This guest review is from Danielle Fritz. Danielle is a former librarian who has a special affection for children’s lit and books about the funeral industry. She first cut her criticism teeth as a fanfic writer. A resident of the upper midwest, she’s learned to love beer and tater tot casserole and tolerate long winters. Most nights will find her cuddled up with her pups and wearing out her wrists with yet another crochet project.
…
Eve and Arzael’s relationship has been teased since book one in this series, and this is book six. I was immediately intrigued in the first novel The Dragon’s Bride, when the dragon Sol comes to fetch Briar, his heroine, from Azazel’s territory. On the way out, Briar makes a comment that she understood how Azazel had so severely fucked up his relationship with Eve. I immediately wanted all the details. Man (or in this case, giant red horned demon) does Big Wrong and then grovels for at least a third of the book is one of my favorite tropes.
Eve shouldn’t have favorites among her clients. But even as an experienced and professional sex worker who is well-versed in keeping her work and life separate, she can’t help but enjoy her time with Azazel. Her hot regular is tall, respectful, and fun to work with. Unlike some other clients, Azazel honors the boundaries Eve has in place and doesn’t mistake her as anything other than a hard-working professional. So when he asks her to sign some weird contract, Eve barely hesitates. When Azazel says it’s a faux marriage contract he’s hoping to introduce to a prospective partner, she trusts and believes him.
And then she wakes up in the demon realm, where bargainer demons hold all the power. Bargainer demons like Azazel, who happens to be their leader. And before Eve can catch her breath, she’s being hustled into some kind of auction with four other women. Azazel is hosting leaders from neighboring kingdoms, the gargoyles, krakens, succubi, and dragons. When each woman is claimed by the leader of a neighboring realm for seven years of cohabitation, Eve is left standing alone, already marked for one person — for Azazel. Except, per their contract, she’s not staying for just seven years. His terms are forever.
Azazel’s relatively new to ruling the bargainer demons. The whole series so far has depicted his rule as very different from his predecessor, his aunt, with Azazel focusing on redistributing the power his aunt consolidated. One big way he’s attempting to do so is through establishing bargains with humans and the leaders of other realms. Humans somehow bring more magic into the land, especially if they bear children with their contracted partner.
There’s a lot of emphasis on consent within this series and The Demon’s Queen is no exception. All of the other women voluntarily enter into their contracts and they are under zero pressure to sleep with their partners. It’s also made clear up front that any children conceived will not be allowed to return with the mothers to the human realm if they choose to return after their seven years. Every character is very mindful of consent, but Azazel is especially protective of his charges. He goes above and beyond to check in with all of the women and leaders to ensure no one is being violated and folks are generally happy. I appreciate how the author infuses this focus on consent throughout the whole series and puts a lot of emphasis on autonomy even if I have a personal kink for dubcon. Consent is very sexy!
Which is why I expected more to the conflict between Azazel and Eve, especially after he lies to her, takes advantage of her trust in him, and destroys her autonomy and her ability to consent with full knowledge of what would happen to her. Despite having somewhat understandable motivations for his kidnapping scheme, I was ultimately disappointed by the level of groveling Azazel commits throughout the plot. At no point did I feel he sufficiently proved his belief that Eve is an autonomous being who should be, and should have been, consulted in decisions that affect her. In fact, he repeatedly thinks to himself that he knows she’ll probably never forgive him and he’s resigned to that as the status quo between them. Ultimately, it feels as though his bad decision is waved away by “Well, it was for your protection.” I would have liked to have seen a more significant understanding develop between them and much more acknowledgement of Azazel’s pigheadedness and his lies that undermined her initial consent.
The stakes at play in The Demon Queen also feel toothless. For example, another contender for the throne has learned of Eve and, prior to the start of the story, threatened her as a means of leverage against Azazel. Yet right off the bat it’s established that Azazel is very powerful. The one time Eve faces an open threat, Azazel is ruthless and effortlessly eliminates the would-be assassin.
Show Spoiler
Once the time comes where Azazel faces the threat to his rule, he eviscerates the guy in milliseconds. Then claims he hadn’t done so before because he wanted to avoid violence, which, fair. But also, are you kidding me?
While there’s some discontent with his rule, we only really ever see allies and admirers. At one point he takes Eve beyond the city walls to visit a farming village overseen by his cousin and everyone is just so happy to see him. I wish we’d gotten a better taste of the opposition Azazel’s rule is facing or that the stakes were higher. Honestly, at times it felt like the very threat that brings Eve to the demon realm takes a backseat — like, the far backseat, where you have to climb over another middle row. If we’re supposed to believe Azazel was so desperate to protect Eve he resorted to kidnapping, then it’s inconsistent to depict the threat as so very inconsequential.
I liked both of the leads, but they came across as a little flat. I felt I knew more about their “personas” during sex than who they were day-to-day. We just don’t get much from either Azazel or Eve. Eve’s backstory is expanded on in a few sentences towards the end, but Azazel never discusses his family beyond his shitty aunt and one or two cousins. We don’t get any of the details that really flesh out a character, such as their fixation with a certain type of tea or preference for oversized sweaters. Ramanu, who shows up in every book as Azazel’s right hand, is given more color than either Azazel or Eve, and they’re a side character. Over and over we’re told Azazel is a good leader and Eve is very established in her profession, but outside of their careers and sex I never felt as though I got to know the characters as people.
The sex in this book is HOT, with a liberal amount of “Daddies” and the bulk of intimacy scenes starting as hate sex. Because Eve is understandably furious with Azazel, yet she’s also equally horny for him, a lot of the early encounters start with an argument. While I have my qualms about how Azazel handles his fuck up, he does seem to be deeply committed to providing exceptional head as part of his apologizing. Sex is obviously a huge part of Eve’s career, but it doesn’t come up during their time together beyond her reflecting on how much she liked working with him in her previous life. I liked how there was a very thoughtful transition from the “fun” sex to the “emotional” sex throughout the plot.
After highly anticipating this last title in the A Deal with a Demon series, I unfortunately found the book to be pretty “meh” and likely won’t be reaching for it to re-read in the future. For me, it fell flat with mild external conflict and it didn’t do much to endear me to the main characters. It’s definitely not a book I would recommend starting with if you’re new to the series and like to hop around within a lineup. Past books in the series have done a much better job at building conflict, and it feels as though this final entry just ran out of steam — when ideally it would have contained the most tension and build-up. Despite generally liking the characters and premise, The Demon Queen just didn’t live up to its promise for me.