6 Books With Demons And Romance: Where The Demon Falls First

A botched summoning spell for flour lands Mariel Spark, prophesied to be the most powerful witch in centuries, bound to a demon by the name of Ozroth the Ruthless. The only way to break the bond is for Ozroth (Oz for short, on the mortal plane) to successfully bargain for Mariel’s soul. To explain Oz’s sudden presence in her life and unwilling to confess her clumsy conjuring to her mother, Mariel tells everyone that they’re in a relationship.

I came for the fake dating and forced proximity tropes, but I stayed for Mariel’s beautiful character growth. We love to see a woman learn to successfully set and enforce her boundaries!

Much like Ozroth the Ruthless, I became endeared to Mariel for her sense of humor, kindness, and passion. She’s so full of life and light, and Oz is thoroughly enchanted by her--it’s no wonder he falls first. Or at the very least, he labels it what it is first: love.

Readers will find the contents of this book to be on the spicy side. For anyone unfamiliar with the term “spicy” in this context, it refers to explicit intimate content.

Before I tell you about this book, I need to make my case. Technically, Signa becomes the object of affection for Death, which has been personified as an angel or a demon in certain cultures and religions. An academic from the Alexandrian Society could publish a comprehensive series of books on the topic, but for the purposes of this blog post, Death is being considered as a demon. As the writer of this post, I get to make the rules and hope that the editor will let me get away with it.

Death has followed Signa Farrow her whole life. Orphaned as a baby, she is raised by a string of guardians who all end up dead. At nineteen, Signa is taken in by her remaining but distant relatives, the eccentric Hawthorne family, to live on the Thorn Grove estate. Signa is determined not to let any of the Hawthornes die and to finally make her debut into society. That’s right, Signa is ready for love and looking for a husband! When she arrives, she finds the Hawthorne family is mourning the recent death of their matriarch and that Blythe Hawthorne appears to be suffering from the same mysterious ailment.

This book leaves no doubt about Death’s devotion to Signa, and he definitely fell first. If you’re looking for a new Shadow Daddy for your collection, look no further than Death in Belladonna. I think it could be argued that Signa and Death dabble in the enemies-to-lovers trope and that readers will also get to enjoy a murder mystery with a whisper of spice sprinkled in for good measure.

Hell Bent is the sequel to Ninth House, so the below synopsis will contain spoilers for book one. 

I didn’t know about any trigger warnings for Ninth House, and not being prepared for some of the subject matter negatively impacted my reading experience. I encourage anyone interested in reading this series to take a moment to look at the trigger warnings to ensure their reading experience is both a safe and positive one. Spoilers for Ninth House start now:

Recruited to attend Yale, Galaxy “Alex” Stern is part of House Lethe, a secret society that oversees the occult activities of the other secret societies on campus. When she and her mentor, Daniel Arlington (referred to as Darlington), investigate a potential unsanctioned ceremony, Darlington is lost and presumed dead. While continuing the work of Lethe House, Alex is led to believe that Darlington has become the gentleman demon, feared by the dead.

In the sequel, Hell Bent, Alex is determined to find a gateway to the underworld to rescue Darlington from purgatory.

Leigh Bardugo sprinkles poetic prose hinting at attraction and desire for each other throughout Ninth House. The intensity ramps up in the sequel, but a romance between Alex and Darlington is never confirmed. You’ll find no outright confessions of love, but it’s this writer’s interpretation that the Darlington of Ninth House was repressing a more than friendly interest in Alex.

In Hell Bent, it seemingly grows into a reluctant worshipful obsession. Given the events of the book, any confirmed romance between the two further along in the series could have quite a power imbalance. Darlington, after all, fell first—just maybe not the way we’d think.

While desire is expressed, sometimes with explicit language, this book doesn't have much spice. Please note that SA is mentioned and, in the case of Ninth House, sometimes written descriptively. Read those trigger warnings, friends, and stay safe!

Bloodmarked is the sequel to Legendborn, but the below summary is about the series as a whole and will not include spoilers from book one.

After her mother dies, Bree Matthews tries to bury her grief by participating in a residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill. This is where she discovers the Legendborn, a secret society that believes the world is on the precipice of a magical war. Their members are dedicated to hunting demonic creatures and protecting humanity.

The Legendborn are descendants of King Arthur’s knights of the Round Table and work with a demon-human hybrid species called Merlins that have the ability to wipe memories. When Bree recalls seeing a Merlin at the hospital when her mother died, she is determined to investigate the Legendborn and find answers.

Selwyn Kane is the Merlin assigned to the UNC-Chapel Hill chapter of the Legendborn society, and he is adamantly against Bree getting involved with the organization. You know what that means? A pairing of Bree and Selwyn would qualify as enemies to lovers and a slowburn . There are hints of “touch them and die” between the two of them, and any outright confirmed romance between the two deserves to be categorized as “he fell first.”

By the end of Bloodmarked, it is an undisputed fact that Selwyn is devoted and beholden to Bree, not only out of duty as a Merlin, but because of who she is. All I can say is that he is so valid for it. This is a YA book, so there is intimacy between characters but I wouldn’t classify it as spicy. 

In a prestigious program at Godbole University, Delaney “Lane” Meyers-Petrov stumbles back into Colton Price’s orbit twelve years after he last saw her. What happened twelve years ago? Well, a nine-year-old Colton died and then found himself waking up several weeks later at her feet.

Lane can be forgiven for not recognizing him in turn since she’s a little busy trying to prove to herself and others that she is not fragile because she is Deaf. There’s also the matter of preparing to slip through doors between parallel worlds along with the rest of her classmates. Something Colton can do with ease—and is rumored to be creating his own doors between them at will.

This is 100% a “he fell first” situation. While Delaney doesn’t recognize him, Colton is down bad for her from the moment he sees her again. Unfortunately, he—and those in the Priory (I’ve found a secondary theme in this blog post: secret societies) —have been ordered to keep away from Delaney, creating a delicious forbidden fruit aspect to a story that is already ripe with desperate longing. This is another YA title, so there’s intimacy, but I don’t consider that to be the same as spicy.

In the court of Envy, a cryptic note kicks off a deadly game of riddles, hexed objects, and anonymous players. The first clue leads the Prince of Envy to Camilla Antonius, a painter being blackmailed into creating forgeries in Waverly Green. To avoid a scandal that could result in Camilla losing everything she holds dear, she is forced to enter into a bargain with Envy, who will go to any lengths to save his failing demon court.

What’s wild about this book is that due to the nature of Envy’s sin, he has a rule about only sleeping with someone once—or more accurately, I think he says he’ll only spend one night with them. This personal rule of Envy’s did not prevent Kerri Maniscalco from throwing spice in my eyes very early on in the book. It was enough that I started skimming ahead a few pages to see if the Prince of Lust was hanging around influencing them with his sin.

This is the only book on the list that I haven’t had an opportunity to finish, but from what I was able to read, there is enough substance early on to please fans of the reluctant allies trope, some forced proximity shenanigans, and a potent “touch her and die” energy!

Envy falls first by merit of wanting her from the very beginning—he calls it protecting his investment, but I don’t think anyone is fooled by him, except maybe Camilla.