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A review by amphipodgirl
Curiosity Caught the Demon by Travis Beaudoin
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
5.0
Many, many thanks to Travis Beaudoin for the opportunity to read an ARC of this delightful book.
(Disclosure: Travis and I are social media mutuals and friendly over DMs)
This paranormal romance, told from the point of view of the demon, is something special, mostly because of the narrator. Gremory (a Duke of Hell when he's not meddling in the affairs of mortals) is so earnest in his desire to get us to understand what it is like to be a demon and how his existence is different from ours and also so amusing in the ways he tells us about it, often in intimate-feeling parenthetical asides. He falls in love with Scott without even noticing it, but his descriptions of the man who called him to earth are full of charming tells.
Gremory is not bound by human morality, but ends up acting well almost all of the time for other reasons. "(You’ll notice I wasn’t lying. I can if I want to. I’m a demon, after all. I just like seeing how close to the truth I can cut sometimes. Like a game.)" And he doesn't have to stay embodied, even when he's on the mortal plane, but he does, often for the sheer pleasure of standing next to Scotty, or for intimate little moments like drying the dishes while Scotty washes them.
And you'll be bopping along, all tea and coziness and running Scotty's antique shop, and then Gremory thinks something that makes it so clear that he's just not like us and would gladly do terrible, terrible things to protect Scotty (and yet doesn't) (mostly).
There's an external plot as well, a Hallmark-movie-style struggle to save Scotty's antique shop and the rest of the quaint little town from rapacious developers. It moves the story along well and the inevitable triumph over the baddies is satisfying, but it's not the main attraction for me. Neither is Scotty; his character is well-thought-out and a good guy, with a sad backstory and powerful motivations and an arc of real growth, but while I cheered him on along that path I'm not in love with him like I seem to be with Gremory.
Beaudoin makes good use of the possibilities of the paranormal. The sex scenes take full and creative advantage of Gremory's magical abilities. I won't give the details away, but the first one especially is different from anything I've read, an excellent creative choice on the author's part and quite moving, as well as forming a crucial part of Scotty's character arc and the relationship arc. And the final sex scene is nearly over-the-top burlesque, in a good way. Gremory's magic powers are critical to the plot and well thought out, and have limitations that keep them from being so big that they can immediately and totally fix any problem. The ideas of Heaven and Hell and the nature of demons are not the conventional Christian ones and I found them charming and interesting. (Gremory, of course, makes Hell sound like by far the better place to be.) The various diabolic locations we visit or hear about are beguiling otherworldly imaginings.
This is quite different from Beaudoin's first book, Too Like the Lightning, which was super evocative of place with occasionally melancholy character exploration. Where TLTL was serious and emotional, CCTD is light and playful and sometimes poignant This book succeeds admirably on its own terms -- I had a gentle smile on my face almost the whole time I was reading it and laughed out loud more than once. Basically, it's a fucking delight. Highly recommended.
(Disclosure: Travis and I are social media mutuals and friendly over DMs)
This paranormal romance, told from the point of view of the demon, is something special, mostly because of the narrator. Gremory (a Duke of Hell when he's not meddling in the affairs of mortals) is so earnest in his desire to get us to understand what it is like to be a demon and how his existence is different from ours and also so amusing in the ways he tells us about it, often in intimate-feeling parenthetical asides. He falls in love with Scott without even noticing it, but his descriptions of the man who called him to earth are full of charming tells.
Gremory is not bound by human morality, but ends up acting well almost all of the time for other reasons. "(You’ll notice I wasn’t lying. I can if I want to. I’m a demon, after all. I just like seeing how close to the truth I can cut sometimes. Like a game.)" And he doesn't have to stay embodied, even when he's on the mortal plane, but he does, often for the sheer pleasure of standing next to Scotty, or for intimate little moments like drying the dishes while Scotty washes them.
And you'll be bopping along, all tea and coziness and running Scotty's antique shop, and then Gremory thinks something that makes it so clear that he's just not like us and would gladly do terrible, terrible things to protect Scotty (and yet doesn't) (mostly).
There's an external plot as well, a Hallmark-movie-style struggle to save Scotty's antique shop and the rest of the quaint little town from rapacious developers. It moves the story along well and the inevitable triumph over the baddies is satisfying, but it's not the main attraction for me. Neither is Scotty; his character is well-thought-out and a good guy, with a sad backstory and powerful motivations and an arc of real growth, but while I cheered him on along that path I'm not in love with him like I seem to be with Gremory.
Beaudoin makes good use of the possibilities of the paranormal. The sex scenes take full and creative advantage of Gremory's magical abilities. I won't give the details away, but the first one especially is different from anything I've read, an excellent creative choice on the author's part and quite moving, as well as forming a crucial part of Scotty's character arc and the relationship arc. And the final sex scene is nearly over-the-top burlesque, in a good way. Gremory's magic powers are critical to the plot and well thought out, and have limitations that keep them from being so big that they can immediately and totally fix any problem. The ideas of Heaven and Hell and the nature of demons are not the conventional Christian ones and I found them charming and interesting. (Gremory, of course, makes Hell sound like by far the better place to be.) The various diabolic locations we visit or hear about are beguiling otherworldly imaginings.
This is quite different from Beaudoin's first book, Too Like the Lightning, which was super evocative of place with occasionally melancholy character exploration. Where TLTL was serious and emotional, CCTD is light and playful and sometimes poignant This book succeeds admirably on its own terms -- I had a gentle smile on my face almost the whole time I was reading it and laughed out loud more than once. Basically, it's a fucking delight. Highly recommended.