Hell On Wheels

When I saw this on Netgalley, I was intrigued. The description sounded amazing and it had one of my favorite tropes (marriage of convenience), but I wasn't actually expecting much from the book. However, I have impulse control issues when it comes to books, so I clicked "read now" and got this on my Kindle right away.

Despite the major formatting issues (which may be fixed before the publication date), I was really into this. The book opens with a demon wedding between an icy princess and a violent, turnip-loving commoner. He had a thing for her from the start, but it takes her a while to thaw and start to like him. Normally I don't like insta-love situations, but somehow it worked for me here. The interaction between the two leads was interesting and antagonistic enough to satisfy me.

I liked both the leads a lot. Valeda was the perfect combination of badass and vulnerable, and Adriel was much the same, with an added dose of playfulness. I liked several of the side characters, especially Valeda's sisters and her relationship with them. I appreciated that she made friends with several of the she-demons under Adriel's command. There was no petty jealousy among the female characters.

There was a good amount of humor sprinkled throughout the book, much of it written in a completely deadpan way that I adored.

This story takes place during a war headed by Valeda's brother. We get to see lots of well-written action and are treated to tons of gross (and awesome) descriptions.


I thought Hell was well-described as a setting. There were so many great details to flesh out the world without a single instance of info-dumping. Things that shouldn't have worked, like demon roller derby and modern slang, totally didn't bother me. It was clear the demons were influenced by "topside" and somehow this all fit.

I only wish I'd had a clearer sense of how much time was passing. I, personally, would have liked a touch more development in Valeda and Adriel's relationship (and maybe another sex scene or two, let's be honest), but I liked their romance anyway. I would definitely read another book set in this world, perhaps with one of Valeda's sisters as the heroine. This was such a pleasant surprise!