I love paranormal romance-com and this hit that mark.

This follows a fun twist on a beauty and the beast type story. Comforting in it’s predictably.
Charlotte Stein did a fantastic job writing characters that were charming and relatable.

I thought it was special that neither of the main characters fell into “traditional” beauty standards like those often portrayed in fantasy. With more human and realistic portrayals that honestly made the characters easy to imagine as friends you’d meet in real life.

The premise was great though there were times where her inner thoughts got a bit repetitive, and the characters had to be a little dense to not see what was right in front of them. But that’s pretty common when something is glaringly obvious to the reader.

But over all the story was a joy to read and definitely twisted in a way I didn’t see coming with a very unique magic system.

This book was. Delightful little treat! Fluffy, but with substance.

This is the first book I have read by this author, but I will definitely be checking out her backlist. Highly recommend!

Thank you to St. Martins Press (you guys are the best!) and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC of this book to read and review.

I greatly enjoyed this story. It was funny. The characters both learned and grew as individuals and as a couple throught the book. While the plot structure was based around Beauty and the Beast, the world building and some of the different scenes showed great creativity that I thought was quite unique. This book does have some spice, but it didn't dominate the narrative. Overall, a very good book and I look forward to more in the series. *I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and this is my voluntary and honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the ebook arc. Super cute supernatural romcom with a witch and demon. He’s trying to blend in with being human and she steps up to help him woo the girl of his dreams. They sorta fake date to prep him for the real things and as their friendship grows she finds out he’s not human but a demon and the reason her family suppressed her childish dreams was because she’s a witch and they were hiding it. The banter kept me laughing out loud the awkward encounters were fantastic.

This is a cute, low stakes paranormal / monster romance with fake dating, grumpy / sunshine, a sprinkle of forced proximity, and he falls first. I thought this was a decent time. I listened to it in basically an afternoon, and I thought the audiobook narrator did a great job of making our FMC sound kind of aloof, clueless and all around confused. Because...she was. Parts of this story were slow and parts were too fast, but my main beef and why I'm docking a star from the overall story was that the "kid" pet name / nickname really bothered me. It took me out of most of the scenes, and I know there was a technically huge age gap between the characters, but child-like nicknames feel icky. Other than that ick, I thought our MMC was a ridiculous sweetheart. I would continue to read Charlotte Stein books, and I think this one is good for a quick, easy read.

The story was good, entertaining. I enjoy some parts but the audio which I was using alongside the read didn't helped much to said the truth. I feel as physical read it would have been better. I'll try to keep on in the kindle as I was extremely interested on the story.

I loved the unconventional story and main characters. However the magical/fantasy elements and characters are were not well-explained/fleshed out. However I really enjoyed the read.

I LOVED How to Help a Hungry Werewolf and could not wait to dive into Dealing with a Desperate Demon. Unfortunately, this just didn't really hook me like Help did, and overall a little underwhelming.

The pacing of this book is nonsensical. It takes us over half of the book to be explicitly told the male lead is a demon even though it is in the title of the book but then the biggest amount of action that is supposed to be the big climatic action takes ten pages. Not only does the pacing not make sense, but there is a significant lack of information give to the reader. Maybe I'm missing things because I didn't read the first book in this series (if so, there is *zero* indication one would need to read the first book in the series to understand anything) but there is a lack of information around the mystical and fantastical elements of this book, how our heroine managed to acquire and keep a bookstore in business, why it matters so much that the love interest is the town pariah, the significance of the best friend, and I could keep going on.

Too much happens in this book. There is a world where all that is attempted to be included in this book is developed and fleshed out and turns this novel into a duology, but as is, too much is crammed into this single book and none of the truly interesting bits have any time to be enjoyed because, again, the pacing does not make sense. The one good thing about a lot of the pieces of this plot being undeveloped is that I don't need to get into the implications of this demon-human age gap because every bit of plot related to it does not make enough sense for me to start any sort of conversation around it.

