Ethan & Jag Destroy the World

In all honesty, this book took forever to finish and I'd have given up at roughly 20% if not for my Read A Rainbow challenge. The previous choice I made for a purple cover was a bust and I didn't want to start over again, so I stuck with this.

It's not particularly offensive or bad, mind. In fact, the story is amusing and a little bit charming - enough to make me giggle and smile a few times. No, the problem is that I just didn't feel any connection to the characters or the story.

This book is basically an edgy romcom - emphasis on the comedy element, occasionally to eyeroll-inducing excess - with extensive sexual elements. It's a case of insta-lust which becomes insta-love and has a lot of culture shock shenanigans mixed in by nature of including a demon trapped in the mortal realm. Also, y'know, tons of demonic promiscuity and ‘monster' sex, which normally I'd find interesting but found a bit excessive and lukewarm here.

I had to keep forcing myself to pick the book back up because everything, even making a new spreadsheet for monthly expenses, felt more compelling. I need to feel connected to a book, whether positively or negatively, to feel the drive to read it. Here, I simply didn't have that. I felt a bit like I was watching a silly, fun comedy made for shock value, and I normally like those so I didn't dislike this; I just did the reading equivalent of browsing on my phone through such a movie because it was too silly to take seriously.

Overall, it's not bad but it's also not great. As a comedic story, it did its job to make me giggle. But as a love story, it totally failed to convince me of the relationship or draw me in and make me feel invested in the characters. I wish the story were less silly and not trying quite so hard to provide a laugh on every single page. And maybe had less sex scenes, since I didn't particularly find them steamy. But I don't have any strong feelings about it otherwise, thus nothing else to contribute for this review.

Cute read, especially on Halloween. It's always fun to see a big scary demon become a teddy bear for the right guy, and the images of Jagmarith, Demon champion of the Blood Wars, icing Christmas cookies is adorable. I could have lived without the specifics of demon sex but YMMV if you're here for the kinky stuff. Not as memorable as the dino-shifter series ([b:Smash & Grab 54500501 Smash & Grab (RELIC #1) Maz Maddox https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1594672581l/54500501.SY75.jpg 85020410] etc.) but still the same fun level of crazysauce.