My Demon Hunter

Mist is supposed to be the best damn demon Hunter Hell has to offer. He has spent thousands of years tracking down demons and damned souls and dragging them back to Hell, following orders and doing exactly what he was created to do. Except somewhere along the way, the Hunter starts getting curious. When he tracks down Eligos, another demon he’s supposed to return to Hell, Mist finds him living on Earth with a human woman. Instead of doing his job, he watches them together and sees something he doesn’t really understand. They’re happy. Eligos has somehow built a life with this woman, and whatever Mist sees between them gets to him enough that he lets Eligos go and makes sure Hell believes otherwise.

Then Mist gets sent after Ash, Bel, Meph, and Raum, and once again finds a demon living happily with a human. Ash has Eva, and between them and what he already saw with Eligos, Mist becomes increasingly curious about what these demons have found on Earth. Unfortunately, Mist has absolutely no idea how human relationships work. As far as he can tell, Ash has himself a human pet, and Mist decides he wants one too. He eventually learns that humans are called friends, not pets, and apparently finding one is a little more complicated than simply picking somebody he likes. Here is a demon capable of hunting down almost anything Hell sends him after, completely baffled by basic human relationships. That alone told me this was going to be fun.

And then he meets Lily, who is definitely not the obedient little human Mist might have imagined acquiring. She has opinions, a temper, and absolutely no problem standing up to a demon who could kill her without much effort. Mist is accustomed to being feared and obeyed, but Lily apparently missed that memo. She argues with him, questions him, and tells him when his demon logic is ridiculous. At one point she tells him, “That’s bullshit. Those are stupid rules, and stupid rules are meant to be broken.” Honestly, Lily and I understood each other just fine. I especially liked that she keeps that backbone once feelings get involved. She can care about Mist without letting him walk all over her, which is exactly what I needed from someone paired with a character this powerful and dominating.

Underneath the humor of Mist trying to figure out humans, his story is much heavier than I initially expected. He has spent thousands of years bound to a life of obedience, punishment, and carrying out someone else’s commands. Being the Hunter isn’t simply what he does; he has been conditioned to believe it is all he is. That makes his decision to spare Eligos even more important because it shows that something inside Mist was already changing. Lily doesn’t suddenly change him or turn him into someone else. She simply gives him another reason to question the rules while showing him that maybe there could be more to his existence than the purpose Hell gave him.

Not that any of this suddenly makes Mist a good little demon. He is still violent, possessive, intimidating, and occasionally engages in some not-so-acceptable behavior that would probably concern several law-enforcement agencies. His original desire for a human pet also becomes a very specific attachment to his human once Lily enters the picture. His version of romance may need a bit of polishing, but his touch-her-and-die credentials are impeccable. When this man says, “You’re mine, and if you try to escape, I will hunt you, and I will kill anyone who touches you,” any sane person probably would have been concerned. I, however, found Mist very entertaining.

I liked Mist and Lily together because neither one has to become somebody completely different for the relationship to work. Lily accepts that Mist is a demon, including the frightening parts of him, while Mist has to figure out that caring about a human doesn’t mean owning or controlling her. There are arguments, misunderstandings, threats, possessiveness, and plenty of moments where Mist clearly has no clue what he’s doing, but there’s also a real emotional connection underneath all of it. For someone who has spent most of his existence being valued for what the Hunter can do, having someone care about Mist himself means something.

Ash, Bel, Meph, and Raum are still very much part of the story too, and I’m glad Aurora didn’t shove everybody else aside just because this is Mist and Lily’s book. Considering Mist was originally sent to capture them, watching him slowly get dragged into this dysfunctional little group is part of the fun. These demons insult one another, interfere in each other’s lives, and generally create chaos everywhere they go while somehow becoming a family in the process. They crack me up, and at this point that alone is becoming a very convincing reason for me to keep reading this series.

There’s also still plenty happening outside the romance. Hell hasn’t forgotten about its missing demons, Mist has his own problems with the life he’s been forced to live, and everything that started in the first book continues moving forward. The story does get a little busy in places because there’s quite a lot happening at once, and there were a few moments I wouldn’t have minded having a little more room to breathe. But it was minor enough that I honestly didn’t care much while I was reading. I was having too much fun with these characters.

And yes, there is plenty of spice. Mist and Lily have great chemistry, and once they finally act on it, things get very explicit. I’m giving it 4/5 peppers because Aurora definitely brings the heat, but there’s still enough plot, character development, humor, and emotional connection that the sex never takes over the book.

So despite a few places where the story gets a little crowded, My Demon Hunter still gets 5/5 stars from me. Mist gave me exactly the kind of morally questionable demon I enjoy, Lily had the backbone to handle him, their relationship actually had some emotional weight behind all that possessiveness and spice, and the rest of these demons continued to make me laugh. Whatever minor imperfections were there simply weren’t enough to change how much fun I had reading it.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely. Mist started this whole thing thinking he wanted himself a human pet and ended up discovering that humans—and relationships—are considerably more complicated than he expected. Watching the best damn demon Hunter Hell has to offer try to figure that out was worth five stars all by itself.

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