Beverage: Tough Cookie (Tassimo skinny double latte with sugar free chocolate chip cookie dough and chocolate syrup).

Music: Dia Frampton - Red

The Short Of It: A delightful combination of academia, magical lore and romance. Think Deborah Harkness' A Discovery Of Witches mixed with Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels. Highly recommended.



Off the bat, I thought this book would be a kinda cheesy paranormal romance. I thought it would be a short, easy read that hopefully wasn't too heavy on the heaving bosoms and throbbing manhoods.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was completely wrong. Yes, there's a lot of romance elements - after all, the book is about a woman whose claim to fame is a book called The Sex Lives of Demon Lovers. However, it is so much more.

The intersection of magic and academia is so wonderfully explored here - it reminded me quite a bit of A Discovery Of Witches, which is one of my all-time favourite books. It's not as heavy a read, but just as enjoyable. I would say cross A Discovery Of Witches with the Sookie Stackhouse series and you would get the world of The Demon Lover.

Still, there's lots of wonderful worldbuilding and mythology to sink your teeth into as well as mystery, humour, small town nosiness, obnoxious relatives, heartbreak and of course, sexy sexy demon lovin'.

I am so glad I was wrong about this book. It was a joy to read and completely engrossing. I've already started reading the sequel, The Water Witch, which hits bookshelves on February 12th. If you're on the fence or put off by the title, please give this book a chance. I think you'll be glad you did.

[Review copy generously provided by Random House Publishing Group]