Thank you to NetGalley, Aurora Ascher, and RBmedia for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this book would be for me, considering it is a paranormal romance with a beautiful cover. This was not for me; I didn't particularly enjoy the style of writing. There was something in the setting and tone that I wasn't a fan of. I will not be continuing the series.

I don't often gravitate towards books with demons, but this one sounded like a lot of fun and it definitely delivered in that respect.

I find the demons, their escape from hell, their dynamics and how they evolve is quite interesting. I also like how music plays a big part in the story. Ash and Eva's budding romance is quite fun to follow, although a bit too insta-love for my taste.
Even though she's not even a main character, I have to say that Eva's mother kind of steals the show, and I'd like to see more of her.
Finally, having listened to this story on audio, I'd like to say how much I enjoyed Kirsten Leigh's narration. She made an already fun story even more enjoyable.

Recommended for fans of entertaining and spicy paranormal romance novels with humor.

This was such a fun book to listen to!! The audiobook narrator did such a good job. I loved the banter in this book and how funny it was. Recommend for a fun and funny romance!!

Let start with the audio itself and then review the book overall - the audio was very well done and i highly recommend it for the reading experience! it was nicely read and had nice pacing and was very comfortable to listen to -which isn’t always the case with books with sex scenes but this was done very well. so recommend the audio. 4⭐️

and now to the actual book itself:

2.5⭐️

this was good but not great.
it’s entertaining but not anything i would go out of my way recommending to anyone with everything else that is out there now to read with similar elements.

i think the biggest issue with this is that the author tried to do too much.

if it would have focused on the “romance” -which honestly is more lust and porn- and made the entire fleeing hell thing just a side note of why ash is so different that could have been a great read.

if it would have focused more on building the plot of what’s going on with hell and demons and angels and everything in between that could have been a great story.

but this strange mesh up didn’t really work very well because the romance wasn’t well done, the explanations and world building weren’t well done and it all felt rushed and dragged out at the same time.

the balance wasn’t existing in this and that made it hard to get through at quite a few places.

some moments felt dragged out for pages and pages because we didn’t get anything new or just a repeat sex scene that wasn’t even well written enough for it to be anything worth the amount of pages those took on, especially since i would have rather gotten more about everything else and why the supernatural stuff was as it is and how it all works. instead we got mediocre sex scenes (which would have been fine if the romance would have work but that wasn’t working either because it was basically instead lust the “connection” over loving music and sex or as i would call it lust no romance) and underexplained plot that tried to hard to be explained in the middle of what where supposed to be those high action fight for your life scenes.


don’t get me wrong this isn’t horrible.

but it’s all over the place and that is very noticeable and i don’t really understand why a story like this would be this way and very honestly how no one in the editorial process went “alright look let’s try to find a focus point in this book and stick to that!”


if you can disconnect your brain and don’t mind an okay entertainment? go for it.

i do think there are better demon and angel stories out there especially in the romantasy genre now so do what you like but this is sadly not one of the best ones.

🌟 5
🌶️ 2
🎧 5

🔸 Paranormal Romance
🔸 Grumpy x sunshine
🔸 demon cursed with invisibility to women; and the musician who saw him
🔸 fast burn 🔥
🔸 side characters also fun 🤩
🔸 pet cat

I had a blast! Hilarious, cute, and steamy; it was a good time. I’ll be following this authors work for sure; i really liked the casual humorous style, effortlessly entertaining. Romance developed naturally & the side characters had me cracking up 😆

“He is mine!”

X

My Funny Demon Valentine is such a fun, entertaining paranormal read. This is the first book in the Hell Bent series and it follows Evangeline (Eva), a musician, and the a demon prince Asmodeus (Ash) who has escaped Hell and is in hiding on Earth with his brothers.

Ash is cursed to be bland, causing no woman to see him. He loved music and enjoyed listening to Eva play, so imagine his surprise when she saw him and spoke to him. I enjoyed seeing the romance between them blossom as the story progressed.

The story was action-packed, suspenseful, scorching hott, and highly entertaining. The banter and antics between Ash and his brothers had me amused. The family secrets when revealed had me at the edge of my seat to see what would happen. There were some emotional scenes and an ending that sets us up for the next book in the series. I really enjoyed this novel and would definitely recommend it to paranormal romance lovers.

🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
The audiobook was narrated by Kirsten Leigh. She was fantastic, bringing the varying personalities to life. Her voice was clear and understandable and it was an absolute pleasure listening to her narrate this novel.

I have tried to start this one several times over. I had high hopes for this one, but I have not been able to get more than 30 minutes into this book. I did not finish.

This was the cutest, and I can't wait to read more of the series! A huge thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this audio.
Review
I loved this story about four brothers who just want to get out of Hell, come to earth, and live "normal" lives. Well, as normal as four major demons on the run from Hell can live. Lol
From the minute Ash (Asmodeus Prince of Hell) meets Eva, there is instant chemistry. Their bond happened so quickly but made sense, so I didn't mind. These two are so good together! I loved it when they played music together. And the insta-lust and the resulting spice are so hot! 🔥

I love all of the brothers and the stupid demon Myst. Their inability to act like humans is hilarious, and I laughed out loud plenty of times. Eva's mom was great, too. I loved her vibe. Most of the supporting characters were memorable and fun. Even though I feel like the story went exactly where I knew it was going. But I didn't mind that it was predictable. I loved the ending anyway.
The narration was great, and I couldn't put it down. I recommend listening, it enhanced the story for sure. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book sounded like it was going to be a really fun listen. Unfortunately I did not find it so. I did finish the audiobook, I hate to not finish something and I thought it might get better. The story was lacking in so much. I wil say the narrator did a good job.

