Book Review: Demon With Benefits by Aurora Ascher

 

Book Description

A hot-headed witch and a lovable bad-boy demon add up to a scorching enemies-to-lovers tale, in the latest spicy paranormal romance from instant New York Times bestselling author Aurora Ascher.

They can run from their demons . . .

The jokester of the demon brothers, Meph wears his grin like armor and uses humor as a mask. But lately, his composure has been slipping, especially around her. Iris. The blue-haired witch with a vicious temperament. Something about her soothes the darkness within him . . . but he’s not looking for a savior. There’s no such thing for someone like him.

But they can’t hide forever . . .

Bitter and haunted by her traumatic past, Iris Donovan isn’t keen on welcoming demons into her life—even if they’re her sister’s friends. Especially not teasing, tattooed, Meph, with his red eyes and devilish smile. After a toxic relationship, she’s sworn off commitment, and she’s not looking for another Mr. Damaged. Yet she can’t stop craving what she shouldn’t want.

To conquer this monster . . . they must tame it together.

With the return of a deadly enemy, the pain they’ve been suppressing is exposed, and Meph and Iris can no longer deny their feelings. Before Meph is swallowed by his darkness, Iris must overcome her fears and embrace that terrible part of him . . .

Or lose him forever.

My Review

This is the 3rd book in the Hell Bent series. I read the 1st book and now the 3rd but have to go back and read the 2nd book. I'm reading them out of order and that's ok. It read well as a standalone book. 

In this series mephistopheles/Meph, Belial, Mist, Ash/Asmodeus, and Raum consider themselves brothers and help each other escape hell. They are all demons but want to be good and not evil anymore. So they escaped Hell and came to Earth to live regular lives but some of them have some really big issues because of the horrible lives they've led. 

Meph's demon was tortured and enslaved by Valefor for hundreds of years. He did horrible things for the demon Valefor while he was in Hell, which is why he had a sigil tattooed on his skin to keep him from shifting into his demon half again. Meph's demon is like a separate entity because he split the two personalities in his mind so he wouldn't have to remember all the horrible things it did while it was in charge. 

Iris is a human who's twin sister Lily is the mate to one of the demons, Mist who escaped hell with the other demons. She has been antagonistic to Meph mostly because she finds him so attractive and that bothers her. When she tells Meph to leave her alone and stop flirting with her, he does just that but then she realizes that she misses the banter they had. So she apologizes only to find Meph right up in her space letting her know that if she doesn't back off, he's going to act on the lust he feels for her. Although he didn't put it in such pretty words. *Snicker*

Once these two finally give in to their lust for one another, they think they can keep things casual but feelings start to develop on Meph's part. For two people who have a hard time with feelings and emotional baggage, this brings a problem in between them for a time. But when Iris finds herself in danger, it's Meph and his demon half that she finds a safe place with surprisingly. 

Who knew that demons could be so sweet and romantic as well as deadly and primal at the same time. Whoa, when Meph's demon is released, he's scary even to higher level demons. This series is so good and has me drooling over demons! I need more demons in my life and I never thought I would say those words. Ha!

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars

Disclosure: I was given an E-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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