Jane aka Coughy019 (Safety info included)'s Reviews > Higher Demon

** spoiler alert ** Tropes: enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, hunter/demon, secret relationship
Feels: 3/5
Steam*: 3/5
Kinks: n/a
Angst: low
HEA: yes
Pairing: MM
Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: violence

3.75 Stars

Ian is 27 and he's a human with hunter powers. He's part of a family of hunters that tracks back centuries. I haven't read the other books in the series or prequel series or whatever so I don't understand really the full premise. But essentially there's some crossover with another world of demons and there was some big attempt at war and take over a while back that was thwarted, largely in part due to the demon Marc, who has been alive for millennia and is super powerful. Now Ian and Marc both are among a team that is trying to cultivate peace and cooperation between their worlds.

Marc is a stuck up unlikable a****** who gets along with no one and doesn't have a lot of interest in humans, he thinks he's above everybody. He's known Ian since he was 12, because Marc was trying to kill Ian's brother Connor at the time and Ian interrupted. That ended up being a misunderstanding / awful circumstances. But Connor and Marc hate each other something fierce. For the last 6 years Marc and Ian have been working pretty close together. When Marc realizes he's going to have to stay as an ambassador on Earth for much longer than he expected to, he decides he needs to be more friendly and build alliances and Ian agrees to help him. As they're spending more time together, they both start to like each other and be sexually attracted to each other. They start a f*** buddy relationship. But they slip into having feelings and it turns into boyfriends. But their relationship would not go over well with the people around them so they keep it secret. But there's something big going down that threatens the peace and each other so they have to deal with that as well.

I enjoyed the humor in this book. I love a lot of humor with my romance novels and there was such great banter and sarcasm and snarkiness in this. I loved the character of Marc, he was such an aloof grump who literally cared about nobody until Ian. His mannerisms and personality led to a lot of humor. I love that a whole team of people had to work on trying to make him likeable, he was universally hated. The moment people saw him they hated him. It made the connection between Ian and Marc all the more sweet when they both naturally found each other so unlikable to start. And I loved that Marc ended up affectionately calling Ian his grubby little human. Even with affection they couldn't help but insult each other. Honestly, trading insults is one of my love languages. Relatable!

I wasn't a huge fan of the first 50% of this book, it had almost no notable relationship development and no building sexual tension, it came off as very platonic and not very romance novelish. It's too bad that over the last 6 years there had been like no sexual tension between them, it felt like a wasted opportunity. But then the sexual tension snapped between them after that and all of a sudden their relationship was on the romance track and they were a lot more enjoyable to read about after that. I know they were secretly hooking up for months, but it did feel a little abrupt them switching from f*** buddies to boyfriends, I kind of wanted a few more bread crumbs where you could read the emotional depth of their growing feelings for each other before all of a sudden they were very committed in a relationship and exchanging I love yous.

The plot of the book was good, there was good world building. But I would say that this book isn't really standalone, the author needed to give us a few more details to fill in some blanks if they really wanted this to be more standalone. The humor in this book I would rate really high. But the romance of the book and relationship development I would rate a little lower.


Some notable moments:

"“So, listen,” he starts, and I hold in a sigh. I can already tell I’m not going to like this. “I’m going to do you a favor.” “Oh, really?” He smiles happily. “Yep! I’m going to let you tell a roomful of people how stupid they are.” That’s… not what I was expecting him to say. It does sound appealing, though. “Go on.”"

Omg, this scene where Marc was critiquing a manuscript was so freaking relatable. I feel like this is me when I'm reviewing books that I hated. "I pick up the pages on my lap and start to read. Your pride in this work is extremely evident, and you clearly believe you’ve made a great achievement. Here are all the reasons you’re wrong."

It was hilarious how much Connor and Marc hated each other. "Con perks up. “He was in pain? Was that what it was? Did he die?”"


*FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink.

**Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers.