Plot Synopsis – Cin is trying to keep a low profile, the last thing she wants is some grand adventure. Unfortunately, she ends up saving a demon and adventure is exactly what she gets. Cin and Fallon are on a quest to unseat a false goddess and maybe find love on the way.

Song This Reminds Me Of – Hunger by Florence and the Machine

Publication Date – Original July 22, 2021, Rerelease Jan. 02, 2024

Spicy Rating – 🌶🌶🌶🌶💋

Overall Rating – 4 ⭐ out of 5

Review – First look at that cover? Isn’t that a hot cover? Like damn, maybe I need to save a demon.

This book was a fantastic late-night read. I read this clutching my pearls and my glass of wine. I had a few gasps and giggles as I read this. Was it a little on the nose? Sure, but the thing I loved about the author is how self-aware she was. This book knows what it is and leans into it. It’s a fast-paced romance fantasy novel with terrible names. I mean, Cinnamon Hotpepper is a ridiculous name, but that made me love it even more.

Cinnamon, or Cin for short, is in her mid-twenties and lives on her family’s cinnamon farm. She gets drunk at a local party celebrating the departure of the goddess’s chosen hero. On her way home, she is almost mugged by a local ruffian. Instead, Cin turns the tables by throwing apples at him and chasing him through the trees. When she pauses to continue the chase, she hears a person who is trapped under a nearby landslide. When she rescues the stranger, it turns out to be a demon. She runs for her life and makes it safely home, but not before beating the demon with a cinnamon branch.

In the morning, said demon intrudes on family breakfast. It turns out that the cinnamon she hit him with broke him from a spell and that the goddess all humans worship isn’t a goddess at all, but an evil witch. Fallon, the rescued demon, asks Cinnamon to join him in destroying the witch. Of course, she goes and what ensues is a fun sexy romp in taking down the evil witch.

Seriously, this was a fun book. I could not put it down. The only reason it wasn’t a 5-star read for me is because I really didn’t like the names. Again, Cinnamon Hotpepper? It just pulled me right out of it. There were also a few times the book could have benefited from heavier editing. A few times, sentences ran into others and it jumbled the structure. I had to go back and read things a few times.

Favorite scene? Without spoiling, it was when Cinnamon, who is naked in a river with a demon, spins and kills a crocodile. HOT AF.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC!