If you’re looking for a paranormal/fantasy adventure involving demons, curses, and a bit of magic this is a great book for you! Overall, I rated this book a 3.75/5 stars.

Laszlo is an eight-hundred year old nepo baby demon who has been just getting by for a while. He’d rather do anything but work, until his existence is threatened by his new boss. That’s where Maggie Drakeford and the Drakeford family comes in. Maggie’s life is hell on earth, but with a shot to save her family and herself, she has to trust a literal demon. Thus ensues an international adventure that reveals more about the demon and magical world. 

The adventure to unravel the family curse for me really picked up mid-way through the book and snared my attention. The author did a great job making this job achievable yet difficult, and kept introducing interesting ways to complete each step. The scenes felt descriptive and clever, and kept the reader thinking “okay, what comes next.” I think some of the best scenes came when the main characters were actively in the midst of attaining either information or an item rather than in the build-up towards attainment. The ending was surprising, and in a lot of ways packed a punch to both affirm and subvert readers expectations. The settings all felt real and interesting, making the way the author describes each place or situation come to life in your head. 

The two pieces that I wish were different and contributed to this as a non 5 star read for me was the pace and the development of the characters emotionally. The pace is fast, and the description means it when it says break-neck pace. That’s all well and good, but for me what I could have used was some moments of peace in between. It didn’t feel like we got a break to figure out how anybody truly felt about what just happened. There was also A LOT for the characters to accomplish and put into the story. I think if we had one or two less things the characters needed to do/happened with two or so moments for the characters to be a bit reflective on their journey and let the story breath a little bit would have been a better story for me. Additionally, I think this would have led to the emotional character development I craved from the characters. I felt like we saw the surface of the characters emotions during certain scenes mid-to-end of the book, but we didn’t get the opportunity to really dive into what that meant or how it contributed to different actions/choices the characters made later. The situations the characters entered gave plenty of opportunity to reflect and be more impactful than they were, and I think that would have pushed the story over the edge for me. However, I will add that this book is advertised as break-neck pace, so the description does a good job telling the reader exactly what they’re getting into. 

Again, an overall enjoyable fantasy adventure book! Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review