Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
A tantalizing pact between an ordinary woman and the silver-tongued son of the Devil is all that stands between Britain—and all hell breaking loose.
1851, London. All supernatural species have emerged from hiding, a result of The Great Revelation, led by Her Majesty, the vampiric Queen Victoria, and her dhamphir consort, Prince Albert.
Cora Hastings is the British government’s Species Ombudsman, a human tasked with keeping the peace between supernatural creatures. It’s run-of-the-mill work: enforcing the newly created shifting parameters, negotiating contracts between species, and generally making certain all Londoners are treated equally.
That is, until the Devil himself decides he wants to leave his hellish home and see the results of Prince Albert’s greatest accomplishment, the Great Exhibition. His arrival could upset the uneasy peace between creatures, and worse—he’s brought his son.
The Marquis of Hell is diabolically good-looking, unnaturally perceptive, and, well, a demon. Cora navigates her sinfully seductive diplomatic assignment as best she can, until she catches wind of a secret conspiracy set to come to fruition at the opening of the Great Exhibition. This leaves her with an impossible choice: Either Cora enters an unholy alliance with the Devil’s son, or she watches as her world is torn asunder….
My Review
Demons and Diplomacy had such a promising premise. Vampiric Queen Victoria, a Species Ombudsman keeping the peace between supernatural creatres, and the Devil himself showing up to the Great Exhibition? I was completely on board! Unfortunately, the execution of this book just didn’t work for me.
The plot is my biggest issue. Despite the genuinely fun setup, most of the story is just the MMC, Marcellus, babysitting his dad around London while Cora tags along (she’s their diplomat, shouldn’t she have more agency in arranging their itinerary?!). The central mystery of who wants to harm the Devil is so underdeveloped that I genuinely forgot it was supposed to be the driving plot of the book. What little investigating Cora and Marcellus actually do together feels pretty half-hearted, and not very interesting.
The romance didn’t work for me either. It moves too fast, and it gets off to a rough start with a nonconsensual kiss where Marcellus uses his demon powers to force Cora to kiss him, which is not the cute moment I think the author intended. The characters themselves feel really flat across the board. Marcellus tells us constantly how ingenious and smart Cora is, but we never actually see it, and Marcellus himself has almost no personality beyond being handsome. I couldn’t figure out why either of them liked the other.
Even Cora’s friends Lily and Hannah, a succubus and a fairy with so much potential, exist entirely to ask Cora about her love life, which felt like a huge waste of potential! The prose itself is actually quite readable and fun, but some of the word choices felt a little anachronistic and pulled me out of the story.
THE GOOD:
- The premise is creative and fun
- The alternate history setting with supernatural creatures is an interesting world
- The prose style is readable and engaging
- There is one spicy scene that I found to be unique and enjoyable
THE NOT-AS-GOOD:
- The romance starts with a nonconsensual kiss, which is a rough foundation
- Every character feels flat and one dimensional
- The central mystery is so underdeveloped it’s easy to forget it exists
- Cora is said to be smat and capable but we never actually see it
- Lily and Hannah are wasted as characters
- The final spicy scene is pretty anticlimactic after a lot of buildup
THE NEUTRAL:
- Some of the word choices feel anachronistic for the setting
- This might work better for readers who prioritize worldbuilding over plot and character
OVERALL RATING: ⭐⭐
Demons and Diplomacy has a genuinely fun premise that unfortunately gets lost under flat characters, a forgettable mystery, and a romance that never quite convinces you that these two people should be together.
PERFECT FOR:
- Readers who love an insta-lust story
- Fans of paranormal romance who don’t mind a slow, low stakes story
- Readers who love supernatural alternate history settings
