Big Demon Energy by Deborah Wilde is a fun urban fantasy novel with mystery elements and the start of the Bedeviled series (4/5 stars)

Big Demon Energy by Deborah Wilde is a fun urban fantasy novel with mystery elements and the start of the Bedeviled series.

On the outside, Aviva is a top supernatural operative policing crimes committed by magical humans. But she has to hide the fact that she’s a half-demon (an infernal). After a rash of bizarre murders, she becomes the co-leader of a new squad… but the other leader is her vampire ex, Ezra, who broke her heart six years ago.

This was a super fun read! It took me a little bit to get into it, but then I ended up inhaling the last ~60% of the book in one day.

I especially enjoyed the world-building, which I felt was pretty fleshed out. In addition to vampires and demons, we have magical humans known as the Eishei Kodesh, who have different types of fire magic (color-coded for what they do). Avi’s a Blue Flame, and can see weakness in other humans.

The diversity here is great. Aviva is Jewish, Ezra is a person of color whose family came from Venezuela, and Darch is a genderfluid Romani. If you like snarky but smart heroines, Avi is absolutely that.

Of course, since we have two exes who must work together, we have a forced proximity, slow-burn, second chance romance in the making. There isn’t a ton of movement in the romance department in this installment, so please know that going in.

If you liked tv shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you would probably like this book.

CW: violence, gore

I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

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