My Thoughts:

This would make a great beach read as Alix Harrow suggests. It's a light romantic comedy that happens to be set against the backdrop of the possible end of the world. It's told in alternating points of view. One chapter by Callie, the next from Luke and so on. It's easy to follow the change. It's well labelled, plus they each have their own voice. My only complaint is that they read a little younger than they're supposed to be. Still, it qualifies as a New Adult paranormal romance.

Gwenda Bond manages to maintain a light atmosphere throughout what could have been heavy moments such as when Callie and Luke journey through Hell. And both characters have opportunities to be clever and experience personal growth. There's an interesting personification of Styx in Hell. And they wouldn't be able to accomplish everything without allies both above and below.

I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars. It's a fun read. It's well written and fast moving. And I liked the characters. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. Not Your Average Hot Guy by Gwenda Bond was published October 5th, 2021 by St. Martin's Griffin.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I originally requested this by other people who were raving about this read and they weren’t joking. It was such a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed the uniqueness of this story. I could not put this down that I finished it in a weekend and ordered a physical copy for my collection. Overall a FANTASTIC read.

Not Your Average Hot Guy was a thoroughly delightful read. I liked the recurring loophole discoveries and the relationships between all of the characters. I think this book is best enjoyed when not taken too seriously and simply enjoyed for the ride it takes the reader on.

I really wanted to love this nook. The author is really lovely and the premise is something I would usually be very entertained by, but something with this book just didn't resonate with me. I felt like the humor was a bit too forced and I know I should have loved the two main characters, but I didn't really care about them. I enjoyed the side-characters a lot, but the plot was just a little too all over the place for me to be any more involved than that. I loved the nerdy references in the book and think this book would be fantastic for lovers of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett I think this books more of a me issue, and not necessarily the book.

This paranormal romance was so fun! I loved following Callie and Luke on their journey through hell. The characters felt multifaceted and believable, and the plot was intriguing and entertaining. I can’t wait to read the second book!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/ St. Martin’s Griffin for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

4.5 stars, rounded up. This book was well-written, had a believable and cute romance, and was well-versed in the primarily Christian religion that formed the basis for the potential soul-stealing and many of the other plot points. It hinted at diversity, with one of the protagonist's close friends being gender-fluid. A light, quick read - good if you want something not scary but supernaturally influenced for Halloween (or whenever, but I think it comes out in a couple of weeks, so pretty sure that's the idea).

When a satanic cult summons Luke (the son the devil and the Prince of Hell) to Callie’s escape room, they must work together to prevent the apocalypse.

I requested this because of the cute cover and not because of the blurb. (I didn’t read the blurb.) This just wasn’t for me. It was too out there, and I had a hard time following parts of the book.

Thanks to @NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my ARC!

"Not Your Average Hot Guy" is a refreshing taking on the romance genre, with a heavier focus on adventure and supernatural entities. While the premise was attention grabbing, it left the chemistry development between the two main characters to rely mainly on insta-love tropes.

This sounded like a book I would really enjoy. But I found the male lead intolerably egotistical. I think this is a title that would be good for people who aren't generally into paranormal romance. As someone who really loves it, I just found it to be a bit mundane and uninteresting.

Not Your Average Hot Guy is a fast and fun rom com set against the backdrop of the apocalypse. Gwenda Bond makes these two disparate things work better together than you might think, though overall I had mixed feelings about Callie and Luke’s first outing.

Callie has recently graduated from college and is back home helping her mom run their escape room business. She’s left in charge for the weekend when a Satanic cult shows up, steals a prop grimoire (which is actually the real thing), and summons the literal Prince of Hell. Luke Morningstar has been tasked with reaping the cult’s souls, but things go awry and suddenly he and Callie are teamed up and trying to stop the apocalypse. Callie and Luke are a lot of fun together. His seemingly laid-back attitude and her super trivia brain make an enjoyable pairing so I was ready to go along for the ride. The problem with them was twofold: (1) they both sounded the same so with the dual-POV it was sometimes hard to remember whose chapter I was in and (2) they both spoke and acted younger than they were supposed to be. Because of the former especially, the book fell slightly short of its premise, which was a pity.

Bond keeps Not Your Average Hot Guy hopping with all the action and I did really enjoy it even though we seemed to be moving from point to point in a way that didn’t feel wholly organic (and I can’t really say why without spoiling the story). Bond presents a lot of potentially interesting locations, both above and below, and I definitely wanted to explore them further. I struggled with putting a rating on this story because I had a lot of fun reading it, but I can’t be blinded to its flaws. At the end of the day, I found Not Your Average Hot Guy to be fast-paced, entertaining, and even with the missed opportunities there was a good amount of adventure to be had. I will absolutely be checking out Callie and Luke’s next book.

Not your average hot guy was a fun read for me. I was looking for a fun and fluffy romance and it hit all right notes for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I DNF'd the book at 20%. I thought the premise was interesting (and way different than what I normally would pick up) so I was very excited to read this. However, I could not stand the writing style and really struggled to get into it. I do think this book had an element of humour that some people will enjoy. Since the NetGalley rating system is based on how likely you are to recommend this book to someone, I am giving it 2 stars. Based on what I did read, I believe there are some people who will enjoy this... it just wasn't me.

This was such a fun book! It was short and sweet with such a cool premise. This is a light read with an easy to follow along plot. I thought there would be more romance based on the premise, but it was surprisingly light on it (understandably so with the timeframe). The dual-povs of Callie and Luke were a good choice but didn't see much development in their characters (again the time frame). Overall, this is a light-hearted entertaining way to pass a few hours.

This was a fun romantic comedy to take you away from the humdrum of the real world. I don't think it was anything earth shattering, but I found it enjoyable while I was reading it.

Callie feels like she is stuck in a bit of a rut with her life, until she is finally put in charge of her mom’s business for the weekend - running The Great Escape. Running the escape rooms seems easy enough until a Satanic Cult uses a hand of glory to cheat their way through a room to steal her Grimoire. From there, Callie gets kidnapped and sets out on a quest to prevent the end of the world while allied with Satan’s son. Despite his birthright as Prince of Hell, Luke is drawn to Callie, cannot resist helping her prevent the apocalypse and falling for her along the way.

Luke and Callie have chemistry, and it’s cute to watch them fall for each other as they traipse to hell, heaven and back. A fun, lighthearted take on the end of the world that is a quick read if you’re not looking too closely at how far fetched the storyline gets along the YA, sci-fi way.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and St. Martin's for my ARC.

This book was hilarious! I laugh out loud, which is always good in a romantic comedy. The writing was easy and it was a quick read - read it in one sitting!

Kelly and her best friend unexpectedly have to deal with a Satanic cult when Callie is running her families escape room business. The cult has a summoning which reveals a handsome demon named Luke who offers to help Kelly stop the cult from destroying the world.

This is a fun romantic adventure. It is definitely paranormal but it seems to have a lot of adventure elements. Kelly her friend Meg and Luke are trying to stop the cult from beginning the end of days. Luke just so happens to be the prince of hell and that just adds to the fun of the plot.

The characters are fun and it’s a really interesting way to have paranormal romance. I enjoyed all of the characters and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

I enjoyed this one. I feel like you have to suspend your disbelief for this one, and I didn't expect the plot to go the way it did... But it was still really enjoyable.

Callie helps her family run their escape room. One weekend with her mother out of town, Callie is in charge with the help of her best friend Mag. The night quickly goes awry when a cult shows up and tries to summon a demon from Hell.

Luke is trying to prove himself to his father (Lucifer himself!) but hasn't been able to secure souls from humans yet, despite his efforts. An opportunity arises for him to answer the cult's call with the hopes of acquiring a few souls.

Things don't go as planned for both Luke and Callie, so they set off on an adventure. This book went in a few different directions than I was thinking, but I really did enjoy it. It was interesting to see their different perspectives throughout and go on this adventure with them.

3.5 stars, rounded up. I'm looking forward to checking out the next book in this series.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for my honest opinion.

I went into this novel with only knowing the title and that the cover intrigued me. So I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that this was a paranormal romance. And not just your typical paranormal romance but one between Lucifer’s son and a girl from earth.

I would almost call this novel a thriller. You see the main character Callie, is a creator of escape rooms. It was genius writing to place this entire novel on escaping harrowing situations with the use of intelligence and quick thinking.

The romance aspect of the novel was very YA or NA. So don’t go into reading this novel for any smutty scenes because there aren’t any. But I found that as I read, I didn’t mind that. The dynamic between Callie and Luke made for a great and fun story. The fact that we had multiple POVs aided in my understanding of both of these characters leading me to feel like I understood how they ticked.

All in all, this was a fun read. One where the thrill of what’s next to come enticed and excited me to keep turning the page.

I received this novel from netgalley for my honest opinion.

I truly was disappointed with this book. I truly expected a Halloween theme romance book to read for the spooky season, but yet I was left confused. I could not get over the character's naive personality or the lack of chemistry. I just could not get into this book. It was not for me. Maybe for someone else but not me.