There was potential here - the initial premise is fantastic, the mystery of the female lead's history is intriguing, there is a lot of dialogue between our leads that is fun to read - but that potential was quickly buried in the confusion that results from trying to keep up with what's going on in this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

This is a hard one to rate as I had a really hard time getting into this book. I started and then would put it down multiple times because it wasn’t gripping my attention the way I hoped it would. The plot and synopsis are intriguing and exactly my type of book, but for some reason the writing style and I did not mesh. However, since I am a mood reader, it could be that it was the “right book, wrong time,” and it’s one that I would be willing to revisit later if it’s the right time. I do think this book will find the right audience, because the pieces are all there, it just wasn’t the right fit for me.

This was a quick-paced, paranormal romance following the Beauty & the Beast storyline! It has secret identities, romance lessons, and trying to break a bargain to undo Jack’s curse.

The relationship was more physical than emotional in my opinion, but it was still an enjoyable story. Nancy has a lot to discover about herself throughout the book, and I liked her character!
I would have liked to see more interaction with other characters, as we only get to see Nancy and Jack with Cassie and Seth at the very end. I think adding in some fake dating could have helped the plot as well.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book took a bit to get into. The writing prose felt more at home in a regency novel than a contemporary paranormal romance. Which made it extremely odd for the author to then throw out references to rap songs by referring to the MMC’s butt as a “juicy double.” The characters are hard to connect with. The overall premise was good- and felt a little bit like practical magic with the creation of an ideal man, but the execution could have been better.

I had a really hard time getting into this story. The plot is definitely there but the characters fell flat for me.

Charlotte Stein’s Dealing with a Desperate Demon is a supernatural romance that grabbed me by the shirt collar and dragged me through a whirlwind of awkward tenderness, sexual tension, and demon-related emotional trauma in the best possible way. Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley for my gifted ARC.

This book is ridiculous—and I mean that as the highest compliment. It takes a setup that could have easily been shallow or cartoonish and layers in so much heart that I found myself blinking through tears during scenes where a demon and a witch discuss their feelings in a dusty bookstore. Stein leans hard into the “grumpy and sunshine” dynamic, but what makes it sing is how neither character stays in their assigned role. Jack isn’t just a brooding demon with a bad attitude—he’s fragile and weird and full of desperate hope. Nancy isn’t just a chirpy optimist—she’s repressed, haunted by her past, and terrified of her own potential.

The setup is delicious: Jack Jackson, literal son of Satan and the town’s socially incompetent pariah, walks into Nancy’s bookstore looking for help landing a girl. He’s hopeless—clumsy, weirdly formal, and utterly clueless about how humans connect. Nancy, lonely and tired of feeling invisible, agrees to coach him through the basics of courtship. The problem is, he’s not just awkward—he’s cursed, cosmically bound to find love or face some kind of apocalyptic consequence. Also, the woman he thinks he’s meant for? Yeah, it might actually be Nancy. But neither of them knows that at first, and watching them stumble through “practice dates” while clearly falling for each other is absolute agony in the best, slow-burn kind of way.

Jack is such a refreshing take on the “demon love interest.” He’s not slick or suave—he’s like if Hades was raised by wolves and got all his social cues from grainy VHS tapes. His confusion over human norms is charming, sometimes cringey, and often hilarious. There’s a running joke about him referring to Nancy as “kid” that nearly derailed the romance for me, but somehow Stein walks that tightrope, never quite letting it become creepy. He’s awkward, not predatory, and the more time we spend in Nancy’s head, the more we understand why she’s drawn to him—he sees her in ways no one else ever has.

Nancy’s journey is just as compelling. She’s a woman who’s been told her whole life that she’s too much—too intense, too strange, too magical—and has learned to keep herself small. Watching her reclaim her identity, step into her witchhood, and confront the generational trauma that taught her to fear herself is incredibly cathartic. She’s messy and funny and heartbreaking, and her voice carries the whole novel. There were moments where I wished for Jack’s POV, especially when the emotional stakes were high, but staying in Nancy’s head keeps the story rooted in vulnerability. Her longing, her confusion, her dawning realization that maybe she is the girl Jack is trying to impress—it all unfolds in this spiraling, intimate prose that Stein does so well.

