Not going to lie, this book did NOT play out how I was expecting, and I could not be happier about it.
Sophia is a woman in her mid 20s, and her sister Cassandra is just younger than her. Their mother had some mental health issues that resulted in the parentification of Sophia to care for Cassandra, so they are sisters but have almost a mother-daughter relationship. Sophia works as a waitress in LA and on her way to meet Cassandra to go home after her shift, she is almost hit by a car but Lucas Hale (an infamous money man that “rules” LA) pushes her out of the way. When we get Lucas’s POV, we find out his name is not, in fact, Lucas, but he is Lucifer, like LUCIFER Lucifer, and he is a demon from Hell that rules the Earthly plane.
The next day, Cassidy is jumped because Sophia’s ex gave her name as a backup to a gang if he didn’t repay the gang for the drugs he got. Sophia feels guilty so she talks to the gang leader and he says that all she has to do is steal an object from Lucas Hale and “Cassidy’s” debt will be paid. Under the guise of thanking Lucas for saving her life, she enters his office and when she goes to leave, she tries to get the pyramid-shaped object and, of course, is caught. Sophia explains the situation to Lucas and he says that he will pay off the debt, but she has to be his personal assistant to work off the money. Sophia agrees and now we have a beautiful boss-assistant romance.
But, like, if the boss was actually the devil.
Anyway, Sophia thinks Lucas is super sexy, and the other office workers are jealous of Sophia and her supposed relationship with Lucas. Lucas is not only trying to run his office, but he is also dealing with rogue demons coming to Earth and drawing attention to the supernatural, and Lucas is concerned that he is about to be the target of an uprising. At one point, Sophia accidentally walks in on Lucas in his office enjoying himself to thoughts of her. She freaks out and runs to the bathroom, where she does the same thing about seeing Lucas like that. Lucas tries to stay away from Sophia, but eventually they have to leave town for a business meeting, and the plane is attacked by a dragon. Sophia isn’t sure what is happening, and Lucas has to come clean about who he is and what is happening. Sophia takes it in stride and they get together for the first time. After this, there are smatterings of sex throughout the rest of the book, so just imagine all of this action with a smattering of happy times.
Sophia starts to get closer to Naamah, Lucas’s second and the only woman in the office that doesn’t glare at her, and they become friends. While Lucas is dealing with a small faction of demons that want to usurp him and try to get to the brains behind the uprising, Naamah, Cassidy, and Sophia have a girls night and they get drunk and chat.
There is an event being held at the office building, but when Sophia and Lucas get there, they are attacked by demons. They get away and Lucas has Naamah take Sophia somewhere safe so she wont be harmed. Naamah takes Sophia to the basement, at which point we learn that Naamah doesnt like Sophia and was pretending to be her friend because she thought Lucifer would choose her as a spouse and she is jealous. They fight, but Lucas joins the fight and tears out Naaham’s throat. While Sophia and Lucas try to escape, they get to the roof and come face-to-face with Lucas’s dad, Cetaphil or something. Turns out Cetaphil recruited Naaham to be his spy and he is trying to get Lucifer to rejoin his army and be his general again so they can win the war against Heaven. Lucifer and Cetaphil fight and Sophia is able to momentarily blind Cetaphil with a huge spotlight that is part of the LA fireworks show or something, and Lucifer has a chance to win but he hesitates once he hears Sophia scream. Naaham was not, in fact, dead, and she just threw Sophia off a building. Lucifer is able to save her, but she is taken by Cetaphil and taken to Hell as a prisoner.
Character wise, I enjoyed Sophia as the book went on, but the self-loathing and negative self talk was hard for me, and I think that is because I also struggle with these things and it’s hard to like a badass FMC when she has traits that I dont like about myself. Lucifer, though, goodness he is great and I liked his character development. Naaham was interesting because I didn’t like her at first, and then I started to like her more as we saw how different Sophia’s interactions were with Naaham compared to the other office staff. I definitely started to get fishy about Naaham toward the end, but I didn’t see the betrayal and attempt on Sophia’s life coming. I wish Cassidy got a little bit more depth, because I felt like she would be an interesting character if she were more developed, but she still feels very stagnant and one-dimensional.
The things I enjoyed about this book is that is was a quick read that was easy to get into, and it seemed very character driven, which I enjoy in romance books. I also found the plot intriguing, and it kept my attention. The plot twist at the end about Naaham and the romantic relationship are what kept me very invested and ready to read the next book. On the other side of the coin, I felt like some of the secondary character development was lacking, and it was very much Lucifer-and-Sophia-only. Some points also felt very slow and stagnant, which made continuing hard for a chapter or so, but if I pushed through it, I was rewarded with my favorite haha. I am absolutely looking forward to the next book, I really want to know how the cliff hanger resolves, and I have a couple of theories about Sophia’s parentage. Overall, I would give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars, because I enjoyed it but there wasn’t anything that made me want to scream from the rooftops about how amazing this book was.
Did you see the Naaham’s betrayal coming? Do you have any theories about who Sophia’s father is?
Update: turns out Cetaphil’s name is actually Cephalus, oops lol
Blue's Library 