Rating: 4.25🌈
Ripley’s Drop Dead Demon is another good installment in the Possessive Love collection.
It starts with a familiar thread about a young boy , a toddler, in an impoverished situation . His young mother needs to work so leaves him alone in a poor hotel for long periods of time. He’s scared and unhappy until out of the dark his imaginary friend comes.
Usually in other books it’s an adult but here, what emerges from the darkness is a little being the same age as himself.
What a great idea and way for the narrative to go forward.
Both Brady, the human, and Roth, the demon, interact as children at the beginning of the story. While Roth has more knowledge about what Brady is to him, he’s still a child, and he’s listens to Brady with a child’s heart, however otherworldly.
That Ripley lets us meet them at this stage makes the next step in their journey even more painful.
The narrative necessarily moves ahead in time to Brady as a successful model.
What happened to Roth is something I’ll leave to the story.
Ripley does a good job reacquainting the main characters with each other but there’s so much else going on, that it’s pushed back to make page time for other elements to be addressed. There’s a prophecy, a demon brother for Roth who’s been “topside” for years with a sudden dramatic backstory to deal with, and Legion , an entity who is literally a cast of thousands.
Somewhere, our main focus , the bond between Brady and Roth, starts to get a little bit fuzzy.
When the story pulls back towards them, it refocuses our connection to the characters, their relationship, and the perils they face.
There’s several twists that Ripley has in store for the readers and characters. A few were, I thought, bittersweet at the end but realistic given the damage done. One wasn’t as thought through or as well executed as it seemed. A all powerful being that couldn’t fully set everything right or destroy the one thing that set things up? I wondered about that.
Anyway, I was left with a few questions about the overall storytelling that I felt was unresolved at the end.
But the relationship, the main characters, how it all began? Wonderful. And so many other smaller things that made this a really enjoyable read.
Check it out. The entire collection is listed below.
Check out the rest of the Possessive Love series! 15 books by 15 authors
◦ A Slice For My Demon by K.L. Hiers & Mozzarus Scout
◦ Cuddly Demon by Aster Rae
✓ My Demon Husband by Jax Stuart ♥️
✓ Exercising A Demon by H.L Day ♥️
✓ Drop Dead Demon by B. Ripley
✓ The Demon’s Dealbreaker by Delaney Rain ❤️
◦ My Demon Rebound by Ashlynn Mills
◦ Curiosity Caught the Demon by Travis Beaudoin
◦ My Saintly Demon by RM Neill
◦ Terrible Lovely Demon by Odessa Hywell
◦ Son of the Arch Demon by Amanda Meuwissen
◦ Recalling My Demon by Colette Davison
◦ The Demon Undertaker by Alex J. Adams
◦ Gift for a Demon by Emily Alter
Buy Link:
Drop Dead Demon: An MM Paranormal Romance
Blurb:
Roth
From the moment I first saw Brady, I knew he was my mate. He thought I was just his imaginary friend and I let him believe that because at his side, I felt more complete than I ever had before. I didn’t mean to ever leave him, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I may be a Prince of Hell, but my father’s rule is absolute and out of his fear that I will someday overpower him, he had me imprisoned when I was just a child.
But, I was freed.
Rescued from where I’ve been held for far too many years, the only thing on my mind is claiming Brady as mine. I have lingered in the darkness without him for so long that seeing him now is like a breath of fresh air, but he’s starting to change. My father may have worried about who I would become, but it’s my mate he truly should have feared.
He is beautiful.
He is terrifying.
He is mine.
Brady
As a lonely child, Roth was the only thing I could count on. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t real, my imaginary friend was there when I needed someone. Roth meant everything when nobody else would let themselves get close to me. When I got older, he disappeared as make-believe things are supposed to and I put childhood behind me, moving on into a career on the runway as a sought after fashion model.
But Roth is back.
He says he’s a demon and I am his mate. We were created for each other, he tells me, but there are beings conspiring to keep us apart. They’re scared of what he will become when he claims me, but they should have feared me instead because I am no longer the lonely little boy I once was.
I am loved.
I am powerful.
I am his.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 