This fell flat, I wasn't aware of the paranormal aspect to it, and it was just too much for me. Unique, but poorly written.

This was a super fun read, especially around Halloween. Callie is surprised to find out that her occult themed escape room might have been a little too realistic when a cult shows up, steals the actual grimoire she had in the room, and summons a demon. Luke isn't performing well on a demon and is on thin ice even before he messes up his shot to steal the souls of the cult members. Callie and Luke team up together to try to stop the cult from ending the world, while also dealing with their growing attraction. It's a fun, apocalyptic read.

It was. average! Im just trying to put words here bc i actually could not finish the book. the writing and dialogue and plot were just not giving

The fire and brimstone add ambiance to this romantic comedy, and the light-hearted, irreverent lens keeps Hell from getting too horrifying. Here, we have a normal human, Callie, escape room designer with a history degree. In other words, she's not sure about the direction of her life *looks at own BA askance.* When a cult enters a witchy escape room to steal a real grimoire for nefarious purposes, Callie and her best friend Mag find themselves kidnapped and parties to a demonic summoning, one that brings forth Luke, son of Lucifer, not so great at harvesting souls or taking anything too seriously. What ensues is a hunt for a relic, trips to both Hell and Heaven, simmering romantic tension, family drama both mundane and unholy, and the fate of several souls, or really all of humanity, re: the apocalypse.

What I loved most about the book was the crackling, dare I say hell-fiery, wit. There's great banter between our love interests, one-liners directed against villains, and comforting inside jokes between friends. I especially enjoyed the bond between Callie and Mag, a non-binary character who provides sensible, relationship- and world-saving advice at all the right moments and has an intriguing romantic subplot of their own.

I also enjoyed the artifact hunt and paranormal adventures of our characters. Callie & Luke did have slight instalove vibes, but I thought it suited their situation and didn't oversell itself. This was a great Halloween season rom-com, and it was just the fun read I needed.

TW: I can't believe this is the second time I'm writing this in a review this week, but Harry Potter comes up in the book in a couple of conversations. While the characters are quick to also call out the author's disgusting behavior, the references are still present, so be forewarned.

My rating scale:
5☆ - I loved this book and it brought out true emotion in me (laughter, anger, a good cry, etc)
4☆ - I loved this book.
3☆ - I liked this book.
2☆ - I didn't really care for this book.
1☆ - I did not like this book at all and probably did not finish it.

A cute romantic story with a twist on Hades and Persephone. I liked that it was so modern! It was easy to relate to the characters! It was fun to read about Callie and Luke's otherworldly adventures and I really enjoyed their banter. Although, I really wish it had more heat. For a romance novel, it was a little light but overall cute for the Halloween season.

My favorite part of this new adult paranormal romance was that Callie helps run her family escape room. Left alone for the weekend when her mom goes away, Callie's world gets upended when Luke (son of the devil) tries to steal her prized Grimoire. What ensues is a night of wild adventures. This was an entertaining listen and a perfect spooky season read. Recommended for fans of The perfect escape by Suzanne Park. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy!

This book was just not my cup of tea. Not sure if it was the writing style or romance that left me feeling unsatisfied, but it was just OKAY. As others mentioned, it read a little young, as if this was a YA romance. Definitely was in the New Adult category, which is often a hit or miss for me, depending on how the author writes it. In this case, was a definite miss.

This book was super entertaining. I went into it not realizing there was going to be a paranormal element but I loved it! Such a cool premise that in decorating an escape room they ended up with a real grimoire that a cult wanted. I liked the characters and the representation in this book. I look forward to checking out more by Gwenda Bond in the future.

Not Your Average Hot Guy is the first book in Gwenda Bond's new series featuring a battle between heaven and hell. It is a paranormal romantic comedy filled with quirky characters and a touch of romance as the fate of the world is being determined. It took me a bit to get into this story but, I kept pushing and I'm glad I did. Those last few chapters kept me on the edge of my seat.

The main characters in Not Your Average Hot Guy are Callie (human) and Luke (demon) who meet when Luke is summoned by a cult at Callie's family escape room business. Their initial encounter is far from pleasant. Callie believes that she is being tricked in some type of practical joke and Luke is lying about his true identity. Luke is not only just a demon - he is the Prince of Hell and the son of the Devil himself!

The character Callie is a bit quirky. She is smart and enjoys creating puzzles for the escape rooms. She loves a good challenge which includes figuring how how to stop the apocalypse from happening. She is loyal to her friends and family and hates being betrayed. She also has an adorable dog whom I was worried about through out the book. Thankfully nothing happened to him!

Luke is the son of the devil and he is struggling with is identity. He really doesn't how to follow in his father's footsteps nor if he is sure if he wants to. He is a demon with a possibly good soul and it scares the hell out of him. And when he meets Callie he feels attracted, attached, and challenged in a way that was not expected.

Callie and Luke were attracted to each other from their initial meeting. Of course, the circumstances are far from perfect for them. On the surface, they are polar opposites but there is also their connection. At the beginning, I felt that the connection was kind of forced but as the story progressed it started feeling more believable. Intense circumstances do sometimes lead to intense connections and the circumstances for Callie and Luke were very intense. There were lies, secrets, magic powers, and fights. There were also alot of fun pop culture quips which I found enjoyable and though it gave the main characters and side characters more personality.

