it was so good. Please extend or add to this. I feel like it is incomplete and could be so much more.
Fantastic in all aspects! I truly wish it was longer and gave more because it was so good. Please extend or add to this. I feel like it is incomplete and could be so much more.
March 13, 2026
You know the feeling that sometimes you just need a particular something?
Well, today, for me, it was this book.
Loved the banter and the romance; it had everything I needed.
I'm looking forward to more books by the author.
Well, today, for me, it was this book.
Loved the banter and the romance; it had everything I needed.
I'm looking forward to more books by the author.
March 24, 2026
Completely enjoyable!
I laughed, a lot, which is precisely what I needed! A witty heroine, an unlikely pairing, and so much more. I’m exhausted, so not eloquent tonight as I write my review, but I will go to sleep with a grin and a chuckle, and feeling a little bit lighter.
I laughed, a lot, which is precisely what I needed! A witty heroine, an unlikely pairing, and so much more. I’m exhausted, so not eloquent tonight as I write my review, but I will go to sleep with a grin and a chuckle, and feeling a little bit lighter.
May 20, 2026
loved it so much
I’m tired of reading about whiny girls who are afraid of everything, so this was a nice change. MFC was a joy, slightly annoying at some parts but once she found her confidence again it was great. I could really picture everything perfectly, really well written.
I’m tired of reading about whiny girls who are afraid of everything, so this was a nice change. MFC was a joy, slightly annoying at some parts but once she found her confidence again it was great. I could really picture everything perfectly, really well written.
June 20, 2026
The Banter is Bantering
I dont normally write reviews because I dont like influencing people's decisions about books. However, this book is banter brilliance. I love these characters and this story line. Big fan
I dont normally write reviews because I dont like influencing people's decisions about books. However, this book is banter brilliance. I love these characters and this story line. Big fan
August 8, 2026
loved but left me wanting more
Wonderful book by a wonderful author. 5 stars because you put your work out and I’m happy for it.
I personally loved the tension but I wanted more! Not in a bad way but I feel there could be even more to their story
Thank you!!!
Wonderful book by a wonderful author. 5 stars because you put your work out and I’m happy for it.
I personally loved the tension but I wanted more! Not in a bad way but I feel there could be even more to their story
Thank you!!!
October 12, 2025
5 ⭐️ for vibes. Fun, easy read with all the angst and comedic snark and banter between a Demon King and a mortal.
November 27, 2025
This is a whack-a-doo book. I loved it
January 6, 2026
good read
A very enjoyable tale, the story was quite original and refreshing. My only criticism was that it was too short
A very enjoyable tale, the story was quite original and refreshing. My only criticism was that it was too short
February 8, 2026
It was good
It was pretty good. You might want to remove the lines in the book unless they are meant to be there.
It was pretty good. You might want to remove the lines in the book unless they are meant to be there.
February 18, 2026
Wonderful.
The banter between the two characters is simply wonderful. I found a new Author to follow. On to another great read.
The banter between the two characters is simply wonderful. I found a new Author to follow. On to another great read.
Read
April 13, 2026Paused chapter 9.
Vibes were off.
Vibes were off.
April 25, 2026
Very good page turner
I liked the overall story, I also enjoyed the way the narrative shifted between the leads. Overall very enjoyable and entertaining.
I liked the overall story, I also enjoyed the way the narrative shifted between the leads. Overall very enjoyable and entertaining.
May 25, 2026
almost funny. she offers her soul to save bf life. demon king gets attached to her aggressively friendly campaign
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews