2023 New Release challenge
ARC Review: A Demon's Guide to Wooing a Witch (Glimmer Falls #2) by Sarah Hawley
11:00
Author: Sarah Hawley
Published November 30th 2023 by Gollancz/November 28th by Berkley
Goodreads Synopsis
Calladia Cunnington curses the day she met Astaroth the demon, but when he shows up memory loss, why does she find him so helpless . . . and sort of hot?
Calladia Cunnington knows she’s rough around the edges, despite being the heir to one of small-town Glimmer Falls’ founding witch families. While her gym obsession is a great outlet for her anxieties and anger, her hot temper still gets the best of her and manifests in bar brawls. When Calladia saves someone from a demon attack one night, though, she’s happy to put her magic and rage to good use . . . until she realizes the man she saved is none other than Astaroth, the ruthless demon who orchestrated a soul bargain on her best friend.
Astaroth is a legendary soul bargainer and one of the nine members of the demon high council—except he can’t remember any of this. Suffering from amnesia after being banished to the mortal plane, Astaroth doesn’t know why a demon named Moloch is after him, nor why the muscular, angry, hot-in-a-terrifying-way witch who saved him hates him so much.
Unable to leave anyone in such a vulnerable state—even the most despicable demon—Calladia grudgingly decides to help him. (Besides, punching an amnesiac would be in poor taste.) The two set out on an uneasy road trip to find the witch who might be able to restore Astaroth’s memory so they can learn how to defeat Moloch. Calladia vows that once Astaroth is cured, she’ll kick his ass, but the more time she spends with the snarky yet utterly charming demon, the more she realizes she likes this new, improved Astaroth . . . and maybe she doesn’t want him to recover his memories, after all.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
In a cruel twist of fate, the evil villain from the past becomes the helpless hero when he is rescued by Calladia Cunnington. Astaroth is a legend in his own right, and as the son of the demoness Lillith, he has powers others could only dream of. After being banished to the mortal plane, with his memories removed, he relies on Calladia to help him, and to discover why Moloch is out to kill him. Calladia hates his guts for what he did to her best friend, but she can't leave him so vulnerable, not even when it's clear that she's the one risking her heart for the enemy.
I don't know how Sarah did it, but after hating Astaroth so much in the first book, he was the perfect hero this time around. So many of the reasons why he was so hard and cruel with Oz and Mariel are explained here, as he recovers his memories, and humanity, with Calladia by his side. Calladia was a firecracker, and her feisty nature was definitely understandable when you consider the family she comes from. She had needed to form the hard exterior she had to protect herself from her mother, and so she found it hard to allow herself to be vulnerable with anyone, especially not someone she thought was the enemy. The journey, both literal and metaphorical, that Calladia and Astaroth went on in this book was the making of them both, and was a joy to read.
Dates Read:
August 12, 2023
Rating
4 Stars
