Genre: Fantasy, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Tony
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About The Book
You’d think being magically tethered to the hottest warden in all Verona wouldn’t be a hardship.
You’d be wrong.
Incubus Nico Azertiran has his dream job as a cherub-in-training. It’s the perfect position for a lust demon who’s more interested in happily-ever-afters than one-night stands. Or it would be, if he didn’t keep screwing it up. When a new cherub gadget misfires, Nico is left trussed to Verona’s most eligible warden, the incredibly grumpy, Sir Flame.
Flambeau Illume has a job to do. Someone’s murdering Verona’s rich and famous, and Sir Flame’s hot on the killer’s trail . . . until he has the misfortune to get magically lassoed to the most infuriating incubus he’s ever had the displeasure to meet. Except, maybe Nico isn’t so terribly awful. But how can he solve his case and keep Nico safe at the same time? Especially when the sweet demon seems to have a bullseye on his back.
Together they need to solve the crime, stay alive, and—if their luck changes—maybe even fall in love. Easy, right?
Must Love Demons is part of the Magic Emporium series. Each book stands alone, but each one features an appearance by Marden’s Magic Emporium, a shop that can appear anywhere, but only once and only when someone’s in dire need. This book contains explicit scenes, a lariat of love, a demon tail with a mind of its own, and a guaranteed HEA.
The Review
This is one the novellas in the multi-author series The Magic Emporium. There are two main characters, Nico and Sir Flame, and the story charts their journey from fear and disdain to love.
Nico, or Nicodemus Azertiran, is an ex-employee of the Magic Emporium and currently a trainee cupid, which is as unlikely as it sounds seeming as he’s a seven foot incubus of love. And gorgeous too!
Yeah, believe me, you’ve seen the cover, that’s him.
This story teeters on the edge of ridiculousness on so many levels, and is all the better for it. Just hang on tight as the journey’s as fun as it is bumpy, just like a ride on Jerrill’s hackney cab.
Life is not going well for Nico. It’s tough being a trainee cupid when you have doubts about the ethics of the job – and Nico has doubts. He’s also gotten on the wrong side of Sir Flambeau Illume, warden and phoenix shifter.
I said it was tough being Nico, right? Well it’s going to get much tougher when he gets tied to Sir Flame with an unbreakable rope, the lariat of love.
What about Sir Flame? Well he’s got to be the most miserable, irritable, stroppiest cop out there. Or is he? They say love changes everything.
Nico believes that, but what can you do when faced with a phoenix who ‘resets’ every night, ie. gets reborn all fresh and hunky dory for the start of every day, wiping clean all unnecessary complications?
As far as Flame is concerned, love is right up there with those irresponsible cupids who keep firing their love arrows at him, with incompetent bosses, corrupt politicians and the like. When Flame snarls at someone, you’ll want to snarl with him or chuckle with the best of them, once you take on board that he even snarls at his friends.
The story is based in a magic realm, full of every kind of magical creature there is. Elves, pixies, brownies, gnomes, goblins, gargoyles, unicorns, dragons, shifters in all shapes and sizes. You name it, they’re all there in one great big melting point where almost anything goes.
Nearly everyone doses themselves up with potions to maintain their health, up their game and enhance their experiences in and out of bed. By nearly everyone, I mean the upper echelons, a right bunch of cut-throat over privileged spoilt brats, you know the type. As far as Nico is concerned, even they deserve to find their true love.
There’s the rub. What if someone has an axe to grind as well as access to some of the nastier magical ingredients and a will to misuse them? To what end? Financial grain? A thwarted lover wanting revenge? What if it’s actually happening?
Spoiler Alert: It is, and Sir Flame is out to solve the case, even if he has an irritating cupid tied to him. Flame may be over seven hundred years old, but there’s nothing wrong with his eyesight, or his trouser region. He knows a good thing when he sees it, but can he take the risk to let Nico under his skin and into his bed? Sorry, I meant his heart? Well as far as his bed goes. he has no choice there. The two of them will be sharing it as long as that dratted lariat is still in place.
There’s a lot of fun to be had here. There are red herrings in abundance and tricky situations to be navigated, as well as a lot of laughs. Nico and Flame are on a crash course to finding acceptance, trust and one’s soul mate, and you’ll be glad to share the journey with them!
The Reviewer
Tony is an Englishman living amongst the Welsh and the Other Folk in the mountains of Wales. He lives with his partner of thirty-six years, four dogs, two ponies, various birds, and his bees. He is a retired lecturer and a writer of no renown but that doesn’t stop him enjoying what he used to think of as ‘sensible’ fantasy and sf. He’s surprised to find that if the story is well written and has likeable characters undergoing the trails of life, i.e. falling in love, falling out of love, having a bit of nooky (but not all the time), fending off foes, aliens and monsters, etc., he’ll be happy as a sandperson who has just offloaded a wagon of sand at the going market price. As long as there’s a story, he’s in. He aims to write fair and honest reviews. If he finds he is not the target reader he’ll move on.