There’s something about demons and bargains that gets me every time. And Damned If I Do is exactly my cup of tea. It has multiple lifetimes, demon bargains, and oaths. Keep reading this book review of Damned If I Do for my full thoughts.
Summary
Effie MacLeod is no stranger to making desperate decisions, but making a deal with Lucifer himself—sacrificing her soul to save a loved one—has got to be her most monumental. Several hundred years into her tenure as a demon, Effie’s found herself engaged to Belphegor, a handsome, seductive, and successful Prince of Hell. It’s not a love match, but it’ll do. There’s just one teensy-tiny little She’s still bound to her sixteenth-century Scottish husband. While Effie has completely cast her human life aside, Finn has been reincarnated through several lifetimes.
Effie must convince Finn to renounce their age-old vows in order get the Office of Infernal Internal Affairs off her back. The kicker? When she finds him in this lifetime, Finn doesn’t remember anything, but he refuses her request for a divorce.
Annoyed to be stuck with him in small-town Georgia until she can persuade Finn to renounce their marriage, Effie must convince him that yes, she does want to get on with her devilish shenanigans despite the physical pull she feels toward him. As they get closer in hopes of recovering his lost memories, Effie can’t help but notice murmurings of her deeply buried feelings resurfacing. But while all’s fair in love and war, that’s not the case in Hell—and Lucifer may have his own reasons for wanting to keep Finn and Effie apart for the rest of eternity.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Damned If I Do hit the sweet spot. It begin with trying to get rid of our husband from decades ago to marry our fiance demon. But Damned If I Do shows us that true love can’t be so easily dissolved. That love, despite its pain, its fears, and its loss, is worth it. A love that transcends lives and years, bodies and situations. Damned If I Do proves that we don’t want an easy love, we want a love that is true. Someone who sees who we truly are when we aren’t trying to be accommodating. Someone who challenges us. Damned If I Do unfolds in a swoony story about second chances and a love which never burns out.
(Disclaimer: Some of the links below are affiliate links. For more information you can look at the Policy page. If you’re uncomfortable with that, know you can look up the book on any of the sites below to avoid the link)
I loved Bellefleur’s signature wit and the characters in Damned If I Do jump off the page. I also can’t get over the having-a-pet-name-in-another-language element! Damned If I Do brings up the pain of our past, the ways that loss can hollow us out. We can let that pain cause us to not let anyone else in. But that’s not a way to truly live, only to survive. Damned If I Do is a book I am going to recommend to my mom, it has the perfect balance of swoons and heart. This might be my favorite of the two demon books! Give us more! (I also enjoyed the way the demon world is being developed in the background!) Find Damned If I Do on Goodreads, Storygraph, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.