Guardian Demon

Raum has been one of those characters I was genuinely curious about because there was always something about him that did not quite fit the whole demon image. He steals because he likes the rush, gets restless when life is too quiet, and acts like most humans are more trouble than they are worth, yet the man also has a ridiculous amount of heart and compassion.

The animal shelter was probably my favorite example of that. Raum has this almost instinctive understanding of scared or difficult animals, and watching him calm them down, work with them, and actually enjoy having some kind of purpose showed a completely different side of him. He understands animals that lash out because they are frightened or hurting, and honestly, there were several moments when I found myself wondering if we were sure this man was actually a demon at all.

That question only got stronger once his missing memories came into play. Three hundred years of Raum’s life are simply gone, taken from him by an angel, and even he knows the demon he was before losing them was very different from the one he became afterward. He has spent centuries living with that blank space in his head without knowing exactly what happened or why.  At one point, I genuinely started wondering if Raum had somehow been an angel himself before being cast out of Heaven. Between the missing memories, his compassion, and all the little things about him that never quite matched what I expected from a demon, the theory started making a weird amount of sense in my head. I am not getting into whether I was anywhere close because that heads straight into spoiler territory, but I loved that his story had me questioning what Raum really was.

Sunshine was not exactly the perfect little angel I expected either. She was once a Principality before losing her rank and has spent a long time trying to earn her way back while carrying plenty of guilt over her past. She still believes in Heaven, but she is already questioning her own choices and some of the things she has been taught before Raum really enters the picture.  That made her much more interesting to me than an angel who simply follows orders because Heaven says so.

Naturally, the two of them end up needing each other. Their arrangement starts with a deal, absolutely no trust, and both of them expecting the other to screw them over somehow. Sunshine needs Raum’s help, Raum has his own reasons for agreeing, and neither one thinks trusting the other would be particularly smart. In fact, “I don’t trust you” is basically where these two begin, which makes what happens between them later that much better.

What makes their relationship work is that they keep ruining each other’s assumptions. Sunshine has been taught what demons are supposed to be, but Raum refuses to fit neatly into that description. He can absolutely be sneaky, selfish, sarcastic, and morally questionable, but he is also loyal, protective, compassionate, and surprisingly gentle when he wants to be. Raum, on the other hand, has plenty of reasons to hate angels and expects Sunshine to judge him the second she sees too much of what he really is.

Instead, they keep finding things about each other that do not match what they thought they knew. Their trip into Hell gave this book a lot more adventure too. We get more of the Blood Market, demons, bargains, danger, and general chaos of the place Raum and his brothers escaped from, while Sunshine is trying very hard not to advertise the fact that she is an angel walking around in the middle of it. I liked getting more of Hell because it made the world feel bigger, and it gave Raum and Sunshine something to do together besides just circle around their attraction. Not that the attraction is exactly subtle.

Their chemistry builds through suspicion, frustration, curiosity, and a whole lot of denial before either one is willing to admit just how badly the other is getting under their skin. Raum reaches a point where Sunshine can completely throw him off his game, which should probably have been his first clue that he was already in trouble.

Sunshine definitely passed my FMC test too. She is controlled and very aware of rules, but she is not weak or passive. Once something stops making sense to her, she questions it. When things go wrong, she makes decisions, takes risks, and fights for what she believes is right instead of waiting around for someone else to fix everything. I liked watching her slowly separate what Heaven says is right from what she actually believes is right.

And while Sunshine grows quite a bit, Raum was probably the bigger surprise for me. For someone who acts like he does not care about much of anything, he actually cares a hell of a lot. His brothers matter to him. The animals matter to him. Sunshine matters to him. He just happens to be very good at hiding all of that behind sarcasm, stealing, and acting like none of it gets to him.

The spice definitely earns the five-pepper rating, but unlike Demon With Benefits, I never felt like it completely swallowed the story. There is too much happening around Raum and Sunshine for that. I still would have traded a couple of those scenes for more time with Raum’s past, Sunshine’s history, or some of the bigger revelations, though.

That was probably my biggest issue with the book. There is a lot going on between Heaven, Hell, Raum’s missing memories, Sunshine’s past, the larger danger surrounding the demons, and everything they uncover along the way. Most of it worked for me, but some of the bigger moments passed faster than I wanted. A few revelations deserved more time to really sink in before the story moved on to the next thing.

The found-family side of the series is still one of my favorite parts too. Raum’s brothers and their partners are woven through the story without taking it over, and seeing everyone react to Raum suddenly having an angel in his life is exactly as entertaining as it should be. It is also another reason I would not recommend starting the series here. There is too much history already in place with the brothers, Heaven, Hell, their enemies, and everything that happened in the previous books.

Overall, I really enjoyed Guardian Demon. Raum turned out to have far more heart than I expected from a demon, Sunshine was much more complicated than the obedient little angel she first appeared to be, and their relationship worked because neither one was quite what the other had been taught to expect. I liked the mystery surrounding Raum’s past, the added world-building, the trip into Hell, and the way the story kept making both of them question things they had believed for a very long time.

I would absolutely recommend this one to readers who like demons and angels, reluctant allies, deals with demons, forced proximity, opposites attract, supernatural politics, hidden histories, found family, strong FMCs, protective MMCs, plenty of sexual tension, and characters who are nowhere near as simple as the labels attached to them.

My Overall Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Spice Rating: 5/5 Peppers

Review By: SASSY
Owner • Creator • Queen of the Chaos
SassyReviews.com
Read, Reviewed, & BookDragon Approved… or Not.