A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon

I thought that this was really good! Mariel is a witch that can’t seem to get anything right so it isn’t too much of a surprise when she accidentally summons Ozroth to deal for her soul. Mariel plans to keep her soul so Ozroth is stuck with her until they can make a deal. I loved watching Mariel learn to start standing up for herself and set some boundaries with her family.

Mariel and Ozroth were both great characters. I enjoyed the romance between Mariel and Ozroth and thought that they both showed a lot of growth over the course of the story. I had no idea how these two could possible make things work but I was eager to see it happen. Ozroth is quite protective of Mariel and has a hard time watching the way her family treats her. I show more just had a lot of fun with this romance overall.

I listened to the audiobook and thought that Helen Laser did a wonderful job with this story. It was so easy to lose myself in this story largely due to her narration. I enjoyed the various voices that she used for the characters and thought that she added just the right amount of emotion to her reading. I am certain that her narration heightened my enjoyment of this fantastic novel.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to others. I found this book to have the right combination of romance, humor, and magic featuring characters that I won’t soon forget. I cannot wait to read more of Sarah Hawley’s work in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from Berkley Publishing Group and Penguin Random House Audio. show less

This is a fun book that is perfect for a long-weekend getaway. Muriel Spark, an incompetent witch - at least according to her mom - accidentally conjures up a demon and can't get rid of him until she surrenders her soul. That will never happen, Muriel knows, but he won't or can't go away. There seems to be no legal (demon legal that is) for him to return to the demon realm without a captured soul. So Muriel passes him off as her boyfriend and gets on with her life, which, of course, drives the demon and his demon bosses nuts. Very enjoyable.

Mariel Spark knows not to trust a demon, especially one that wants her soul, but what’s a witch to do when he won’t leave her side—and she kind of doesn’t want him to?
It's a paranormal Romcom romances complete with magical mishaps, fake dating and cozy small-town vibes. I usually don't care much for this type of paranormal book, but I became rather "caught up" in Murial's mishaps.

one magical mishap...and she has had several before, but this one was a doozy. We now have "Ozroth the Ruthless", a demon whose job it is to bargain for souls. From here on there is an absolute plethora of humorous quips with back-and-forth banter, as well as the most delicious spicy times...seems our demon has had lots of practice though-over the many show more centuries. He has lots of inner conflict about the young witch he has started falling for, but he is also very supportive of her...strange behavior for a demon. He came to claim her soul but now to his utter dismay...he doesn't want her to lose it.

Oz and Mariel were almost way too adorable. The story was lighthearted, predictable, with several "laugh out loud" moments. It wasn't by any means a bad story...it just wasn't my usual type of paranormal story. If you are a "cozy mystery" fan, which I am not necessarily, you will probably find a lot more things to like about it than I did. show less

This book is absolutely delightful! It is definitely a bit predictable at points (it's a romance novel, that's part of the charm), but it's still fun. I loved Mariel and Oz's unconditional support of each other, as well as the fact that Mariel's friends are totally ride or die. The book made me laugh out loud several times at various parts, and the sex scenes are very steamy. Hawley's writing style is absolutely phenomenal. I really want to return to Glimmer Falls and read the rest of the series now!

This book was fun and humorous (although I could've done without a few things, including the chicken death very early on among other plot points.) Something was bothering me about it though and I couldn't put my finger on it exactly, but it reminded me of fanfiction a bit. Once I read the acknowledgements at the end, all became clear: the author is a Reylo shipper in the Star Wars fandom (no judgement - I ship it too.) The similarities between Ozroth and Mariel to Kylo Ren and Rey are nowhere near as obvious as the main characters in The Love Hypothesis, but it still sparked a connection for me. (And don't get me started on Astaroth... I know I'm not the only one who noticed how he is remarkably like Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer show more - again, not really a complaint!)

I did enjoy the light-hearted approach that the book had overall, and I look forward to reading more in this series... I just hope for a little bit more substance to go along with the smut. show less

tbh i didn’t actually finish this book. i dnf’d at page 174. i don’t like smut and i definitely should’ve known better and idk maybe not read a book notorious for being smut lol. but alas i was drawn in by the cute cover and the fun premise. jokes on me. (i promise i dont just complain about the smut btw lol) i tried to just read through the smut anyway because at first the plot was engaging and the characters were fun to follow. but it got to a point where i just wasn’t interested in the story enough anymore to grit and bear it through the constant smut. like it was a little much. even acotar wasn’t this bad in terms of casual smut every 2 pages. at least there you could generally skip it and be fine. but with this it was show more like just casually weaved into random parts that you had no way to skip over.

ok enough kvetching about smut. we all know what it is lmao. and like no judgement if that’s your thing that’s so valid my dude. it’s just not my thing. anyway. characters. at first i absolutely loved Mariel. she was charming and goofy and sweet and relatable. but eventually she started to get kind of annoying. like ok we get it, you’re amazing and powerful with a sacred connection to plants and the natural world (that i’m jealous of lolol) but you don’t know it and ur family sucks. omg she’s not like other gorls🤪 and at first i liked her relationship with Ozroth a lot. but imo the slow-burn just wasn’t slow-burning right. it jumped from hatred to lust and feelings way WAY too fast. and then stayed in lustiness with no movement for too long. all of the characters were incredibly cliche to the point where it started to get annoying. i really tried to give them a chance but eventually hearing about Calladia’s powder blue lulu lem— i mean workout set— and her glowing muscles started to become pretty whatever and Themmie’s quirky social media presence literally isn’t a thing like stop why do people keep trying to make that trope happen??? i thought we as a society agreed to get over that after 2017??? and don’t even start me with the exotic rich parents where the mom is clinically insane with zero boundaries or self awareness and the dad is just kinda there? and allegedly loves his wife but no one can understand why. the characters are all a little too conveniently built but still not dynamic enough for it to be ok. ( the exception is Alzapraz. LOVE that guy. an absolute legend. ) also what happened to Mariel’s therapist?? it was mentioned she had one once in the beginning but never again? or at least up until page 174. i thought that would’ve been so interesting and refreshing and satisfying to see a character going through therapy. imagine the growth and positive change we could’ve seen in Mariel if she’d just done a little DBT.

the environment was also a little too perfect. id love to see some more variation in the environment. it’s just too perfect and convenient. as much as i absolutely love love love that kind of fantasy world and wish i could live in Glimmer Falls myself, it’s just not that realistic. we needed more history and variety. no place is ever just that conveniently perfect. and using magic as the answer to everything is well…i dare say…lazy? i hate that word. so please forgive me. but idk like, really?? there are SO many ways Glimmer Falls’ perfection could be explained that would be interesting and exciting and thought provoking. but “magic runs through everything bc of the witches and mythical creatures”? idk. it’s giving Disney’s Dreamlight Valley (don’t get me wrong love that game but you know what i mean hopefully).

despite all the negative i’ve said, there are still things i liked. i still really like the premise. i think it’s interesting and i’m really curious to know what happens with the deal between Mariel and Oz. Especially with Oz’s mentor situation. it’s a strange situation that i haven’t seen anyone explore much before. i really like the idea of navigating that loophole. it’s very creative and unique and witty! I also really like the way the demon plane and society were built and explained. id LOVE to explore more of that. gimme a (smut free) book about that or somethin. give us a prequel about Oz’s upbringing. sold. take my money. yes. oh and like i said before. ✨Alzapraz✨the legend, the king, the icon. id love a book of his story.

tldr: i seriously could’ve done without the mention of demon d🤡ck every couple pages and the plot and characters dwindled too much for me to keep reading through the smut. If it was rewritten without the constant smut or even as fade to black, i would absolutely give it another try. but please, for the love of Hecate, make the characters and environment more dynamic. except for Alzapraz, he is perfect.

edit: after reading some of the reviews i can confidently say i am SO happy i didn't finish this book. the more i think about the faults and failures of this book, the more pissed off i get. just like what everyone else said, every trope you can possibly imagine was thrown in but NONE of them were done right. it's like the author got this awesome idea for the premise but then rushed the process so much just to get the idea out into the world that it just sucked as a result. no thought went into what was actually important for the novel to be stable (with or without tropes). also, everyone is absolutely right, the main characters and friends seem far more like teenagers or people in their early 20s. definitely not someone in their late 20's reaching 30. ALSO so many of the things that were supposed to be funny were really just insufferable and extremely awkward to read. most involved the mom. also why did the mom have to be in SO many scenes??? it was awful and i felt emotionally tired after reading her scenes. i literally had to close the book for a few hours after on multiple occassions. i thought some of the renaming of popular things were funny in an ironic way where it was so stupid it was a little funny (eg. my alchemical bromance, pixtagram, bumbelina...) but then i realized...i was supposed to be laughing with the author, not at. it was so stupid that i thought the fact that it was stupid was funny. if that makes sense. i always hate when books and tv shows/movies try to be relatable to modern society by making puns out of current things. its so cringe. it hurts. and in this case, talk about lazy writing. and lastly -just guessing based on the cover of the book, i have not read it- is it true that the sequel is about Calladia falling in love with that blondie demon mentor guy? because if so then COME ON DUDE. also just saw that the third book is called "a wearwolf's guide to seducing a succubus"...no...im out.......goodbye...

edit 2: there was SO much potential with the whole “demon gets a soul on accident” thing. but instead of exploring it to the fullest, the author chose to primarily focus on his newfound romantic and lusty feelings. like ok the demon plane is a surprisingly chill place but Oz was denied that from a young age so he could be a bargainer. it would make sense to explore that more. maybe his new human soul makes him jealous or makes him feel betrayed that he wasn’t able to have the good things that other demon children got? or how about how him suppressing his human feelings will lead to depression like it does for most humans? it’s like the reverse of the Bechdel Test lmao poor Ozroth is out here only being allowed to exist and feel as it pertains to Mariel. that’s not interesting or fair to the character. oh and don’t even start me on how all of the supporting characters are just plot devices for the world revolve even more around Mariel.

ps i find it amusing that she dedicated this book to her parents show less

Cute, but not quite my cup of tea. I think it's that so many of the characters are over the top -- completely overbearing, deeply helpless, extremely snarky and capable of cartoon levels of violence. I mean, that blend should delight me, especially with a plant witch, and especially with friends helping each other to stand up for themselves, but it just didn't quite float my boat.