And let’s talk about the writing—because it’s weird. Sentences loop back on themselves, dialogue overlaps and meanders, and there are whole paragraphs where characters talk past each other in the most endearing way. It’s chaotic, but intentionally so. Stein captures the disjointed rhythm of two people trying to figure out how to communicate, and while it won’t work for everyone, I found it immersive. This isn’t a clean, polished romance—it’s messy and human (and demon) and alive.

There’s also a lot of steam here, and it’s handled with the same awkward sincerity that defines the rest of the book. The sex scenes are hot, sure, but they’re also full of hesitation and learning and vulnerability. Jack is a consent king, Nancy is delightfully flustered, and the emotional stakes are always front and center. Even when things get spicy, there’s this undercurrent of tenderness that makes it all feel earned.

One of my favorite lines: “You’re not something I have to earn,” he said. “You’re something I get to know.” That one hit like a freight train. Because at its heart, this book isn’t just about romance—it’s about self-worth, and the terrifying freedom that comes with being seen and still loved.

If I had one major critique, it’s the pacing. The first third is a slow, meandering build-up, and the final quarter races toward the climax with magical battles and emotional revelations that could’ve used more room to breathe. Some readers might find the plot disjointed or wish for clearer world-building around the demon/witch lore. But if you’re here for character-driven romance with heavy supernatural vibes, this book delivers.

Dealing with a Desperate Demon is strange and sweet and full of big feelings. It’s a love story wrapped in monster tropes and magical metaphors, and it worked its spell on me. Stein continues to be one of the few authors who can make me laugh, swoon, and tear up within the same chapter.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5/5)

This was very cute. It was a slow build for me in the beginning, but by the end I was pretty absorbed. If you enjoyed How to Help a Hungry Werewolf, you will enjoy this.

I’m such a sucker for paranormal romances! Especially ones with adorable, relatable characters 🥹 These two were so cute together!

We got a curvy FMC who rediscovers her magic and fake dates while falling in love with her demon soulmate, a really adorable dog familiar named popcorn 🍿 🐾, and a talking? Truck 🛻 that can shape shift.

What an enjoyable story this was - full of charm, some spice, and a little chaos 🪄✨

4.5 ⭐️
🖤Thank you NetGalley for this eARC!

It’s cute for what it is! I enjoyed this one, I read it cover to cover on a Saturday and enjoyed it. The tension/wanting was deliciously delightful!

It’s a cute demon meets shy proper girl romance and a great one to read in between big series.

Cute, light hearted, cozy read that’s perfect for fall. The story was simple while addressing some light emotional topics like struggling to fit in while never getting too emotion that it brings you down from the warm feeling the author set up. It’s funny and a quick read which makes for a great palette cleanser for heavier books.

Cute, chaotic and just a little bit cozy!

I went back and forth on what to rate this one - did I enjoy it - yes! Was it perfect? Not really? Overall enjoyable if not a little predicable, great for a fall reading list though!

3.5 Stars

Dealing with a Desperate Demon was a fun, cozy paranormal romance, that would be perfect for a Fall read. Stein brings in a Beauty and the Beast feel, with a steamy, fake dating romance. I enjoyed the fact that most of the book focused on the relationship between the FMC and MMC, and didn't bring in a lot of side characters other than a few, and then made mentions of some interactions with the townspeople.

There was a lighthearted feel to the story, but there are also some deeper issues that focus on the character's pasts and how they were shaped by others, and how they are learning to overcome those issues and be happy with who they are. I thought the conflict with magic and curses worked really well, but there were times that I felt conflicted over the writing, with some moments that just didn't come together for me.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭:
* Hidden Identities
* Self Doubt/Self Confidence
* Fake Dating
* Emerging Magic
* Small Town
* Troubled Pasts
* Grumpy/Sunshine

𝐈𝐬 𝐈𝐭 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐲?
😉 (Mild) to 😘 (Medium)

If you love paranormal romance, that is a quick, cozy read, then I would recommend adding Dealing with a Desperate Demon to your TBR.