Title: Demon with Benefits
Author: Aurora Ascher, narrated by Kirsten Leigh
Length: 12 hours, 24 minutes
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal romance. Subgenre: enemies to lovers, grumpy-sunshine.
Is this part of a series? Yes, this is book three of the Hell Bent series.
I discovered this book via… Netgalley, working with Recorded Audio
Publish Date: July 29th, 2025
Summary (courtesy of Goodreads):
They can run from their demons…
The jokester of the demon brothers, Meph wears his grin like armor and uses humor as a mask. But lately, his composure has been slipping, especially around her. Iris. The blue-haired witch with a vicious temperament. Something about her soothes the darkness within him…but he’s not looking for a savior.
There’s no such thing for someone like him.
…But they can’t hide forever.
Bitter and haunted by her traumatic past, Iris Donovan isn’t keen on welcoming demons into her life—even if they’re her sister’s friends. Especially not teasing, tattooed Meph, with his red eyes and devilish smile. After a toxic relationship, she’s sworn off commitment, and she’s not looking for another Mr. Damaged.
Yet she can’t stop craving what she shouldn’t want.
To conquer this monster…they must tame it together.
With the return of a deadly enemy, the pain they’ve been suppressing is exposed, and Meph and Iris can no longer deny their feelings. Before Meph is swallowed by his darkness, Iris must overcome her fears and embrace that terrible part of him…
Or lose him forever.
Demon With Benefits is a scorching enemies-to-lovers paranormal romance with a Beauty and the Beast twist. Featuring a hot-headed witch and a lovable bad-boy demon with a serious dark side, this book has explicit scenes of a monstrous nature that are not for the faint of heart. If heroes with non-human attributes are not for you, ye be warned. As always, there is blood, violence, and so much profanity.
My Thoughts:
Every time I read one of these I say “this one is my favorite”. And it’s always true. I was wondering how it was going to work with Iris and Meph- their personalities are so different. The chemistry, though, was absolutely through the roof. It was amazing watching these two grow, watching Iris slowly let go of some of her hang-ups and letting people in. Meph seems like the least messed up of the brothers in the first two books (forgetting the fact that his entire body is tattooed); but you get to see so much more of his nature here. His relationship with Jackie was so sweet.
This book does deal more into trauma, self-worth and mental health issues so if that is hard for anyone… just be aware. Meph hates his demon form to the point that he split his two personalities and had his brother help him so that he never shifts. Meph’s hang-ups on the things his demon does- how it feeds off of other’s fears, that it’s always hungry- were understandable, real. I mean, the man needs therapy- they both do… but it was interesting. I loved how the author merged their stories, giving them the same villian. Valforte had killed Iris’ parents and made her sister and her go into hiding. He had also taken Meph’s demon and turned it into a weapon, torturing him to keep him in check. I think my favorite thing, though, was the interactions everyone had with demon- Meph. For me, this is a five star book. It was hilarious, sweet, sexy (oddly) and just so great.
As far as adult content, there is a large amount of language, sexual content that includes non-human anatomy, violence and talk of past trauma. It could be hard for certain readers.
I was lucky enough to receive an advanced audio from Netgalley working with Recorded Books media in exchange for an honest review. My thanks!
Happy Reading,
Gwen