As Not Your Average Hot Guy is the first book in this series, I look forward to getting to know Callie, Luke, and the other characters better. I feel like there is alot of potential based on the ending. I hope Callie and Luke's relationship is expanded upon and that there are more adventures together. I want more of the comedic magical moments that were part of the first story. I hope Gwenda Bond does not disappointment me!

This was kind of not it for me. This book is about Callie who works at her family's escape room where a cult shows up to claim a spell book from her which she needs. A demon decides to help her but both start to grow closer together. By the summary I was really excited to read this paranormal rom-com but was kind of disappointed. I'm a huge fan of books with demons but felt that the world building in this one wasn't written so well as I was sometimes lost with how the story was becoming to be with demons and cults. I was expecting more of a dark rom com but I felt that this book was too light for me. There also wasn't much comedy in this book in my opinion but I do have to say that the pacing was good for this book and the conflicts that were brought into the story.

This book is written in both Callie and Luke's pov. I enjoyed Callie's story as she is brave and knows what she wants type of girl. She has a great character development and I just love the person she is. Then there was Luke who is supposed to be a handsome demon but turns out to be a kid. Not really but he acts like one and annoyed me throughout the story. He did have a character development but to be honest I didn't enjoy his story. I enjoyed the side characters in this story especially Mag and their relationship with Callie. I also enjoyed the antagonist being the cult group as they brought the drama to the book. There is enemies to lovers romance but I didn't care for it as I didn't like one of the character.

At the point of the ending, I didn't give much care for it but there is a minor cliffhanger which means there will be a book two. I feel that the author's writing just wasn't for me and that Luke didn't turn out to be the guy I wanted in the book. I might still read the second book just to see how it goes and hopefully enjoy it but we will see. I think there are readers out there who will enjoy this book more then me but it just wasn't for me.

Not Your Average Hot Guy is one of the first paranormal romances I have ever liked. Satan's son was actually a really nice character and I thought his relationship with Callie developed in a believable way despite the unusual circumstances. I did think it took a little bit to really get started, I found it a little harder to get into until we got about half way. I did love the scenes closer to the end, the ones in Hell and with his parents were the best. I need a whole book about their relationship.

I was first attracted to this novel because the cover blurb was intriguing and sounded like fun, however I have to admit it took me a long time to actually finish reading it as I stopped and started multiple times. There is another popular series featuring a son of Satan that I absolutely adore that is full of both romance and comedy so perhaps that colored my expectations going into this one. Unfortunately the biggest stumbling block for me was Luke because he was just too nice and dare I say, safe? I was expecting him to have an edge to him but there really wasn’t one, which was a cause of some disappointment.

Callie helps run her mom’s escape room business using her knowledge of occult history to design new room and challenges, including the Chamber of Black Magic. The first group of the night to attempt the room are an odd bunch that turn out to be a cult aiming to steal the grimoire featured in the room and use it summon the demon Lucifuge Rofocale. Rofocale is one of Satan’s henchmen and Luke’s supervisor, and because Luke has been unable to harvest any souls he asks if can respond to the summoning instead. Once Luke appears in Rofocale’s place he finds the cult wants to obtain the Holy Lance in order to use it to bring Hell to the earth realm. He also discovers that the cult members are holding Callie and her best friend Mag hostage in order to turn them over as part of the trade. Then the race is on for Callie and Luke is on to foil the cult’s plans and get to their HEA before earth is destroyed by hellfire and brimstone!

Granted this introduction probably qualifies as a meet cute but the book never rises to what I would qualify as a romance. While there is an attraction between them, the book to me ends up as more of a YA/NA paranormal comedy romp with a hint of more to come. Considering how different Callie and Luke are especially in their backgrounds, I think they fall more into an instalust category than a romantic one. Since this is the first book in the series hopefully the future storylines will be able to build on this one and present more that could move this into an adult paranormal romance theme which I would think would allow it to keep a broader audience entertained.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC to review!

Not Your Average Hot Guy by Gwenda Bond.
Present tense. Alternating chapters between Luke and Callie. New adult Paranormal romance.
Callie and friend Mag find themselves as gifts to a demon that is released from Hell. Luke is really an intern and while he’s supposed to capture the souls of the dark, he is much more intrigued with the good in Callie. Together, Luke and Callie set out on an adventure to stop the “end of days” from happening.

I expected a romcom from the cover. What I got was a trip through Hell. Literally. Ok, it was filled with humor and irreverence and light romance so not all that dark.
Luke is very full of himself but comes up with most of the humor even though it is the son of Lucifer and training in hell. “Right now I’d give up 10 percent of my good looks for a peek in that brain.”
My first book with a “they, them” character rather than a he or she. It was distracting and while it’s an important inclusion I’m not sure of the point because of later pieces of the story. Maybe it will mean more in the second book of the series.

Entertaining if a bit slow in the middle, I liked the progression of the confidence that Callie had in herself.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley.

