Devouring Flame by E. J. Russell

Devouring Flame by E. J. Russell

My Rating: 🍸🍸🍸🍸🍸

Buy Links: Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | Kobo

Blurb:

Reunited and reignited.

While cutting through the Interstices—the post-creation gap between realms—Smith, half-demon tech specialist for Enchanted Occasions Event Planning, spies the person he yearns for daily but dreads seeing again: the ifrit, Hashim of the Windrider clan.

On their one literally smoldering night together, Smith, stupidly besotted, revealed his true name—a demon’s greatest vulnerability. When Hashim didn’t return the favor, then split the next morning with no word? Message received, loud and clear: Thanks but no, thanks.

Although Hashim had burned to return Smith’s trust, it was impossible. The wizard who conjured him holds his true name in secret, and unless Hashim discovers it, he’ll never be free.

When their attraction sparks once more, the two unite to search for Hashim’s hidden name—which would be a hell of a lot easier if they didn’t have to contend with a convention full of food-crazed vampires on the one day out of the century they can consume something other than blood.

But if they fail, Hashim will be doomed to eternal slavery, and their reignited love will collapse in the ashes.

Luckily Smith is the guy who gets shit done. And Hashim is never afraid to heat things up.

I’m going to go wild and give you full disclosure here. I’d have given this book three stars even if the interior just consisted of flame and eggplant emojis, just because of the fire aspect. Go ahead, call it a fetish, I don’t care. Add to that the fact that this is a *second chance romance,* which is my catnip, and it’s like Russell looked into my soul, found exactly what I would want, and wrote a book just for me.

Anyway, the book didn’t need the help from my little fixation, because it was just that awesome.

The fact that Hashim is not in fact free to make his own choices did give me some pause. I’m not judging folks who are into slave fic, but it’s not for me in most cases. Russell doesn’t skirt around the issue and she doesn’t romanticize it either. She addresses Hashim’s issues head on. There were a couple of moments where I found myself annoyed by what I perceived as Hashim’s lack of agency, but he truly didn’t have any other options under the circumstances. He’s a great character dealing with an impossible situation.

In fact, Hashim is second in my heart only to Smith. I love Smith. I want Smith to show up and manage the next conference I go to.  Did I mention he’s a fire demon?  I will happily accommodate his dietary needs, just to make him happy, because he’s that awesome. I love the way his mind works.  His power is limited, so he has to be creative – and that makes him beyond invincible.

But what I loved most about Smith wasn’t his fire (even though it was an awesome aspect of his character, let’s be real), and it wasn’t his Loki-like ability to outsmart everyone else on the page. It was his honor. 

This is a second chance romance.  It’s “second chance” because as far as Smith knows, the last time they were together, Hashim insulted him in the worst way. When he encounters Hashim in significantly reduced circumstances, he doesn’t take the opportunity to get a few digs in.  He stands up for Hashim, not out of some kind of sense of superiority or out of lingering feelings of affection.

He does it simply because it’s the right thing to do.

That’s why I love Smith.

The cast of supporting characters is brilliant and everything I could want in a book. In some ways, the writing reminded me a little bit of Terry Pratchett.  I was reading about some serious issues like consent, trafficking, and prejudice.  No punches were ever pulled in dealing with these issues, but the dialogue and the wild characters had me laughing the whole time. There’s a fantastic twist at the end that proves no one is just there for comedy’s sake, either. 

The worldbuilding is phenomenal. I could see, hear, and even smell this carnival through the whole book. 

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.