This Rec League request was sent in by Wait, What? (Great name!)
I was hoping to have a “rec league” post for books featuring a demon as a main character/love interest. I recently read the Demon Codex books by Annette Marie, and really enjoyed them. I especially liked how Zylas, the MMC/demon, was written. For reference, I don’t like grimdark books, BDSM is so not my jam, and I am not interested in vampires.
Sarah: Sarah Hawley’s books!
Lara: That’s who I rec too! Not the best books but definitely demons!
Amanda: Sadly the demon romances I’d recommend feature worlds that heavily include vampires like Immortals After Dark and Larissa Ione’s demon hospital books.
Sarah: The Kimberly Lemming books work as well (I think I may have said that already).
There is another series and I am blanking on the name, but there are a bunch of demons who have come to destroy a small town because it’s impervious to their influence. The town turns out to be guarded by three witches (one owns a knitting shop) and instead of showdowns on mainstreet they have sexy times in other locations.
Amanda: I remember Sarah talking about those books on a podcast episode. Can we HaBO?
What demon romances would you recommend? Let us know!
Meljean Brook’s Guardian series? (Although also with angels and vampires.)
I’ve not read them, but is the series Sarah is thinking of the Sweet Pea series by Kathryn Moon?
Another series with demon heroes (and heroines) is the Lucky Succubus series by L L Frost. It’s reverse harem, and very explicit, as is the follow on series called Demonic Messes. I really enjoyed the world building though, and how the heroine was also demonic
Kathryn Moon’s Sweet Pea series! There’s only two out in the series, but I’m looking forward to the third!
Back in the heyday of UF and PNR, there were a lot of demon books around. Cynthia Eden is one author I read a lot of at the time who featured demons as protags, along with all the other usual suspects.
Sarah Rees Brennan – Demon’s Lexicon, Demon’s Covenant and one more book, I only finished the first in the trilogy. YA with a teenage heroine, intense feelings but no heat, great worldbuilding. Been quite a few years since I read it but I remember it fondly.
@Talia: YES. That’s it. THANK YOU.
Yay! My Rec League request is here! Thank you
Just to clarify about vampires, I don’t mind if the world includes them, I’m just not interested in them as the main character/love interest. I somehow missed the gene that finds them sexy!
And thank you in advance to all you Smart Bitches for your recommendations, I love this site!
Jacquelyn Frank’s Nightwalker’s series is one of my favs. It’s been a while since I read them, but I believe there is some unclear consent issues, so be wary.
K.L. Noone’s The Demon Universe series. M/M between a rockstar and his manager, who just so happens to be half-human/half-demon. The first book is “A Demon for Midwinter”.
A few of Kim Fielding’s books feature demons. particularly in her “Bureau of Trans-Species Affairs” series (all M/M). In the first book (novella), “Corruption”, Tenrael is a demon who is being held captive in a traveling circus and is rescued by a Bureau agent. They show up later in the series in “Caroled”, a Christmas-themed novella.
None of Noone’s or Fielding’s demons are particularly demonic, however.
“Of Heaven And Hell” was an anthology published in 2015 that includes several short stories and novellas featuring demons.
+1 to @Jenny’s rec for K.L. Noone and/or Kim Fielding.
I also just read ‘The Demon and the Librarian’ by Chloe Archer and really enjoyed it. Billed as ‘cozy M/M monster romance’ where ‘cozy’ means it’s a sweet & comforting novella set in a small town that’s a safe place for nonhuman beings. Funny, NOT closed door, good world-building, works as a stand-alone.
Demon from the dark by Kresley Cole is great. It might be a bit dark for you as the characters have difficult backstories and bad things happen to them but but lots of humor and romance and a happy ending of course!
There’s also Marjorie Liu’s Hunter’s Kiss series. I read the first several books, but I never finished it, so I don’t know if the series is concluded. The main character has demon tattoos that peel off her skin and come to life.
I believe that Reyes, the MMC in the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones, is a demon. It was a good long series, set in the Southwest, engaging secondary characters, amply steamy IIRC.
Diana Rowland’s Kara Gillian series is the first demon series I read, it’s a UF with a demon summoning detective. Mark of the Demon is the first book. (9 in total I think, I didn’t finish them all) A bit lighter is Stacia Kane’s Megan Chase series starting with Personal Demons.
Yes! Kimberly Lemming – That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon was good. Also,
Demon Love by Heather Guerre was really good. Five stars. I didn’t expect much from a book called Demon Lover, but it was great.
Emma Holly!
Gena Showalter’s Lords of the Underworld novels might work for you, although the MMCs are not exactly demons. The premise is that a bunch of ancient warriors for Zeus got into a snit and opened Pandora’s box, releasing demons into the world. That didn’t end well and Zeus cursed each warrior ‘to house a demon inside himself’.
T. Kingfisher’s AU books have demons, but they mostly possess animals (the levitating cow was a give-away). The latest, Paladin’s Faith does have an old, smart demon possessing a human, but not a main character, not a love interest.
Lois McMaster Bujold’s five gods series does have demons, but only the Penric books have a demon as a major character (that demon always possessed women, so she did good things for his love life).