I am a huge fan of Gwenda Bond, and this was one I was dying to get an ARC of. I didn’t, even tried looking thought books for trade on Twitter, and nothing. So I gave in and requested the e-galley on Netgalley. And I’m so glad that I did! I really enjoyed this one. And I’m excited to see there is a sequel.

Now I started reading on Thursday at my lunch break, only a teacher decided to come sit and talk to me just as I started my break. Even when I told them I’d just started my lunch. They sat down and said, “Oh, I’m just here for a chat.” Uh, yeah, great, but I want to read my book on the e-reader sitting right in front of me while I’m eating.

But anyway, on with my review. I really liked the different characters. I loved Callie, many things about her reminded me of myself. In a not demony type of way. lol And then Luke. How do you not adore the son of Lucifer when he’s really kind of a good guy? Although if you think about it, in a way, the bad guys seem pretty much to stick to their own rules, or at least he does when he has to hold up his ends of deals even if he wants to protect Callie.

I loved the different take the author did for Hell and demons, and all the mythology that goes with that. Even though when I tried to read Dante’s Inferno I could not get very far, so bored, and not easy to read, it was interesting to see parts with him interspersed with the underworld in this story. Also, I adored the fainting goat.

There were parts I had to go back and reread to see if I missed parts, because surely she heard when Luke was talking about how “his father” wouldn’t be happy, and that should have clued her in? But at first it seemed as if Callie missed that. However I was wrong, as she did think about it as she was trying to figure out what to do once she tried to split from Luke and take care of things on her own.

So while in the end an apocalypse was what they were trying to avert, and things may have been a mostly HEA, we got the hints and clues of more to come. And that’s so cool!

A final bit that I really liked the way the author did was how she showed that it might be okay to still love the Harry Potter world, but just stay away from the author if possible. So often I think that is the case with a lot of art. My ex-co-librarian and I used to have those kind of discussions all the time. Artists are human, and so unfortunately, sometimes you have to separate the two, or you’ll never have any art left to enjoy. Especially when up to a certain point of your life, said artistic product may have been a huge part of your life.

Loved this one. Will be buying a physical copy to put on my bookshelf for sure. Hoping for a physical copy of book 2’s ARC, but it won’t matter because I’ll have to buy a finished copy to match the original too!

I so wanted to like this book! There was a level of snark that I greatly appreciated - lots of digs at a certain transphobic author's Twitter feed. I also liked some of the other references - an Edward Cullen from Twilight nod, and more. However, as someone who is not a scholar of the bible or mythology, there were so many biblical and mythological references that I, couldn't keep up. I was almost a DNF at 50% but pushed through. Just not my cuppa.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin;'s Griffin for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in return for an honest review.

This was NOT what I was expecting in the slightest. Going into this book blind was shocking, but not exactly a bad thing. I’m not really one to pick up other-worldly books, and if I had known – I might have lost out on enjoying this one.

Callie helps her mom run an Escape Room business, where Callie tends to design her rooms around her worst fears: cults, darkness, enclosed spaces, etc. But she never has to go in the room herself besides to clean up when the lights are fully on – otherwise she’s just observing through a screen.

But when her mom goes out of town and an actual cult shows up, she’s on edge. Especially when they push the Escape Room activities out of the way and use a book prop (or so Callie thought it was) to summon a devil. What she doesn’t expect is for this particular demon devil to be hot, and … funny? They seem to have the same sense of sarcasm, but he also doesn’t seem to be set in his devilish ways. Instead, he goes out of his way to help Callie set things right.

With the apocalypse on the horizon, Callie has to sift through what to do when she’s used to having no purpose, and newfound feelings she doesn’t know how to navigate with a literal devil who brings her to hell.

Such an interesting and unique book – I really enjoyed this one.

The premise of Not Your Average Hot Guy sounded so up my alley, but I really couldn't get into it. The writing felt heavy-handed - nearly every sentence, it seemed, had to have a joke or a reference, and the characters didn't really feel that well fleshed out. It was uncomfortable to read, and the intended humor fell flat because it felt hamfisted.

I loved this book! I'll admit I'm biased because I'm a huge fan of Gwenda Bond's earlier books, but gosh I had such a good time with this. So romantic and fun and I adored the protagonists' interactions and slow burning attraction.

This was the classic tale of me not reading the synopsis before requesting and starting a book. I don't know why the cover didn't make me think "oh this will involve a romance with a demon" but alas it did not so this book was a wild ride for me.

I thought that Callie was an interesting character and I enjoyed the way her mind worked when it came to solving puzzles and random facts. I loved Mag who is Callie's non-binary best friend that didn't feel like a device used to add some diversity. I enjoyed Luke's internal struggle with following his head or his heart.

With a mix of instalove and satanic cult worshippers, this book had a lot going on. I didn't feel the connection Callie and Luke had was as strong as they said it was. I'd rather be shown that than told. I did think at times that there was too much going on with the two of them teaming up to try to save the world.

Overall though this book was entertaining and was more of an urban paranormal fantasy than I went into it expecting.

Thank you to Netgalley and SMP Romance for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.