RWA® 2015 Golden Heart Winner®! After beating his boss at the poker table, ambitious demon Belial must appease Satan, so he takes on a new bet. If he can get God’s champion to curse God before the deadline, Hell gains another soul and Belial earns a coveted promotion to chief executive demon—second only to Satan himself. The demon always wins, but this time the deck may be stacked against him. … stacked against him. Widowed nurse Dara Strong is the ace up God’s sleeve. The granddaughter of famous demon fighters, Dara has no problem recognizing Belial when the demon in doctor’s disguise appears in her clinic. She kicks him out the door.
But Belial, the most successful soul-stealer in the history of Hell, is not about to give up easily. He may look heavenly, but his soul belongs to Satan.
As the battle between these cosmically well-matched opponents escalates, so does their passion. Caught between a victory-hungry Satan and an unforgiving God, Belial and Dara discover there may be only one way to ransom the soul of a fallen angel: sometimes you have to go through Hell to claim your Heaven.
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Paranormal has been really hit or miss for me lately. It can all go so horribly wrong so fast–which makes me super leery of new-to-me authors. But I’m SO glad I set my fears aside and picked this little gem up.
Plot overview: Demon Belial bets God that he can corrupt Dara Strong. If he wins, Satan will promote him to a high-level managerial position in Hell. But Dara proves to be a tough nut to crack.
So, this one might not be a slam dunk for everyone. It’s a super slow-burn romance (Dara manages to resist Belial’s, um, charms for a really long time), and when sexy times do occur, they’re fairly tame. But I personally adore a good slow-burn romance, so it didn’t bother me at all. Honestly, I’m thrilled to see authors who dare to take a less-is-more approach with their sex scenes in this day and age of reverse harem and BDSM erotica.
I liked Dara as a heroine, even if she wasn’t always super likeable in the normal romance heroine sense. Sure, she was downright mean to Belial at times, but heck, she knew he was a demon. I would’ve been irritated with her if she’d immediately trusted him and rushed into bed with him. She was no pushover, even if she was incredibly physically attracted to Belial, and I respected that. I also liked that she’d survived great losses, but picked herself up and carried on with her life. She didn’t wallow in self-pity. She devoted her life to helping others. There’s nothing better in romance than heroines with surprising inner strength.
Belial was a good anti-hero, too. (Well, he was a good anti-hero at first. He eventually became a good hero, minus the anti…but I’m not going to give away too many details about that. You’ll have to read the book to find out more. *evil grin*)
But honestly, even more than the romance, what I liked best about this story was the world building. The idea of Hell being set up like a corporation with a CFO and a marketing and tech department was endlessly fascinating to me. The idea of God sitting around a poker table with Satan, Zeus, Loki, and a fallen Angel was SO MUCH FUN! It reminded me of something I might see on Supernatural. And y’all know how much I love Supernatural.
So, long-story-short, I think the world building alone makes this one worth a read. The fact that it also includes a nice romance is frosting on the cake.
Looking forward to book 2!
I was not sure about this author with her first book to me but I am truly surprised with the way her storytelling and character build up was surberbly done.
An intriguing debut in this terrific paranormal romantic series.
I loved the characters, story, and romance. Great start for a series. I look forward to reading the rest (once they come out!).
I really enjoyed this book. I loved the romance, the drama, suspense and the steam!
Who would of thought that God and Satan would be making bets with each other, no me. This was delightfully fun and a little crazy. The start was amazing and set a great tone for the whole book. I Loved it and I fell that it is an awesome read. No spoilers here!
Belial is a demon and he’s just pissed of THE Satan himself. To put himself back in his good graces, he must win a bet made between Satan and God; he must corrupt Dara, the Granddaughter of two of the most distinguished exorcists. Will she succumb to sin and let Belial win, or will they fall for one another along the way?
I had quite a good time with this read, it was fun and engaging which we love to see. Plus, I’m a real sucker for a slow burn between a protagonist and “the bad guy”. I also just liked the way the world was built, the way Hell and Heaven were explained. I can’t really fault this book much, it was easy and enjoyable, and there were no glaring issues.
The only thing I would have liked would have been more sex. I was surprised to find that this was basically a “fade to black” book. If I see a sexy demon, I want all the sexy deets of the sex he’s having with the protagonist. I also would have appreciated us exploring more of Dara’s past, but that’s about it.
I volunteered to review a free ARC of this book for BookSirens.
This one was a pleasant surprise a very enjoyable experience also my first foray with this author.
It’s an enemy to lovers paranormal romance that had a unique premise at the centre.
Events are set into motion here by the demon Belial to distract his boss from his own shortcomings.
A bet between God and Satan on an even playing field where god picks his player and then it’s Belial’s job to turn them to the dark side with his own brand of charisma and sweet corruption.
A battle for a soul but with free-will involved winner takes a soul.
Except things here don’t exactly go smoothly and his intended target proves to be much more difficult than he ever anticipated.
Dara Strong has already been put through the wringer.
She lost both her parents at a young age.
Then later her husband and unborn child in a car accident which left her with burn scars.
She lives and breathes her free clinic.
She’s also from a unique bloodline her grandparents who raised her after her parents passing were demon hunters and though she now counts herself as a demon agnostic this soon changes when Dr Ben Lyle arrives to volunteer at her clinic and she recognises him for exactly what he is.
Both Belial/Ben and Dara felt fully fleshed out and they both felt believable and authentic.
The slow-burn aspect of this was very well done and though this one is not incredibly graphic in terms of the heat relying more on its storyline I was invested in the outcome.
I personally would have liked the thermostat cranked up slightly.
In fact, this and the slow pacing at the start are my only critiques with this one.
The chemistry was also a bit hit and miss as well I think because of the lack of initial heat.
I also thought this needed some condensing down like at times it felt like we were repeating old ground.
The further I read the pacing did actually get better.
This was dual POV and character-wise well I did take a while to warm to Belial.
He definitely wasn’t very nice, understandable considering he is a demon but he did take a while to evolve from this.
Initially, he was arrogant selfish and proud etc the list was endless.
But as he spends time around Dara he starts to evolve into something more.
His goals start to change and he finds something he considers more important and above his own wants, it’s still bloody slow going getting there though.
Dara well she’s more straightforward but she also takes something equally from there emerging bond the ability to kick back slightly.
That it’s ok to just be selfish sometimes and do things for yourself.
So despite my above observations, this was still excellently written and I’m intrigued enough to read more from this series.
I believe this is also a debut which makes this even more impressive.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of The Demon Always Wins.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/9460945-bex-beckie-bookworm
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
http://www.beckiebookworm.com
Not my typical genre, but how can you go wrong with a story about the good girl and the ultimate bad boy, a demon. Who will win the in this wager between God and Satan–the champion of good or evil? A wonderful debut with an original premise. I thoroughly enjoyed my romp through hell.