Singing with the Devil

Black Moon #1

by Cassandra Rose Clarke

 She’d risked her heart once hunting demons. Now she’ll risk it again trying to save one.

When a demon tries to literally rip out your heart, it changes you. At least, it did for Helena Muir. Now estranged from her demon-hunting family, Helena spends her days working as a quiet accountant and her nights reveling in a secret love of hard-core metal music, her hunting days behind her. Or so she thought—until a surprise visit from her sister sucks her right back in. 

With Helena’s affinity for music and magic, she is perfectly suited to track their newest target: Aleksi Haakanen, tattooed demon and lead singer for Black Moon, known for infusing his dark music with even darker magic. But when the night goes horribly wrong, Helena finds herself the unwitting “guest” of Aleksi—and unaccountably drawn to the powerful and charismatic demon.

The deeper she falls into Aleski’s world, the more she questions her mission. And whether proving herself to her family is worth bringing down the one man who can truly see into her heart.

Genres: Romance, Paranormal

ebook

First published May 3, 2022

About the author

Cassandra Rose Clarke is a speculative fiction writer living amongst the beige stucco and overgrown pecan trees of Houston, Texas. She graduated in 2006 from The University of St. Thomas with a bachelor’s degree in English, and in 2008 she completed her master’s degree in creative writing at The University of Texas at Austin. Both of these degrees have served her surprisingly well.

During the summer of 2010, she attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, where she enjoyed sixty-degree summer days. Having been born and raised in Texas, this was something of a big deal. She was also a recipient of the 2010 Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund.

Reviews

[Thais Lopes · Rating 5 out of 5]

aquele gostinho de romance paranormal clássico, só que sem o par romântico macho alfa levemente cuzão. e o par romântico é um demônio vocalista e guitarrista de banda de black metal.
a mitologia e a magia do mundo funcionaram bem demais para mim e fizeram sentido. a protagonista é do tipo ame ou odeie mesmo, porque ela não é o 'tradicional' de protagonista forte, badass e etc. ela passou a vida inteira pensando que era menos por não atender ao que a família dela esperava e ainda está naquele ciclo de querer fazer de tudo para provar que tem valor. fácil demais de identificar com ela e entender as escolhas dela. e ela tem bom gosto, então passo pano mesmo.
o único problema é: QUERO CONTINUAÇÃO PRA ONTEM.

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining and compelling paranormal romance that kept me hooked. I liked the world building and the rooted for the characters.
It's well plotted and the characters are fleshed out.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[TimetoFangirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Actual Rating = 2.5, rounded up to 3

"How could a demon share her same insights about chaos and magic and music?"

Y'all I'm gonna be honest....I went into this with low expectations so even this relatively low star rating represents my pleasant surprise.

I've never read Clarke's other works but, from a quick scrub of her GR author page, it looks like a contemporary fantasy romance is out of her norm. I always appreciate when authors try new things, so props where they're due. I also think Clarke's other fantasy works (again, don't come at me if I'm incorrect Clarkestans) contributed to Singing with the Devil having a reasonably developed world for its short length and romance-heavy plot. I liked how Clarke tied in her fantasy elements around Catholic mythos but still took enough artistic license for things to feel unique. Now, the magic itself was a bit cheesy - one of the spells is "Grow with power, strength, and light!" - but I can live with that.

So what is it about? Our main girl Helena is an accountant, metal enthusiast, and estranged member of the Lineage, a semi-religious organization that claims to act on behalf of God. Unfortunately for Helena, she was crap at magic and demon hunting so her parents stopped talking to her and her only tie to them is her sister, Juniper. A situation comes up where Juniper thinks a metal band has something to do with a leak between the human and Infernal realms, so she asks her metalhead older sister for help. Helena agrees but shit goes down at the concert and she ends up getting sort of kidnapped by the band, including their demon lead singer. Chaos and romance ensue from there. Helena was pretty likable, even though I couldn't relate to how she acted like a kicked puppy begging for more when it came to her family. I think she could've shown a bit more backbone throughout the story, but her character was timid and that's okay - some people are.

Uhh, Fangirl, these are all nice comments but your rating is pretty low! Yes well, unfortunately, this book had more than its fair share of weaknesses as well.

There is a sort of "twist" at about 90%, which anyone with eyes could've seen coming. Singing with the Devil isn't a mystery or a thriller so whatever, but it was sort of weak.

The relationship between Helena and Aleksi has a strong insta-love element, with them basically falling for each other within four days. Now, Clarke does provide sort of an explanation as to why their connection was so fast and strong, but it still felt underdeveloped. It also felt like the author maybe had a touch of a crush on her own character because, despite Aleksi being a literal demon from basically Hell, he doesn't really have any flaws and is always wonderful, loving, and self-sacrificing with Helena.

There was a bit of the Not Like Other Girls trope with Helena, which is a pet peeve of mine. Granted, that is a fully personal preference and might not bother other readers so I didn't take off any star ratings for it. The resolution of the plot was also fairly convenient, but that's pretty normal in fantasy romances, so whatever. It seemed like Clarke was also leaving the door open for a possible sequel, though I don't know if anything has been announced.

There were some grammar and spelling issues as well, but those will likely be fixed before the final release.

Hilariously, the most unbelievable part of this fantasy romance was when Helena logged into an account she hadn't used in 11 years but still remembered her password. Yeah, right.

[Therese-Libn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helena, part of the Lineage, a demon hunter society, has hung up the magical towel; she wasn’t any good at it anyway. She’s a fan, as in fanatic, of metal music so when her sister tries to enlist her help on a case involving a possibly demonic metal band she acquiesces. Aleksi is the heavy metal band demon who Helena is investigating. While she is at their concert things go sideways and the demons kidnap her believing she is some other type of magical creature.

But as she spends more time with them and tries to help them against a more evil force, she begins to question which group, Aleksi’s or her Lineage, is the evil one. It turns out Helena has been practicing demon magic without realizing that was what she was doing when she wrote and played her music. Because of this she is able to do the magic needed to help Aleksi save the world. As they run for their own lives, and try to save other lives will real love even be possible? And will they be able to save the world where their love can exist?

This was a wonderful action.adventure, sci-fi, romance novel. All those things were present and they came together quite well. The human/demonic world building was strangely relatable, dangerous yet alluring. And the story line itself was romantic and redemptive.

I look forward to recommending this book to my patrons. I’m rounding up from a 3.5 / 4.0

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent supernatural adventure with some nice erotica. I love that Clarke has taken a familiar trope--the family that hunts the supernatural--and flips it, giving us a protagonist who is estranged from her family but still believes in the dogma they instilled in her. She stereotypically falls in love with the devil--or a devil (it's complicated)--but again Clarke twists that well-worn plot device, making it the protagonist who must truly and fully break with her family to save the devil and his friends when the hunters come calling. Oh, and his friends? A handful of amazing characters, including a rock goddess cunning woman. There are clearly more stories to be told about these characters--the end tempts us--and I am looking forward to reading them. Fans of Seanan McGuire, Jim Butcher, and the like will love this book.

[Janice Fraser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Net galley for this book. Such a good read and could not put it down.

[Harlequin Books]

Categories
Urban Fantasy, Rock Stars, Fantasy Romance
Miniseries
Black Moon (Book #1)

[Cass]

DNF