Review:
Content warning for suicidal thoughts, mentions of past child abuse, and torture.
This is the second book in a series (duology?). I haven't read the first, but this book explains the setup well enough that I was able to follow along just fine. Basically, Ambri is a demon who once served another demon named Casziel. He helped Casziel free himself so that he could become human once more. This understandably caused other demons to question Ambri's loyalties, so at the beginning of this book Ambri is asked to prove himself by pushing a human to commit suicide.
The human Ambri picks is Cole Matheson. Not only does he have slight connections to Casziel (Ambri was a little in love with Casziel and not entirely happy when he opted to become human again), but he's also already feeling pretty depressed and hopeless. Cole is a struggling artist who's having trouble believing in his own talent, since nothing he does seems enough to capture anyone's attention and pay his bills. Ambri approaches him during a particularly low point and, instead of taking the easy route and giving him one last push into darkness, offers to become Cole's muse and patron. He's willing to pay for all of Cole's supplies and allow Cole to sell works depicting him in demon form, in exchange for a portrait of himself in his human form. Ambri was ostracized by his family before he'd even had an official portrait painted, and it's always upset him that his family members' portraits have survived while he isn't even a footnote in history books.
Ambri's demonic colleagues are understandably suspicious of Ambri's actions. Supposedly, Ambri plans to boost Cole's career before sending him crashing down into the abyss. However, as he and Cole get to know each other, the two begin to fall for each other. If Ambri goes through with his plans, he'll be responsible for the downfall of the man he loves. Even if he opts to sacrifice himself for Cole's sake, it may not be enough - there are plenty of demons who'd be more than happy to finish what Ambri started.
Facebook advertising got me on this one, but happily, it worked out. I don't usually gravitate towards angel/demon romances. The thing that snagged me with this book was Ambri - I have a soft spot for characters who seem confident and fully aware of how hot they are but who are actually great big balls of self-doubt. Ambri knows he's attractive, but bitter experience has taught him that, although people will definitely lust after him, he's not the sort of person people fall in love with. No one he's ever loved has returned his feelings enough to want to stay with him.
Until Cole, of course. Cole was the personification of artistic self-doubt, barely scraping by until Ambri showed up. His depression and worries felt very real, but I'll admit that, overall, he was a much less interesting character than Ambri. He was a nice guy, though, and it was probably a good thing he wasn't as intense as Ambri.
At some point in his history as a demon, Ambri likely did things that I would have found unforgivable. On-page, however, Ambri was a fairly pathetic demon. After he met Cole, he couldn't even bring himself to do his usual nightly seductions of random strangers. And although he technically had terrible plans for Cole, I didn't even vaguely believe he'd manage to go through with them. He was pretty much a goner the instant he arranged to be Cole's muse and patron, and if I'd had any doubts, they wouldn't have survived the scene where Cole got sick and Ambri anxiously nursed him back to health.
None of this book's emotional beats were particularly surprising, but they were executed well enough that it didn't matter. I enjoyed this overall and need to look through the author's other books at some point, to see if there are more with tropes and character types that would work for me.
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