Thank you to Netgalley, the audio house and the author for the opportunity to listen to a complimentary copy of this audiobook in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

A cute fun sexy romance paranormal.
Are demons real and are they good or evil. Like all the characters and story.
Looking forward to the series.
Voluntarily reviewed.
Narration was great enjoyed listening to it.

Fun, Spicy book with a great intro into a world of demons who just want to stay in the human world and be good. I enjoyed this book, I look forward to the rest of the series and getting to know each "brother" demon. This is definitely spicy but funny and cute at the same time, I would call it a cozy fantasy with spice.

As someone who reads a lot of fantasy books with crazy cliffhangers and tragic twists, this book was the exact breather I needed. Ash had be giggling and kicking my feet!! I loved this and can’t wait for the rest of the series!! I also loved the narrator

I totally went into this book blind *I listened to audiobook and followed along in the physical book*. But I did like it! This was my first demon romance so I enjoyed it! The narrator was amazing, I didn’t get bored. It was funny and some of the twists were great! Ash is so sweet and awkward it’s just adorable.

My Funny Demon Valentine
Hell Bent, Book 1

I Picked Up This Book Because: The title.

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: Netgalley
Dates Read: 3/9/25 - 3/13/25
Rating: 3 Stars
Narrator(s): Kristen Leigh


The Characters:

Eva:
Ash:
Bell, Mep, 3rd brother’s name I can’t remember a.t.m., Eva’s Mother (Diane) and Father

The Story:
I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it either. I liked Eva and Ash. They had very strong chemistry. I like the way the mystery unfolded in the end. There was a lot of material that maybe was filler or maybe was set up for the next book, but I found it unnecessary and boring. It did not move this story forward.

I loved this book and the audio! It was genuinely funny at times and I would accidentally laugh audibly at work. I'm excited to keep reading this series. Amazing author and fantastic narrator!

Rating 4⭐
Spice 😈😈

ARC REVIEW

I had a lot of fun with the story! A meet cute between the MMC and FMC, where they instantly felt an attractive. It was funny, had good banter, and the smut.... OOO the smut was good, (good be better but I'm not complaining)

I didn't understand where the story was heading, but once it got there it made sense...granted I felt it was more of a plot convenience (Eva being a Nephilim and her dad being a fallen angel; THEE Dan (Daniel) Gregory/Grigori, which soo gave me Lauren Kate Fallen vibes right here) I'm not going into too deep into that, because I was here for the vibes.

I'm more concern about this curse Asmodeus has. Like its temporary lifted time to time, but when will it really be broken? That's the real question. That's the one subplot I don't really understand, and they don't even bother to try to remove the curse fully? Soooo yea, there's that.

I received an ARC through Netgallery by the publisher

My Funny Demon Valentine was pure lighthearted fun! I loved Ash and Evas characters and could not put down this wild ride. I was intrigued from start to finish, with plenty of giggling and heel kicking. I immediately had to purchase physical copies of books one and two because I know I am going to want to revisit these characters time and time again. I can definitely see the Hell Bent series becoming comfort reads for me as I am just having such a good time in this world. The characters are all perfectly developed to the story and while the world building isn't the best, it's definitely not why I picked this book up. The spice however, is top notch. It honestly reminded me of a playful Black Dagger Brotherhood and let me tell you, I am here for it. I can't wait for more.

The audio book was incredibly well done and I loved the inflections that the narrator used for each of the characters. Her ability to translate the high-tension moments with the fun and carefree vibe of the story was extremely well done and only enhanced my reading experience.

Such a fun listen. Narrator was great! Yes it is tropes we have seen before but it was such a fun easy read that I recommend to anybody wanting a nice paranormal romance. I love listening to these types of books because it just makes the story and banter so much better and this was no exception!

This was such a fun listen. I'm a sucker for a paranormal popcorn romance, and this delivered. Is it tropes we've seen before? sure, but it's a good time, and sets up for more to come! Will definitely finish the series!

𝗠𝘆 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗻𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘣𝘺 𝘈𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘢 𝘈𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳
★ ★ ★ ★ ✬
Narrator(s): Kirsten Leigh
Length: 10h 46m
Source: ALC - NetGalley, RBmedia
Release Date: January 21, 2025

Y’all!
I was so pleasantly surprised by this fun little paranormal romance!! It was SO FUNNY at parts, especially because of the four demon blood brothers. They cracked me up so much!!

I really enjoyed both Eva and Ash. He was so cute as he fumbled through his feelings and thoughts. And Eva was a pretty awesome FMC because she was flawed and cautious but also endearingly courageous and powerful. Their dynamics were hot and heavy in the beginning and then we got some nice development.

I did find the whole part with Eva’s parents a bit TOO overshadowing to everything else. That part was so big it felt like it overtook the romance…and then the ending. I know this is an interconnected series but I feel like we don’t get enough relationship in the end.

NARRATION:
Kirsten Leigh was a fantastic narrator! I really enjoyed her voice and I had zero issues at 2x speed. Although it would have been twice as good if we had gotten a male narrator. Considering the amount of POV shifts, it would’ve been so helpful.

♡ paranormal romance
♥ demons, angels, and nephilim
♡ insta-lust
♥ POC fmc
♡ hilarious banter
♥ HFN

{I was gifted a complimentary copy of this audiobook. All reviews are my own. Any quote mentioned is subject to change.}