“Dear Satan” by Eve Langlais is Xmas-themed and on sale for $0.99. Satan enjoys answering the misspelled letters to Santa that he receives; he sends his kennel master to deliver a hellhound to a sad little boy, and apparently he and the boy’s can’t-get-me-down mother end up romancing. I haven’t read it yet but am about to start. It’s part of a series (I haven’t read the others).
Carolyn Jewel’s My Immortals series. She recently got the rights to the first two books back and revised them, meaning the intro to the series is much less confusing. It started me off on a reread!
Also J L Murray’s Niki Slobodian series.
Dark in You series by Suzanne Wright. Great worldbuilding
https://avalongriffin.com/unbound-by-shadows/
This looks like it might fit the bill!
I was super hooked by Roth, the demon love interest in Jennifer Armentrout’s The Dark Elements trilogy (White Hot Kiss is the first one). It is YA and has a love triangle, but I still liked it (in spite of the love triangle, I mean).
Not a love story, but how about Martha Wells’ recent release, The Witch King? An interesting series of different “classes” of beings (including beings called witches and demons, as well as other groups variously blessed with different powers and exotic names), set on an alternate world. Some tied together in a satisfying found family. A bit of a roller coaster of events, tantalizingly set across 2 time frames: the backstory sets up the “big reveal” ending. Kai, the main character, is a demon, and there is quite a bit of interesting world building about how demons came to be in the world and helped the humans rise up against an oppressive invasive species. Not at all like Murderbot, but I’ve consistently loved or really liked the Wells’ books I’ve read.
Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead would fit the request. (It’s a series, but I’ve only read the first one.)
Also, not sure if it’s quite what you’re looking for, but Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series might work, although it is perhaps more demon\monster-adjacent in the first books. In the first book, Discount Armageddon, the relationship is between humans, but I understand that some of the later books follow cryptids (the ‘monster’ non-human denizens of the world) and others involve travels to hell. IMO, Seanan McGuire is quirky and unique and quite fun to read. (I’ve mostly read her October Daye series so far, which is great, but that’s fae rather than demons.)
Another vote for Noone’s Demon series – loved it! If m/m is your jam some other series to look into are:
A Beginner’s Guide to Death, Demons, and Other Afterlife Disasters by Shannon Mae – book 1 in a new series and Adam and Minos are adorable.
Also book 3 of the The Murder Sprees and Mute Decrees series (Trouble with Trying to Love a Hellion) by Jennifer Cody has a hellion/avatar of evil mc who was awesome – might be close enough to demons to count.
Alice Winters and Louisa Masters also both have demon series, but they are in my TBR and while I can vouch for the authors, I have not read those particular books yet.
@Jenny W.: Totally agree about Emma Holly! Love her writing and world-building. I think her Tale of the Demon World series fits the requester’s criteria.
Bunt! by Ngozi Ukazu and Lucky Bounce by Cait Nary.
Ugh sorry clicked on the wrong link please disregard my comment above!!
Cara Wylde has a cute series of long novellas called Of Food and Other Demons. In each one, a woman who doesn’t know she’s a witch tries to make a recipe from a “special” cookbook and end up accidentally summoning a demon who is then bound to her unless he can get her to either make a wish or figure out the reversal spell. These are quick, fun reads. All are in KU.
Another long novella I enjoyed was Deal With the Demon by Chace Verity in which a struggling single mom gets the services of a demon for a month. It’s part of a series called Loved By A Demon and all are currently $0.99, I’m not sure if that’s a sale price. The later books are m/m or f/f.
@JenM “[T]ries to make a recipe from a “special” cookbook and end up accidentally summoning a demon” also happens in the 1980s Elvira movie (well, more of a monster than a demon). The cooking was intended to lead to romance but doesn’t.
Sarah Rees Brennan’s The Demons Lexicon series is really good.
Debra Dunbar’s Imp series is wonderfully funny and sexy and doesn’t get the love it deserves. The FMC is an imp and one of the only anti-heroine’s I’ve encountered in romance. I can’t recommend this series highly enough. The first book is Demon Bound:
Hi all, OP here 🙂 I just wanted to say thanks for all the recommendations, I will be checking them all out!
Devon Monk’s ‘Ordinary Magic’ series (where the gods go to take a holiday) has a demon love interest for one of the sisters. I have listened to these books (via Graphic Audio) on car rides and enjoyed them. They’re pretty light overall.
One of my favorite series, Penric and Desdemona by Lois McMaster Bujold. Not your typical demon but the demon is a main character. It is one of my favorite series.
Olivia Waite features a demon in her Happily Ever Afterlives.
Not Your Average Demon is an adorable and funny MM webcomic about a demon and the guy who accidentally summons him.
https://m.tapas.io/series/Not-Your-Average-Demon/info
Re: my earlier post, having now read “Dear Satan” I’m still just saying it exists, not recommending it. The idea of Satan answering misspelled letters to Santa is A+ but most of the humor wasn’t my cup of tea and it didn’t do much for me as a romance either. Plus the book felt like it was told from the (demon) man’s perspective even tho it used both viewpoints. Oh well, “It’s a hundred floors of frights — they’re not all gonna be winners!”
*sigh* I thought I closed that HTML tag.